Wouldn't it have made more sense to have a Mont Co forum and a "all other MD counties" forum? Now the Anne Arundel, etc MD posters will be lost in the MD schools forum...

I am a South PG resident and have been participating on this forum since I got pregnant with my first in 2009 and have enjoyed following real estate, off topic, expectant moms, parenting and all of the school forums as moving to other counties or private school were options we have been considering once we get to school age.

When I needed preschools that thread was not helpful as it is dominated by other areas. Even the PGParents yahoo group was not very helpful as it focused mostly on North County. There really hasn't been anywhere else to share information. There is a Ft Washington Moms yahoo group but there hasn't been a ton of traffic maybe as many do not know about it.

We found a great preschool but for elementary school research it will be nice to see a focused discussion of public and private options within the county. Hopefully an increase in discussing option in the southern part of the county too as Fort Washington and Accokeek are two of the most affluent areas in the county with many involved parents trying to navigate the options.

I do think think the fact that the discussions here focus on DC, NoVa and MoCo that potential PG posters have not participated as much or deem this to be a resource.

Bravo! Thanks so much for doing this and I look forward to participating in the discussions!

Thanks so much for this forum! Proud long-time resident of Prince George's County and we love it here. I have nothing against the other counties, but this is home...and it's nice to have a place where people can be free to share their thoughts without all the often unfounded negativity.

Anonymous wrote:I think it's racist, personally. Why does the only majority-minority county in MD "need" its own forum because of its "special" issues but the majority-white counties will continue to represent all of MD? If you want to break it out by county, do that, but don't act like Montgomery, Howard, and Anne Arundel are all the neutral generic while Prince George's is the unfathomable outlier that needs its own space.

And you are part of the problem. See, you immediately label a PG County school discussion as racist because we're majority-minority? You're the first person who brought up race in this discussion. In addition, virtually every discussion of schools in PG attracts some rabid hound who brings up one of these issues: PG schools are horrible, anyone who sends their kids to PG county schools is a horrible parent, all PG government is corrupt, PG is crime-ridden, and on and on like a broken record. Most of the time these ignorant posters have no idea what PG county is like.

There are quite a number of PG county residents who read and lurk on these boards because frankly, we get insulted and abused whenever we dare to speak up. The amazingly ego-centric MoCo posters drive the PG county readers away. With our own forum, I think many PG posters who have avoided posting will be more inclined to post rather than lurk.

As a longtime PG person, I think it's a needed resource. We're moving to Howard (with a lot of ambivalence) and I wish there was someplace like this to go with questions for Howard, too. Over the last few years it's hard to get good info quickly on PG issues, I think its own forum is a great idea.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's racist, personally. Why does the only majority-minority county in MD "need" its own forum because of its "special" issues but the majority-white counties will continue to represent all of MD? If you want to break it out by county, do that, but don't act like Montgomery, Howard, and Anne Arundel are all the neutral generic while Prince George's is the unfathomable outlier that needs its own space.

I'm hoping it stops some of the racist responses on PG threads, personally. This is a paraphrase but in an old thread there was a lovely poster who was saying that people living in PG were irresponsible for living in "dangerous PG" - that may have been in the private school forum, but still. I love my neighborhood. I'd love to have a forum that allows PG folks to discuss schools without some MoCo person saying "you should move" or "why did you buy a house there?" or making blanket statements about all PG schools being horrible and unsafe. I think that stuff has some racist undertones most of the time. Separating the forums might cut down on that and fewer PG folks might get chased off by the PG shaming that seems to happen in some PG related threads.

I agree with this. I saw the thread you mention, and I, too, am just tired of the, as you say, "PG shaming." Not to mention, it seems pretty clear to me that a lot of those posters don't really know much about PG County. It's a big place. Some areas are more urban; some are actually quite rural (think farms of several acres with horses in Upper Marlboro).

Anonymous wrote:I think it's racist, personally. Why does the only majority-minority county in MD "need" its own forum because of its "special" issues but the majority-white counties will continue to represent all of MD? If you want to break it out by county, do that, but don't act like Montgomery, Howard, and Anne Arundel are all the neutral generic while Prince George's is the unfathomable outlier that needs its own space.

Wow. That's a stretch I ever saw one.

