Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is indeed a fascinating discussion. The OP seems to be think that parents are just inventing issues for power trips. You can always take the school for granted. MCPS is probably decent enough that most likely your kids will be just fine if they possess average to above average IQ and work ethics. But if you want to find a place people are more complacent, you may have to move further away from the city. I doubt that MCPS is the place for you.

Totally untrue. There are still many pockets of Montgomery County not overrun by Type A, data-driven, minutiae-obsessed parents, but as I stated many pages ago on this thread, OP's original mistake was seeking to find those places on this board.

HA, it's like going to an N.R.A board to ask where are the best places to avoid gun lovers.

OP here. I am determined to find the most down-to-earth school, as indicated by my down-to-earth metric and the rich dataset available on DCUM.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having experienced pretension in high school in Bethesda, I would also say Rockville is more down-to-earth as well.

At the high school level, would you say this includes both Rockville and Richard Montgomery?

I know people that went to high school in RM but not Rockville. Someone else who quoted your post said RM was a mixed bag and that seemed about right. From what they've told me, it sounded less elitist and preppy compared to BCC. RM is a lot more diverse than BCC. I remember we had a growing number of kids from private school who transferred to BCC because their parents couldn't afford it anymore. I would guess this adds to the pretension of places like Bethesda. Kind of like the stuff that occurs in Pretty in Pink.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is indeed a fascinating discussion. The OP seems to be think that parents are just inventing issues for power trips. You can always take the school for granted. MCPS is probably decent enough that most likely your kids will be just fine if they possess average to above average IQ and work ethics. But if you want to find a place people are more complacent, you may have to move further away from the city. I doubt that MCPS is the place for you.

Totally untrue. There are still many pockets of Montgomery County not overrun by Type A, data-driven, minutiae-obsessed parents, but as I stated many pages ago on this thread, OP's original mistake was seeking to find those places on this board.

HA, it's like going to an N.R.A board to ask where are the best places to avoid gun lovers.

Anonymous wrote:This is indeed a fascinating discussion. The OP seems to be think that parents are just inventing issues for power trips. You can always take the school for granted. MCPS is probably decent enough that most likely your kids will be just fine if they possess average to above average IQ and work ethics. But if you want to find a place people are more complacent, you may have to move further away from the city. I doubt that MCPS is the place for you.

Totally untrue. There are still many pockets of Montgomery County not overrun by Type A, data-driven, minutiae-obsessed parents, but as I stated many pages ago on this thread, OP's original mistake was seeking to find those places on this board.

This is indeed a fascinating discussion. The OP seems to be think that parents are just inventing issues for power trips. You can always take the school for granted. MCPS is probably decent enough that most likely your kids will be just fine if they possess average to above average IQ and work ethics. But if you want to find a place people are more complacent, you may have to move further away from the city. I doubt that MCPS is the place for you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Right. So maybe explain to your kid why the yogurt is shitty food and why it would be healthier to avoid it, or at least consume it minimally. Then let them choose what to do. Or will you also be checking the nutritional content in their college cafeteria one day?

I don't know anything about the Trix yogurt episode, but it does seem to me that "MCPS should offer better food to all children" is a valid issue to be an advocate about. It might even be a down-to-earth issue! It's not my issue, but that's how advocacy works; everybody picks their own issues.

NO!!! That is my WHOLE point! I DO NOT WANT to be at a school community where everyone feels the need to advocate for the issue of their choosing, just as a way of marking their imprint on the school.

That's what you don't get. It's not about marking their imprint on the school -- it's about the issue. You cannot fathom that what is important to you may not be important to others and vice versa. What is your beef, anyway -- you don't want to be around those parents? You don't want their kids around your kids? How does their advocacy affect you at all -- you never know when there will be Trix in the cafeteria and when it will be yanked away? What?

Yes. yes. My beef is that I do not want to be around people who, for whatever reason, are in a setting that induces the anxious need to find and advocate for issues. Whether this is because they are anxious DC parents, or because the school legitimately needs that much attention, I don't want to be around it. I just want to be able to take the school for granted, basically, within reason, like many other public services I use and enjoy.

Sorry. No such school exists. You are out of luck! You finally find something to worry about. There is no down to earth school for you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Right. So maybe explain to your kid why the yogurt is shitty food and why it would be healthier to avoid it, or at least consume it minimally. Then let them choose what to do. Or will you also be checking the nutritional content in their college cafeteria one day?

