Anonymous
Post 06/10/2013 15:32     Subject: ludlow-taylor
For everyone complaining about all the things other people are doing wrong or aren't doing, what could you do to make the school a better place? And I don't mean hypothetically if you were the head of DCPS. What could you do right now in your capacity to contribute instead of tearing it down at every turn?
Anonymous
Post 06/10/2013 15:25     Subject: ludlow-taylor
I do think the early LT IB families had a similar mindset as the early Brent Neighbors. However, they had a tougher row to hoe. You think Cobbs is not gentrification-friendly? The principal before her was outspoken about his not wanting to educate white children from the neighborhood - telling them they should send their children elsewhere.

Also, the teachers and principal saw what happened to Brent as more IB families attended - they saw spaces for OOB kids shrinking and more alarming was they saw black teachers and principal replaced by white teachers and principal. This set them up to be more defensive than the Brent principal and teachers were; the LT staff were able to point concretely to changes they perceived as not beneficial.
Anonymous
Post 06/10/2013 14:59     Subject: Re:ludlow-taylor
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:+1.

Give me a break. Having lived in the Brent District for more than a decade, I know how relieved parents tend to be that hard-to-educate OOB kids are mostly gone from our neighborhood school, or going. Why would high-SES parents want dozens of kids from tough neighborhoods at Brent? Those who want this are free to buy homes in Wards 5, 7 and 8, or in nearby Trinidad. Brent parents don't speak in these terms because it's not PC to do so in an urban setting, not because none privately long for the day when most of the low-performing kids are out of the picture.

What parents in increasingly upscale neighborhoods would welcome with open arms are test-in gifted and talented programs in which particularly capable and high-performing low-income kids sit in class alongside run of the mill high-SES kids, as in NYC and other US cities. DCPS won't even consider such programs so here we are, competing to out noble one another on DCUM.


I think you must be representing more of the newer parents at Brent, not the parents who started Brent Neighbors nearly a decade ago. Or maybe your own feelings. My peers and I with older in boundary kids DO NOT share this attitude. No one wants a majority of academically or socially struggling kids to make the class all about remediation--that isn't good for anyone. But the early Brent Neighbor people valued/value a well-rounded and diverse school that represents the city we live in as a whole. That is simply the truth.


Don't make this a race thing when it isn't. Its a socioeconimic thing. Its not about being elite or not or being diverse or not. Its about having your child learn and not be distracted by non-performing kids.
Oh puh-lease! (different poster here) A kid who has trouble reading and is working on it is not a non-performing kid - but you wouldn't want that kid if she comes from a working class or poor family. I really feel sorry for you if that's what you believe.

BTW - My kid was better off at her DCPS when she went to school with a mix of kids. Like the earlier pp said, no, you don't want your kid to be the only higher SES kid but you do want a good mix of kids. Helps children learn to avoid growing up into a snob.
Anonymous
Post 06/10/2013 14:56     Subject: Re:ludlow-taylor
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

I think you must be representing more of the newer parents at Brent, not the parents who started Brent Neighbors nearly a decade ago. Or maybe your own feelings. My peers and I with older in boundary kids DO NOT share this attitude. No one wants a majority of academically or socially struggling kids to make the class all about remediation--that isn't good for anyone. But the early Brent Neighbor people valued/value a well-rounded and diverse school that represents the city we live in as a whole. That is simply the truth.


I don't hear much from the Brent IB parents of toddlers about a diverse school representing the city as a whole. I hear about the school representing the neighborhood, where they've bought homes in the 500-900K range, as a whole.

Sounds like that's all that the LT parents want. Shame on them for wanting their property taxes to support a true neighborhood school in a city that hasn't jettisoned the concept.


You just juxtaposed the two different groups of parents--the early Brent Neighbors and the current Brent parents of toddlers. The problem with the L-T neighbors is that they want what the Brent toddler parents want, without the benefit of the work done by the Brent Neighbors. See the "relative deprivation" post above.