Anonymous wrote:I think it's racist, personally. Why does the only majority-minority county in MD "need" its own forum because of its "special" issues but the majority-white counties will continue to represent all of MD? If you want to break it out by county, do that, but don't act like Montgomery, Howard, and Anne Arundel are all the neutral generic while Prince George's is the unfathomable outlier that needs its own space.

I'm hoping it stops some of the racist responses on PG threads, personally. This is a paraphrase but in an old thread there was a lovely poster who was saying that people living in PG were irresponsible for living in "dangerous PG" - that may have been in the private school forum, but still. I love my neighborhood. I'd love to have a forum that allows PG folks to discuss schools without some MoCo person saying "you should move" or "why did you buy a house there?" or making blanket statements about all PG schools being horrible and unsafe. I think that stuff has some racist undertones most of the time. Separating the forums might cut down on that and fewer PG folks might get chased off by the PG shaming that seems to happen in some PG related threads.

Anonymous wrote:I think it's racist, personally. Why does the only majority-minority county in MD "need" its own forum because of its "special" issues but the majority-white counties will continue to represent all of MD? If you want to break it out by county, do that, but don't act like Montgomery, Howard, and Anne Arundel are all the neutral generic while Prince George's is the unfathomable outlier that needs its own space.

The MD board is dominated by discussions of MoCo schools. Other threads do not gain traction at all. I have seen multiple PG threads. I have not seen Howard or Anne Arundel threads during the time I have been here. Also, please look at the attitude of your post, and you will see why it is difficult to have discussions that are useful for PG parents. And yes, our county is going through a lot of change, and really the best way to address it is for people to mobilize, be vocal and share ideas and information. It is difficult to do that when you have to do a word search because the threads are outnumbered and pushed to the bottom by the numerous MoCo topics. I would think that you as a parent who uses this board to get information would understand our desire to have a similar dialogue about schools within our boundaries.

How is this hurting you anyway? Please also learn the definition of racism. This isn't it.

Anonymous wrote:Please do. For those of us who live in PG, we get sick and tired of the constant ignorant anti-PG sentiment from the MoCo folks. The majority of the MoCo posters have no idea what they are talking about and yet will freely come and bash PG because it's the trendy thing to do.

Seems like most of the PG bashing comes from DC residents who think PG people are all taking advantage of DC by putting their kids in DCPS. But agree that a separate forum makes sense - would even be a fan of a separate MoCo forum and MD forum. Good reminder that MoCo is not synonomous with Maryland.

Anonymous wrote:I think it's racist, personally. Why does the only majority-minority county in MD "need" its own forum because of its "special" issues but the majority-white counties will continue to represent all of MD? If you want to break it out by county, do that, but don't act like Montgomery, Howard, and Anne Arundel are all the neutral generic while Prince George's is the unfathomable outlier that needs its own space.

It's not that the county "needs" its own forum. Rather, it appears that posters from that county "want" their own forum. They want their own forum because their issues are not being adequately addressed in the current forum. If we eventually have a sufficient number of Howard or AA county posters who are facing a similar problem, I'll consider separate forums for them as well. But, do you seriously think I should create two forums that will likely get less than 10 posts a year each just because your feelings are hurt otherwise? That doesn't seem reasonable to me.

I think it's racist, personally. Why does the only majority-minority county in MD "need" its own forum because of its "special" issues but the majority-white counties will continue to represent all of MD? If you want to break it out by county, do that, but don't act like Montgomery, Howard, and Anne Arundel are all the neutral generic while Prince George's is the unfathomable outlier that needs its own space.

jsteele wrote:Okay, give me a couple of days to set it up. Creating the forum is easy, but moving threads from this forum to the new one is a bit time-consuming.

Thanks so much!!!

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the other posters. I live in PG and like it! But the overwhelming PG hate on the MD school thread is overwhelming, and I think a lot of it is people who aren't actually even very familiar with PG County neighborhoods or schools.

I posted in the thread where someone suggested a PG schools forum, and at first I thought there weren't enough people on here to really use it. But I think perhaps the other PPs on this thread are probably right -- PG people don't stick around (at least on the schools thread) because it's overwhelmingly MOCO.

This way, when someone asks about moving to PG and the schools, people can actually respond "well, go to the PG schools thread b/c there are people who actually live there and can give you some info" as opposed to the default "PG County is horrible" response, which, frankly, I'm tired of seeing.

All of this.

jsteele wrote:Okay, give me a couple of days to set it up. Creating the forum is easy, but moving threads from this forum to the new one is a bit time-consuming.

Thank you!