I don't know anything about the Trix yogurt episode, but it does seem to me that "MCPS should offer better food to all children" is a valid issue to be an advocate about. It might even be a down-to-earth issue! It's not my issue, but that's how advocacy works; everybody picks their own issues.

NO!!! That is my WHOLE point! I DO NOT WANT to be at a school community where everyone feels the need to advocate for the issue of their choosing, just as a way of marking their imprint on the school.

That's what you don't get. It's not about marking their imprint on the school -- it's about the issue. You cannot fathom that what is important to you may not be important to others and vice versa. What is your beef, anyway -- you don't want to be around those parents? You don't want their kids around your kids? How does their advocacy affect you at all -- you never know when there will be Trix in the cafeteria and when it will be yanked away? What?

Yes. yes. My beef is that I do not want to be around people who, for whatever reason, are in a setting that induces the anxious need to find and advocate for issues. Whether this is because they are anxious DC parents, or because the school legitimately needs that much attention, I don't want to be around it. I just want to be able to take the school for granted, basically, within reason, like many other public services I use and enjoy.

Are you planning on spending much time at the school yourself? Because I don't understand why you are so agitated. I already posted upthread that i don't advocate for anything at my DC's MCPS schools (but would be fine with someone getting junk like Trix out of the cafeteria. I'm not even aware if it's an option for them.) I have only been to my older DC's school twice -- once to walk him around, and once for the open house in the fall. I could not care less what the parents advocate or if they want to make their imprint on the school. Doesn't affect my mental state at all.

I find this discussion fascinating because I went to school in a similar college town in a similar era. Here's the thing: that was before the Internet. We now have WAY too much information about schools. I am sure your parents could not tell you the average SAT scores of your high school, or the number of kids on free lunch, or all the college admission stats, or probably even what was on the lunch menu. They did not have online rumors. No one would even know if someone was planning to serve Trix yogurt. They would simply see what their children were learning and conclude that it was a good school and stop worrying about it. Learn to ignore all of the noise out there. You don't need to go to the best schools in America to get an excellent education that can take you anywhere. (Also, in my college town there was only 1 high school, and there are 25 in this county alone, so that definitely creates more choice for parents to freak out about.)

For what it's worth, we are in the Einstein cluster in Silver Spring. My kids love school and have learned a lot. We've lived here 12 years and I can't remember any of these parental freak-outs a la Trix. But I'm sure there's something on the Internet if I look hard enough.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Right. So maybe explain to your kid why the yogurt is shitty food and why it would be healthier to avoid it, or at least consume it minimally. Then let them choose what to do. Or will you also be checking the nutritional content in their college cafeteria one day?

I don't know anything about the Trix yogurt episode, but it does seem to me that "MCPS should offer better food to all children" is a valid issue to be an advocate about. It might even be a down-to-earth issue! It's not my issue, but that's how advocacy works; everybody picks their own issues.

NO!!! That is my WHOLE point! I DO NOT WANT to be at a school community where everyone feels the need to advocate for the issue of their choosing, just as a way of marking their imprint on the school.

That's what you don't get. It's not about marking their imprint on the school -- it's about the issue. You cannot fathom that what is important to you may not be important to others and vice versa. What is your beef, anyway -- you don't want to be around those parents? You don't want their kids around your kids? How does their advocacy affect you at all -- you never know when there will be Trix in the cafeteria and when it will be yanked away? What?

Yes. yes. My beef is that I do not want to be around people who, for whatever reason, are in a setting that induces the anxious need to find and advocate for issues. Whether this is because they are anxious DC parents, or because the school legitimately needs that much attention, I don't want to be around it. I just want to be able to take the school for granted, basically, within reason, like many other public services I use and enjoy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Right. So maybe explain to your kid why the yogurt is shitty food and why it would be healthier to avoid it, or at least consume it minimally. Then let them choose what to do. Or will you also be checking the nutritional content in their college cafeteria one day?

I don't know anything about the Trix yogurt episode, but it does seem to me that "MCPS should offer better food to all children" is a valid issue to be an advocate about. It might even be a down-to-earth issue! It's not my issue, but that's how advocacy works; everybody picks their own issues.

NO!!! That is my WHOLE point! I DO NOT WANT to be at a school community where everyone feels the need to advocate for the issue of their choosing, just as a way of marking their imprint on the school.