+1

Anonymous
Post 06/10/2013 14:53     Subject: Re:ludlow-taylor
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

I think you must be representing more of the newer parents at Brent, not the parents who started Brent Neighbors nearly a decade ago. Or maybe your own feelings. My peers and I with older in boundary kids DO NOT share this attitude. No one wants a majority of academically or socially struggling kids to make the class all about remediation--that isn't good for anyone. But the early Brent Neighbor people valued/value a well-rounded and diverse school that represents the city we live in as a whole. That is simply the truth.


I don't hear much from the Brent IB parents of toddlers about a diverse school representing the city as a whole. I hear about the school representing the neighborhood, where they've bought homes in the 500-900K range, as a whole.

Sounds like that's all that the LT parents want. Shame on them for wanting their property taxes to support a true neighborhood school in a city that hasn't jettisoned the concept.


You just juxtaposed the two different groups of parents--the early Brent Neighbors and the current Brent parents of toddlers. The problem with the L-T neighbors is that they want what the Brent toddler parents want, without the benefit of the work done by the Brent Neighbors. See the "relative deprivation" post above.
Anonymous
Post 06/10/2013 14:48     Subject: Re:ludlow-taylor
Anonymous wrote:

I think you must be representing more of the newer parents at Brent, not the parents who started Brent Neighbors nearly a decade ago. Or maybe your own feelings. My peers and I with older in boundary kids DO NOT share this attitude. No one wants a majority of academically or socially struggling kids to make the class all about remediation--that isn't good for anyone. But the early Brent Neighbor people valued/value a well-rounded and diverse school that represents the city we live in as a whole. That is simply the truth.


I don't hear much from the Brent IB parents of toddlers about a diverse school representing the city as a whole. I hear about the school representing the neighborhood, where they've bought homes in the 500-900K range, as a whole.

Sounds like that's all that the LT parents want. Shame on them for wanting their property taxes to support a true neighborhood school in a city that hasn't jettisoned the concept.



Anonymous
Post 06/10/2013 14:40     Subject: Re:ludlow-taylor
Anonymous wrote:I think the problem some public schools in DC are facing is the same the city as a whole is facing. The "new normal" is a middle-class school in a middle-class neighborhood. That's what parents of newly school-age children expect to see walking through the door of any school. Besides the fact that 'seeing' comes with many distortions caused by erroneous causal assumptions about race and class, the reality is that most DCPS are urban schools, with any classroom running the gamete from from upper middle class families not able or not willing to pay for private school to the occasional (often more than one) child raised by relatives and/or whose parents are in jail (not so unusual and surprising btw given that about a third of all prisoners worldwide are incarcerated in the US, mostly in Texas, California, and DC).
The likes of us, for whom that wasn't the "new normal" and who made a conscious decision and footed the effort to make this work aren't the ones roaming the hallways with preschoolers and Kindergarteners. Yes, some of us are a little PC, playing down problems, but we're also hyper-conscious that an open mind, tolerance, kindness, and active involvement is paramount to our kids' education not only succeeding but turning out to be something truly special, something that will will make them stewards for life, not just educated them in reading and math.





It may or may not be the "new expectation" but it sure as hell ain't the "new normal." The new normal is rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods with higher SES baby booms, and parents hoping to get into a good public school because families with children 5 or so years older than their toddler are in good public schools. Many of those good public schools are WotP schools or charters, one is EotP and a few are just PS/PK programs at random neighborhood elementaries that parents will exit in a heartbeat as soon as something better is available.
Anonymous
Post 06/10/2013 14:33     Subject: Re:ludlow-taylor
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:+1.

Give me a break. Having lived in the Brent District for more than a decade, I know how relieved parents tend to be that hard-to-educate OOB kids are mostly gone from our neighborhood school, or going. Why would high-SES parents want dozens of kids from tough neighborhoods at Brent? Those who want this are free to buy homes in Wards 5, 7 and 8, or in nearby Trinidad. Brent parents don't speak in these terms because it's not PC to do so in an urban setting, not because none privately long for the day when most of the low-performing kids are out of the picture.

