Anonymous wrote:A highly motivated toddler works hard to master his butt-whipping technique!

OP, I'm as tiger as they come, but you are being utterly ridiculous. 'Academic motivation' in preschool?

So toddler is now defined as a child turning 5? No. I never said "highly motivated Acadmically" I didn't use the term academic at all. He is highly motivated-asks tons of intelligent questions, extremely interested in how things are put together and work. Enjoys learning things and flourishes in structured tasks. That is what I meant. Some of you people are extremely rude so maybe it's for the best that my children won't go to school with yours and grow up to be this rude and hateful to people they don't even know.

Anonymous wrote:Peers matter.

not as much as the internal drive of the individual student. Wish we hadn't moved to the higher income/high rated school. Wish we had stayed in the lower rated school with the great community and connections. We thought our child would blossom with better teachers and peers. Now we know -- it's baked in for the most part.

I agree that at 4 you do not know what your child will be like at 8 no less as a teen. That said you are not locked in to school choices forever either. Most likely she will choose peers like herself where ever she is. Maybe she will flourish as a "big fish"? Maybe the smaller classes of Title 1 school will be perfect for her? Just keep evaluating as she grows up. I don't think anyone is harmed by their early elementary years..

A highly motivated toddler works hard to master his butt-whipping technique!

OP, I'm as tiger as they come, but you are being utterly ridiculous. 'Academic motivation' in preschool?

For all the things that I consider most important to a happy, enriched life - general culture and awareness.

But perhaps our definition of top schools aren't the same. For me a wealthy, homogeneous school is not where my children will necessarily get that culture and awareness. I want a school with high test scores AND some amount of cultural and economic diversity.

Anonymous wrote:Peers matter.

bingo. So important.

Peers matter.

My experience is that a motivated, bright, kid will do just fine anywhere as long as there is a cohort of other bright motivated kids.

My kids have are at a GS6 elementary school, and GS9 middle school. The elementary school is FINE and my kids have have arrived at middle school just as prepared as peers coming from higher ranked schools. They've had high performing peers all along, to the point that it really hasn't mattered that there were also kids learning English, or with learning differences or whatever.

For us, it made more sense to live in a community we liked, with a reasonable commute, and know that job loss or illness wasn't going to plunge our family into poverty. We've been able to save aggressively, but also to provide the kids with amazing extracurriculars, all because we bought a home we could afford and trusted our kids to do their best.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid hasn't even started kindergarten yet and you're already calling him/her "highly motivated"?

lololololololol

I thought you were talking about a 12 or 14 year old and I was going to come in here telling you it doesn't much matter.

At 4?? Yeah the school matters! Are you out of your mind? Do you know how many things can happen in the next DECADE that might turn your kid off of school and academic success? Even a bad year can irreparably harm his/her competitiveness for college and beyond.

You sound like a pleasure to be around.

New Poster. It's true though. The kid is 4. Can he or she even read? This is ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:Your kid hasn't even started kindergarten yet and you're already calling him/her "highly motivated"?

lololololololol

I thought you were talking about a 12 or 14 year old and I was going to come in here telling you it doesn't much matter.

At 4?? Yeah the school matters! Are you out of your mind? Do you know how many things can happen in the next DECADE that might turn your kid off of school and academic success? Even a bad year can irreparably harm his/her competitiveness for college and beyond.

You sound like a pleasure to be around.

Your kid hasn't even started kindergarten yet and you're already calling him/her "highly motivated"?

lololololololol

I thought you were talking about a 12 or 14 year old and I was going to come in here telling you it doesn't much matter.

At 4?? Yeah the school matters! Are you out of your mind? Do you know how many things can happen in the next DECADE that might turn your kid off of school and academic success? Even a bad year can irreparably harm his/her competitiveness for college and beyond.

I think it helps to be aware of what is offered at, as you say, these "excellent" schools, and consider whether you can or it's necessary to supplement. As a FCPS parent, I educated myself on TJ's curriculum since my STEM oriented DC, going to another school, was ambitious in that direction.

It truly depends on the kid I think. My oldest was 'designed' for school. She was self-motivated, organized and has a goal for herself and always a 5 year out kind of thinker and she would do great no matter where we sent her. My second is intelligent, creative, quirky and was stifled in a bad school despite our best efforts to mitigate the worst of it. Third was OK academically but it was the social that became road blocks. We moved to better schools and they thrived but remember that the best school is the school that fit your kid - and I think mesh with your family priorities too.

I have a lot of thoughts on this topic, but to start, I really like this article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/25/does-it-pay-to-obsess-on-where-your-kid-goes-to-college/?utm_term=.809c97b285ea

We have been searching for houses in "excellent" school districts and the more and more we do the numbers the more we realize we just can't afford it. The best we can do is average. My older child who starts k this fall is highly motivated and extremely intelligent.

We put great importance on education and we will be totally involved in helping our kids be successful so basically I would just like to get some real world experiences if you couldn't afford a house in a "W" school.