That's what you don't get. It's not about marking their imprint on the school -- it's about the issue. You cannot fathom that what is important to you may not be important to others and vice versa. What is your beef, anyway -- you don't want to be around those parents? You don't want their kids around your kids? How does their advocacy affect you at all -- you never know when there will be Trix in the cafeteria and when it will be yanked away? What?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Right. So maybe explain to your kid why the yogurt is shitty food and why it would be healthier to avoid it, or at least consume it minimally. Then let them choose what to do. Or will you also be checking the nutritional content in their college cafeteria one day?

I don't know anything about the Trix yogurt episode, but it does seem to me that "MCPS should offer better food to all children" is a valid issue to be an advocate about. It might even be a down-to-earth issue! It's not my issue, but that's how advocacy works; everybody picks their own issues.

NO!!! That is my WHOLE point! I DO NOT WANT to be at a school community where everyone feels the need to advocate for the issue of their choosing, just as a way of marking their imprint on the school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Choosing to sell Trix Fauxgurt in an elementary school cafeteria screams a lack of good judgement on many levels (not anticipating push-back from well-educated parents being only one). Are you by any chance that person, OP? Or did you negotiate the business deal to get it in the cafeteria?

OP didn't bring up the yogurt, I did. I'm the ESS "old timer" who no longer has kids there but heard about it from a neighbor, and I mentioned the incident only as metaphor for a certain breed of hyper-obsessive helicopter parent intent on curating every aspect of their children's existence.

I am OP and I concur with this usage of the Affaire du Trix.

I don't. I would be appalled if my kids were offered Trix Yogurt as an option for school lunch. What crap. I'm not at the school -- not even sure what school it is -- but I don't consider wanting my kid to eat healthy food to be a symptom of a hyper-obsessive helicopter parent intent on curating every aspect of my child's existence. Unless you think being in charge of their diet is helicopter parenting, which most people don't. Most people agree that parents are responsible for their children's health, which includes eating healthy food.

Right. So maybe explain to your kid why the yogurt is shitty food and why it would be healthier to avoid it, or at least consume it minimally. Then let them choose what to do. Or will you also be checking the nutritional content in their college cafeteria one day?

Why would you want kids to be forced to choose a healthy option over a more appealing unhealthy one? I'd much rather they be given healthy choices at school. We don't let our kids go to the grocery store and "choose what to do" either -- I pick out their food. I do an excellent job of providing my kids with healthy food and teaching them the importance of eating healthy food, and it would be helpful if the school backed up the idea of eating healthy. We do our fair share (sometimes more than our fair share, depending on the schedule) of eating junk food and sugary foods. I expect them to be given healthy choices at school, and leave it to us to let our kids eat crap at our own discretion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Right. So maybe explain to your kid why the yogurt is shitty food and why it would be healthier to avoid it, or at least consume it minimally. Then let them choose what to do. Or will you also be checking the nutritional content in their college cafeteria one day?

I don't know anything about the Trix yogurt episode, but it does seem to me that "MCPS should offer better food to all children" is a valid issue to be an advocate about. It might even be a down-to-earth issue! It's not my issue, but that's how advocacy works; everybody picks their own issues.

Point taken

Anonymous wrote:

Right. So maybe explain to your kid why the yogurt is shitty food and why it would be healthier to avoid it, or at least consume it minimally. Then let them choose what to do. Or will you also be checking the nutritional content in their college cafeteria one day?

I don't know anything about the Trix yogurt episode, but it does seem to me that "MCPS should offer better food to all children" is a valid issue to be an advocate about. It might even be a down-to-earth issue! It's not my issue, but that's how advocacy works; everybody picks their own issues.

I don't want to get bogged down in the Affaire du Trixe, which wasn't even about Trix yogurt but rather about a lunch parfait that some schools were piloting.

But my understanding is that MCPS (not just at one school, but in general) sometimes serves Trix yogurt with the free breakfast.

Breakfast is optional, and schools with relatively high FARMS populations tend to put free breakfast on offer for all kids rather than singling out kids who qualify. It's less embarrassing for kids who qualify, and just easier to manage. No one has to eat it, and kids who are lucky enough to get healthy meals at home usually don't, in my experience.

So...yeah, some parents want the free breakfasts to have healthier options with less sugar. That those parents tend to be well-educated middle class folks with time on their hands shouldn't really matter if the changes they are asking for would benefit all kids.