What parents in increasingly upscale neighborhoods would welcome with open arms are test-in gifted and talented programs in which particularly capable and high-performing low-income kids sit in class alongside run of the mill high-SES kids, as in NYC and other US cities. DCPS won't even consider such programs so here we are, competing to out noble one another on DCUM.


I think you must be representing more of the newer parents at Brent, not the parents who started Brent Neighbors nearly a decade ago. Or maybe your own feelings. My peers and I with older in boundary kids DO NOT share this attitude. No one wants a majority of academically or socially struggling kids to make the class all about remediation--that isn't good for anyone. But the early Brent Neighbor people valued/value a well-rounded and diverse school that represents the city we live in as a whole. That is simply the truth.


Don't make this a race thing when it isn't. Its a socioeconimic thing. Its not about being elite or not or being diverse or not. Its about having your child learn and not be distracted by non-performing kids.


To be frank, you disgust me. Calling children "non performing" is simply awful and discounts their humanity and all potential and gifts that they have. It's a shame you regard children as either an impediment or a benefit to your own children instead of the precious people they are. Ick


By all means lead the way by taking your child out of whatever school they are in and place them in a low performing school in Anacostia. Tell me that wouldn't cause your precious little angel to be non performing. Doesn't quite sound appealing now does it?
Anonymous
Post 06/10/2013 14:29     Subject: ludlow-taylor
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So apparently the parents who live inbounds for Brent are all virtuous, altruistic, and kind, whereas those IB for LT are racist, classist, mean-spirited, and exclusionary.

Seems rather unlikely.

Noooooooo, the parents at L-T are lazy and entitled; they want a school like Brent or Maury without putting in any of the work. To be fair, it's way more work than I would be able to put into my neighborhood school, either.


To be fair, it's not about "lazy" or "entitled", it's about what's called "relative deprivation" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_deprivation), the feeling of "relatively" being much worse off by comparison to something that's much better (or thought to be much better!), and to which one feels entitled to.
Anonymous
Post 06/10/2013 14:27     Subject: ludlow-taylor
Anonymous wrote:Who said anything about race in that quoted area?


I think the PP was denoting the phrase "diverse school" which is an easy thing to want when it meets your standard but is not always the case in reality. Living in the city, our kids get enough diversity, I don't think it needs to come at the expense of an education.
Anonymous
Post 06/10/2013 14:25     Subject: Re:ludlow-taylor
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:+1.

Give me a break. Having lived in the Brent District for more than a decade, I know how relieved parents tend to be that hard-to-educate OOB kids are mostly gone from our neighborhood school, or going. Why would high-SES parents want dozens of kids from tough neighborhoods at Brent? Those who want this are free to buy homes in Wards 5, 7 and 8, or in nearby Trinidad. Brent parents don't speak in these terms because it's not PC to do so in an urban setting, not because none privately long for the day when most of the low-performing kids are out of the picture.

What parents in increasingly upscale neighborhoods would welcome with open arms are test-in gifted and talented programs in which particularly capable and high-performing low-income kids sit in class alongside run of the mill high-SES kids, as in NYC and other US cities. DCPS won't even consider such programs so here we are, competing to out noble one another on DCUM.


I think you must be representing more of the newer parents at Brent, not the parents who started Brent Neighbors nearly a decade ago. Or maybe your own feelings. My peers and I with older in boundary kids DO NOT share this attitude. No one wants a majority of academically or socially struggling kids to make the class all about remediation--that isn't good for anyone. But the early Brent Neighbor people valued/value a well-rounded and diverse school that represents the city we live in as a whole. That is simply the truth.


Don't make this a race thing when it isn't. Its a socioeconimic thing. Its not about being elite or not or being diverse or not. Its about having your child learn and not be distracted by non-performing kids.


