Anonymous wrote:
I am the "dillweed" poster, and I am not an L-T parent. I am tired of the complaining by in-boundary families that they are "stuck" with a school where they KNOWINGLY purchased a house. They are extremely foolish for paying NW prices where they are not getting a NW school, and they have nobody to blame but themselves. They are hampering L-T's growth by insisting on poisoning the well. The L-T parents I know are very frank about their experiences, but they do feel defensive about the barrage of criticism by non-parents - being called hippies, being told that their kids are "experiments," etc. There is an active contingent of parents who are lobbying for proximity preference for Logan and SWS, and they know that any success stories coming out of L-T are going to hurt their chances of arguing their case.
Anonymous wrote:It seems obvious to me that the L-T parents who are posting on here, or at least a few of them, do need to learn to deal with the past in a more positive light. i don't have any issues with the questions asked in here. I think they are all relevant. Who wouldn't want to know this and more? And if the OP are older parents who knew people who had bad experiences, I think this would be the place to come to flush out the dirty truth, and find out if it was still going on....
Meanwhile the parents are sensitive to the point where they really overreact and dive into personal attacks, ("dillweed", psychiatric interventions) etc . i don't see how that helps the reputation of their school. They sound more like the trolls. It actually looks very foolish.
As other posters have noted, there isn't an active Facebook page, any easy way to see fundraisers or other events, or other good means of understanding what the school culture is like....
We all know, when you ask people in person, they are always going to give you a "clean" version of the school, even if they aren't happy. Especially if the area has gentrified quickly, house values are probably approaching what they would cost in the more desirable parts of NW, but the school is filled with ward 7 / 8/ pg county AND many in the neighborhood resort to private. That is a recipe for disaster. That ends up creating a set of people who can afford their mortgage, but not private school, and are stuck with the local school. A group of people who are staying or stuck, and who are extremely defensive about the fact they don't have the choice some of their neighbors do. If I lived here, I would be hard pressed to pay for private if the local school were as good as the parents say it is. The true question, however, is .... IS it? Is the school actually that good? At what point is it not? 1st Grade? 2nd Grade?
Anonymous wrote:It seems obvious to me that the L-T parents who are posting on here, or at least a few of them, do need to learn to deal with the past in a more positive light. i don't have any issues with the questions asked in here. I think they are all relevant. Who wouldn't want to know this and more? And if the OP are older parents who knew people who had bad experiences, I think this would be the place to come to flush out the dirty truth, and find out if it was still going on....
Meanwhile the parents are sensitive to the point where they really overreact and dive into personal attacks, ("dillweed", psychiatric interventions) etc . i don't see how that helps the reputation of their school. They sound more like the trolls. It actually looks very foolish.
As other posters have noted, there isn't an active Facebook page, any easy way to see fundraisers or other events, or other good means of understanding what the school culture is like....
We all know, when you ask people in person, they are always going to give you a "clean" version of the school, even if they aren't happy. Especially if the area has gentrified quickly, house values are probably approaching what they would cost in the more desirable parts of NW, but the school is filled with ward 7 / 8/ pg county AND many in the neighborhood resort to private. That is a recipe for disaster. That ends up creating a set of people who can afford their mortgage, but not private school, and are stuck with the local school. A group of people who are staying or stuck, and who are extremely defensive about the fact they don't have the choice some of their neighbors do. If I lived here, I would be hard pressed to pay for private if the local school were as good as the parents say it is. The true question, however, is .... IS it? Is the school actually that good? At what point is it not? 1st Grade? 2nd Grade?
Anonymous wrote:Please, please, please can LT parents agree to stop posting on this forum? OP is either a troll or in need of psychiatric intervention, and we do not want her at our school. Nothing we say will make any dent in her determination to hate our school. There are plenty of great parents who will happily take her child's place, so leave them to it
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What about the ECE program makes it better than the upper grades?
Is it the teachers?
The students?
The parents?
The curriculum?
-Confused
Although I think this thread should really die, I'll take a stab at answering this. PP, the upper grades at LT are almost entirely African American kids who qualify for Free and Reduced Meals. I don't know the breakdown, but I'm sure some are coming from the neighborhood while a very healthy percentage of others are coming from other parts of the city, particularly Wards 7 and 8. And rumor has it quite a few come from PG County in MD. The ECE program is (again, I'm guesstimating) at least 2/3 kids from quite high SES families (all races, many not rich but very well educated) mostly mostly but not entirely from the neighborhood/greater Capitol Hill area.
OP, I've thought a lot about this. I don't think your family would necessarily be happy at LT long-term. But it's a good option for preschool when it sounds like you don't have a lot of other options. If you go, go with an open mind and helpful hands (they are very much needed!). And while asking questions is good and asking about the validity of things you have heard is also good, please try to avoid extreme negativity about the school until you can say for yourself that it is an awful place. (It isn't so I'm not worried about that.) Neighborhood dislike of the principal/school is a huge problem for the school, and much of that feeling seems to me to be unmerited.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Not 9:37, but I wanted to add to that comment:
In my view, as an LT parent (albeit only in K so far, but we're staying for 1st), the difference in demographics doesn't necessarily make the ECE program *better* than the rest of the school. (From what I've seen, the upper grades are just as strong.)
However, the demographic difference does seem to reassure many white and/or high-SES parents and make them more comfortable with the ECE program.
I've had people (not LT parents, but other Hill parents when they find out my kid is at LT) pretty much say flat-out that their problem with the upper grades is that they're almost entirely black.
The number of OOB families in the higher grades makes me think that those parents are engaged enough that they sought better options for their children. Just like everyone on this forum.
Anonymous wrote:The sad face in the subject line is obnoxious