Anonymous wrote:I hope and pray that our children grow up to show more compassion and empathy—both in person and anonymously— in the way they engage with the world.

If you wanted to show compassion and empathy, a better approach would have been to host a clothing drive, raise monetary donations for affected families or legal representation, or change your curriculum to discuss in an age appropriate way to appreciate immigrants. Upper el kids could have volunteered to assist in primary classes. Parents who don’t work or can take the day could have signed up to help.

However this takes effort. And lamb doesn’t do effort. They do chaotic, last minute decision making.

Also if you wanted to show true compassion and empathy you could have read the comments on Parentsquare or opened a newspaper and seen how many families in dc are really suffering right now. You could see that maybe the school should have thought more carefully about their decisions instead of reacting.

This protest was bad enough but the weird sanctimonious comments both in person and anonymously are tone deaf and disgusting.

Anonymous wrote:I hope and pray that our children grow up to show more compassion and empathy—both in person and anonymously— in the way they engage with the world.

FFS. This exactly the same sanctimonious crap that kept schools in the region closed for waaaay longer than they should have and forced three-year-olds to wear masks.

You did dodge a bullet. The primary classes are lovely. We have been very happy with them. But I constantly hear nonstop judgmental complaints from parents, mostly fueled by teachers and staff talking about parents. Yes there are parents unhappy with the school. That’s their right. And they should feel like it is appropriate to advocate for their children. Are people sometimes rude? Sure. But it’s not rude to question abruptly closing the school’s doors. It’s not rude to ask why they changed it so kids only get 50-50 immersion. I also see that your experience is drastically dependent on the teacher your kid gets. One parent might be furious because her kid is struggling and lamb isn’t doing much to help that child, while another teacher might go above and beyond to reach them. It really just depends on luck and placement. That’s really stressful for parents! You feel like you must ensure your kid is getting “the good teacher”. And remember- lamb teachers stay with you for 3 years.

Every few weeks there is some stressful situation that seems pretty preventable with some thoughtful planning. And every time this happens there are boatloads of parents (just look at this thread!) and teachers/staff ready to trash talk anyone who dares to offer any sort of debate. I’m pretty sure a lot of the posters trashing parents are just staff members.

It is really exhausting, and not worth it given the mediocre academics down the road.

Anonymous wrote:If I was playing the lottery as a new parent I would read posts like the one above really carefully.

Academics at lamb are weak and there seems to be no drive to improve them. Jessica was bragging about 3s on the parcc as if “approaching expectations” was a good score.

I understand that there have been sweeping changes to the spanish aspect of the school as well as special education, all negative.

Is lamb better than your local dcps? Not sure. That’s a decision you have to make alone. But as a parent I do regret sending my children to a school that is a stress factory. They seem to make chaotic choices all the time, and spend weeks judging anyone who thinks or expresses any sentiment to the contrary.

This was unequivocally a poor decision by the administration. The administration did not say they didn’t have enough staff to keep the school open- she just said that most departments would be affected. Even if this is true, Jessica has ignored very reasonable questions from parents.

To make it worse, you have parents judging other parents - despite many not knowing people’s circumstances. It’s a waste of time and a diversion tactic to ensure parents are not focusing on the problems of the school.

Feels like we dodged a bullet. It's one thing for admin to make poor decisions from time to time. I think this probably happens at all schools to some extent. But it's quite another to be attacked by other parents for expressing any level of frustration about a last-minute decision that had an obvious negative impact to children and families in the school community.

If I was playing the lottery as a new parent I would read posts like the one above really carefully.

Academics at lamb are weak and there seems to be no drive to improve them. Jessica was bragging about 3s on the parcc as if “approaching expectations” was a good score.

I understand that there have been sweeping changes to the spanish aspect of the school as well as special education, all negative.

Is lamb better than your local dcps? Not sure. That’s a decision you have to make alone. But as a parent I do regret sending my children to a school that is a stress factory. They seem to make chaotic choices all the time, and spend weeks judging anyone who thinks or expresses any sentiment to the contrary.

This was unequivocally a poor decision by the administration. The administration did not say they didn’t have enough staff to keep the school open- she just said that most departments would be affected. Even if this is true, Jessica has ignored very reasonable questions from parents.

To make it worse, you have parents judging other parents - despite many not knowing people’s circumstances. It’s a waste of time and a diversion tactic to ensure parents are not focusing on the problems of the school.

Oh my, I was chatting with a few parents about this thread during drop-off, and what I initially thought was exaggeration turns out to be quite the opposite. The coalition of privileged Petworth Lululemon parents has certainly had its feathers ruffled.

The ParentSquare post is straightforward—how can the school function without enough staff? Last year, we parents demanded communication and transparency. Now that we’re receiving exactly that, some of you choose to hide behind anonymous complaints. So, what exactly would make you happy?

It’s laughable that, as a community, we constantly ask, "How can we support our teachers?"—yet when the opportunity presents itself, many do the complete opposite.

And let’s be real: if you harbor so much hatred and discontent toward LAMB, why are you still dropping your child off there every morning? Carrying that much resentment isn’t a healthy way to live. Perhaps it’s time to channel all these emotions elsewhere. Who knows—maybe if you all group together for therapy, you’ll qualify for a discount, given the sheer number of adults holding onto so much misplaced frustration.