To be frank, you disgust me. Calling children "non performing" is simply awful and discounts their humanity and all potential and gifts that they have. It's a shame you regard children as either an impediment or a benefit to your own children instead of the precious people they are. Ick
Anonymous
Post 06/10/2013 14:22     Subject: ludlow-taylor
Who said anything about race in that quoted area?
Anonymous
Post 06/10/2013 14:20     Subject: Re:ludlow-taylor
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:+1.

Give me a break. Having lived in the Brent District for more than a decade, I know how relieved parents tend to be that hard-to-educate OOB kids are mostly gone from our neighborhood school, or going. Why would high-SES parents want dozens of kids from tough neighborhoods at Brent? Those who want this are free to buy homes in Wards 5, 7 and 8, or in nearby Trinidad. Brent parents don't speak in these terms because it's not PC to do so in an urban setting, not because none privately long for the day when most of the low-performing kids are out of the picture.

What parents in increasingly upscale neighborhoods would welcome with open arms are test-in gifted and talented programs in which particularly capable and high-performing low-income kids sit in class alongside run of the mill high-SES kids, as in NYC and other US cities. DCPS won't even consider such programs so here we are, competing to out noble one another on DCUM.


I think you must be representing more of the newer parents at Brent, not the parents who started Brent Neighbors nearly a decade ago. Or maybe your own feelings. My peers and I with older in boundary kids DO NOT share this attitude. No one wants a majority of academically or socially struggling kids to make the class all about remediation--that isn't good for anyone. But the early Brent Neighbor people valued/value a well-rounded and diverse school that represents the city we live in as a whole. That is simply the truth.


Don't make this a race thing when it isn't. Its a socioeconimic thing. Its not about being elite or not or being diverse or not. Its about having your child learn and not be distracted by non-performing kids.
Anonymous
Post 06/10/2013 14:00     Subject: Re:ludlow-taylor
Anonymous wrote:+1.

Give me a break. Having lived in the Brent District for more than a decade, I know how relieved parents tend to be that hard-to-educate OOB kids are mostly gone from our neighborhood school, or going. Why would high-SES parents want dozens of kids from tough neighborhoods at Brent? Those who want this are free to buy homes in Wards 5, 7 and 8, or in nearby Trinidad. Brent parents don't speak in these terms because it's not PC to do so in an urban setting, not because none privately long for the day when most of the low-performing kids are out of the picture.

What parents in increasingly upscale neighborhoods would welcome with open arms are test-in gifted and talented programs in which particularly capable and high-performing low-income kids sit in class alongside run of the mill high-SES kids, as in NYC and other US cities. DCPS won't even consider such programs so here we are, competing to out noble one another on DCUM.


I think you must be representing more of the newer parents at Brent, not the parents who started Brent Neighbors nearly a decade ago. Or maybe your own feelings. My peers and I with older in boundary kids DO NOT share this attitude. No one wants a majority of academically or socially struggling kids to make the class all about remediation--that isn't good for anyone. But the early Brent Neighbor people valued/value a well-rounded and diverse school that represents the city we live in as a whole. That is simply the truth.
Anonymous
Post 06/10/2013 13:38     Subject: ludlow-taylor
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So apparently the parents who live inbounds for Brent are all virtuous, altruistic, and kind, whereas those IB for LT are racist, classist, mean-spirited, and exclusionary.

Seems rather unlikely.

Noooooooo, the parents at L-T are lazy and entitled; they want a school like Brent or Maury without putting in any of the work. To be fair, it's way more work than I would be able to put into my neighborhood school, either.


But they can't get a Brent or Maury even when they put in the work. They work hard, then head to charters in defeat, lacking a halfway decent alternative.

Only by voting in a much more schools and gentrification-minded Ward 6 city council member, and mayor/schools chancellor, will they have a fighting chance of making work pay off.