Anonymous
Post 08/24/2015 13:37     Subject: Venting just a little
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Seems like it happens every year. I'm contacted by some acquaintance with a 3 year old who just got into my kids' neighborhood public school (one seen by many on this list as 2nd tier). They are "excited," they want to "learn all about it," and they want to know what our experience has been. So, I dutifully answer their questions and they enroll, only to bail for a charter school at the first opportunity. There seems to be an inverse relationship between their initial enthusiasm and the time their child actually spends at the school.



They are doing what they think is best for their child and themselves. There is more to life than yourself and what you think is right or wrong.....well, at least you know you're venting....


OP here. Nowhere in this message did I imply that they were NOT doing what was best for their child and themselves. That is clearly what they (think they) are doing. However, when they do this, it is not like their actions just affect themselves and their own kids. As stated above, the problem is that they waste everyone's time with their incessant questions (and, as pointed out by another poster) completely OOT boosterism, only to bail for the next "better" (and I'm using "better" in quotes to show sarcasm (read "alleged") - quotations used as emphasis are just sloppy and bad writing) school that comes along. If you're that unsure, enroll your kid and see for yourself - quietly. Don't desperately try to recruit others so that you can get to some critical mass of people who look just like you and then bail when your unrealistic quotas are not met.

And, to clarify, I'm not talking about people who struggle along for years and quit in 1st or 2nd or 3rd grade because the school is just not working for them. They have honestly tried. I'm talking about the parents who waste all of my time with question after question (even after I send them a detailed email) and seem to want me to promise that everything will be happiness and bunny rabbits, only to bail 2 weeks in.


OP, I am sympathetic. I think that many of these people do not always recognize the way that they come off. Our biggest booster decided to go to a charter the week before school started, then came back, and then left again when they got a seat at a school with better scores and a stable feeder pattern. I don't at all resent them for their decision and know that it was not an easy decision for them to make, but it's hard when a very vocal supporter leaves. People will inevitably want to know why.

The worst, to me, is actually when people who have moved on (whether they moved on 2 weeks into PK3 because they got into a charter or a couple years in) who then trash the school online or talk about their experience (several years removed) as though it was currently applicable to the school. It feels to me like people who pan a movie that they walked out of halfway through.
Anonymous
Post 08/24/2015 13:12     Subject: Venting just a little
OP I hear you. But I think that's the nature of school choice. Without lottery luck, people probably would stick around until the school stopped working from them. But it's hard for the parent of an ECE student who sees 25% proficiency to turn down a spot at a better school when there is no guarantee that by the time their kids get to testing ages, the proficiency rates will be higher. At the same time, when they bail it definitely makes it hard for the school to improve. No easy answer on this one.
Anonymous
Post 08/24/2015 13:01     Subject: Venting just a little
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Seems like it happens every year. I'm contacted by some acquaintance with a 3 year old who just got into my kids' neighborhood public school (one seen by many on this list as 2nd tier). They are "excited," they want to "learn all about it," and they want to know what our experience has been. So, I dutifully answer their questions and they enroll, only to bail for a charter school at the first opportunity. There seems to be an inverse relationship between their initial enthusiasm and the time their child actually spends at the school.



They are doing what they think is best for their child and themselves. There is more to life than yourself and what you think is right or wrong.....well, at least you know you're venting....


OP here. Nowhere in this message did I imply that they were NOT doing what was best for their child and themselves. That is clearly what they (think they) are doing. However, when they do this, it is not like their actions just affect themselves and their own kids. As stated above, the problem is that they waste everyone's time with their incessant questions (and, as pointed out by another poster) completely OOT boosterism, only to bail for the next "better" (and I'm using "better" in quotes to show sarcasm (read "alleged") - quotations used as emphasis are just sloppy and bad writing) school that comes along. If you're that unsure, enroll your kid and see for yourself - quietly. Don't desperately try to recruit others so that you can get to some critical mass of people who look just like you and then bail when your unrealistic quotas are not met.

And, to clarify, I'm not talking about people who struggle along for years and quit in 1st or 2nd or 3rd grade because the school is just not working for them. They have honestly tried. I'm talking about the parents who waste all of my time with question after question (even after I send them a detailed email) and seem to want me to promise that everything will be happiness and bunny rabbits, only to bail 2 weeks in.
Anonymous
Post 08/24/2015 11:13     Subject: Venting just a little
Anonymous wrote:Don't blame charters. Those bailing parents wouldn't have stuck it out without the charter option either. They would have moved to MD/FFX before K to begin with. Heck, they still might!

You can't force people to send their kid to an "improving" school. Doesn't work.


My neighborhood school has been "improving" for 20 years. Maybe next year will be the year...
Anonymous
Post 08/24/2015 11:09     Subject: Venting just a little
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Seems like it happens every year. I'm contacted by some acquaintance with a 3 year old who just got into my kids' neighborhood public school (one seen by many on this list as 2nd tier). They are "excited," they want to "learn all about it," and they want to know what our experience has been. So, I dutifully answer their questions and they enroll, only to bail for a charter school at the first opportunity. There seems to be an inverse relationship between their initial enthusiasm and the time their child actually spends at the school.



They are doing what they think is best for their child and themselves. There is more to life than yourself and what you think is right or wrong.....well, at least you know you're venting....


Sounds like a person who jumped ship.



and you like one who's sinking with it......


Nope, my kids have done just fine, thanks!
Anonymous
Post 08/24/2015 10:56     Subject: Venting just a little
Anonymous wrote:Don't blame charters. Those bailing parents wouldn't have stuck it out without the charter option either. They would have moved to MD/FFX before K to begin with. Heck, they still might!

You can't force people to send their kid to an "improving" school. Doesn't work.


+1
Anonymous
Post 08/24/2015 10:53     Subject: Venting just a little
Don't blame charters. Those bailing parents wouldn't have stuck it out without the charter option either. They would have moved to MD/FFX before K to begin with. Heck, they still might!

You can't force people to send their kid to an "improving" school. Doesn't work.
Anonymous
Post 08/24/2015 10:53     Subject: Venting just a little
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Eh. give it time. Chances are they excitement over the charter school will wane as well. My experience has been that some parents get over-enthusiastic about a school as a way to hide their concern that the school is actually not good enough, but in the end no school winds up to be good enough for their precious geniuses. I know parents who have already switched their kids 3 times by second grade.

--Signed, a parent at the "worst" Ward 3 school


well you live in a ward 3 bubble. Some of us have to make do with our IB east of the park and its nothing about "precious genius"--but more that by third grade, less 20% of the kids are even at grade level and the kids who are at grade level are sitting around doing mindless worksheets or tutoring other kids. Im sorry, but any complaint or snark from a Ward 3 parent is beyond obnoxious.


Agree with this.

The "worst" Ward 3 school? Ha! At my IB school only 20% of the kids are reading at 4th grade. It's 99% FARMS. Last year they shut down the school one day because there was a fight between the parents at drop off and one parent threatened to stab another.

I think your WOTP understanding of DCPS is basically the same as someone who lives in Maryland.


I don't think you people understand sarcasm. The reason I used quotation marks around worst is because it is actually a great school, but because the scores are slightly lower than neighboring schools (and *gasp* the majority of kids are non-white) we have a lot of people who switch schools at the first opportunity, after saying how excited they were about coming to our school. I'm basically just telling the OP that it happens here too because there are some people who are just never happy with their kids' school. For pete's sake people, it's the first day of school, chill out.