Reply to The Real Problem With D.C. Public Schools

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[quote=Anonymous]Actually I was trying to be polite in my own tone but I've since thought better of that - the reality is that the tone was quite condescending - and yes, that is important when making an argument, very important. The pp was trying to portray herself as being sympathetic to the Banneker poster but what she was really saying behind that false sympathy is too bad you're just not as good as I am and that you weren't smart enough to go to a school with more white upper middle class people like me. My error was in thinking that a more diplomatic approach might make her think more carefully about how she expresses herself. She might not want to come across as such a superior snob.  
 
I'm the PP and I was sympathic to the Banneker poster who had such a hard time before HS.  What is this, the thin skinned Olympics?   I'm not in fact a white person in NW, I'm an Asian person in NE from a working class family who finds the apartheid education on offer at Banneker creepy and unproductive.  The whole point of the anonymity of DCUMBD is that you can be honest in your take on situations.  I've spent a lot of time at Banneker interviewing kids for my Ivy over the past decade and, in the process, have grown increasingly dissillusioned with how the school runs as compared to TJ in Alexandria and the Blair magnets in Mo. Co..  What I've seen in many suburban schools is that bright minority kids are identified as talented and gifted, and tapped to participate in advanced learning programs with middle-class peers, very young.  Without TAG programs of its own, DCPS seems happy not to provide much challenge to such kids until the AP level.  Poor suburban kids of exceptional ability tend to land in rigorous magnet MS and HS programs and, thus, as a general rule, soar and make it to national 5-star colleges.  At Banneker, good intentions aside, it's catch as catch can and a few honors classes in the hopes of getting such kids to area state schools and small liberal arts colleges.  I don't like it, I don't think it's good enough for these kids, but if you do, you're entitled to your views.  To each his or her own.

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