Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like all 3 of OPs kids were special needs kids. That is what I assume private schools is usually for - for kids who can’t cut it in mainstream public. (yes, I know public is supposed to provide supports to special needs students, but there just isn’t sufficient funding for that.) Not sure I see your point here.

+1. If your kid is having trouble with reading you don’t just let it go and hope for the best. It’s also up to you to advocate for your kid, including getting them tested for learning disabilities, which sounds like needed to happen with kids #1 and 2. No school — public or private — is going to save your kids and it’s totally misguided to think that they should or will.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP- you aren't alone.

There are a lot of things Ive been impressed with (referrals to the school psych for loneliness, excellent pullout structure to right-size learning), I think the teachers are mostly great (WAY better education than Key FWIW which my kids also attended). But for whatever reason they can't even seem to write a single personalized line on a child in a report card. I know they care about these kids, As a parent, that matters to me. You have 25 kids, write one line.

Additionally, the culture is SO equity-focused that (for fear of "not checking my privilege") I have avoided on numerous occasions voicing concerns about my child being harassed and hit by other kids, simply bc they are POC. Multiple repeat offenders that bite, hit, grope, use wildly inappropriate language. My kid will be ok, so I swallow it.

The Fistbook debacle asking young children to identify and write down the racists in their family...the Trans posters in the Kindergarten hall reminding kids who can't read or even comprehend yet that "everyone gets to choose if they are a boy or a girl or both or neither or something else"...the teachers who CONTINUE to mask. There is a way to teach children to be good human beings without the self-flagellating kabuki.

As a neighborhood parent, it feels like there is an abnormal amount of energy placed on things that -- in the scheme of elementary education --don't matter. My kids can't tell time and they don't know the months in the year. They don't know the states on the east coast, but they will learn about American Revolution mainly from the perspective of indigenous populations.

I'm not incensed, but I am indifferent to what is supposedly the finest ES in the city. I won't miss it, and I won't give money until they get their priorities in check. But then again, I am an outlier in a neighborhood of "In this house we believe"ers.

This was not our experience at an EOTP ES. Maybe because it was majority minority? Telling time was taught in second grade.

Ya, ours either (majority minority EOTP DCPS). I find the school is really careful talking about race, probably because they don't want to traumatize the brown and black kids by making them feel less than. There is a lot of pride (black pride in February, Hispanic heritage). They never ask white kids to talk about racism in their families.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP- you aren't alone.

There are a lot of things Ive been impressed with (referrals to the school psych for loneliness, excellent pullout structure to right-size learning), I think the teachers are mostly great (WAY better education than Key FWIW which my kids also attended). But for whatever reason they can't even seem to write a single personalized line on a child in a report card. I know they care about these kids, As a parent, that matters to me. You have 25 kids, write one line.

Additionally, the culture is SO equity-focused that (for fear of "not checking my privilege") I have avoided on numerous occasions voicing concerns about my child being harassed and hit by other kids, simply bc they are POC. Multiple repeat offenders that bite, hit, grope, use wildly inappropriate language. My kid will be ok, so I swallow it.

The Fistbook debacle asking young children to identify and write down the racists in their family...the Trans posters in the Kindergarten hall reminding kids who can't read or even comprehend yet that "everyone gets to choose if they are a boy or a girl or both or neither or something else"...the teachers who CONTINUE to mask. There is a way to teach children to be good human beings without the self-flagellating kabuki.

As a neighborhood parent, it feels like there is an abnormal amount of energy placed on things that -- in the scheme of elementary education --don't matter. My kids can't tell time and they don't know the months in the year. They don't know the states on the east coast, but they will learn about American Revolution mainly from the perspective of indigenous populations.

I'm not incensed, but I am indifferent to what is supposedly the finest ES in the city. I won't miss it, and I won't give money until they get their priorities in check. But then again, I am an outlier in a neighborhood of "In this house we believe"ers.

This was not our experience at an EOTP ES. Maybe because it was majority minority? Telling time was taught in second grade.

Anonymous wrote:OP- you aren't alone.

There are a lot of things Ive been impressed with (referrals to the school psych for loneliness, excellent pullout structure to right-size learning), I think the teachers are mostly great (WAY better education than Key FWIW which my kids also attended). But for whatever reason they can't even seem to write a single personalized line on a child in a report card. I know they care about these kids, As a parent, that matters to me. You have 25 kids, write one line.

Additionally, the culture is SO equity-focused that (for fear of "not checking my privilege") I have avoided on numerous occasions voicing concerns about my child being harassed and hit by other kids, simply bc they are POC. Multiple repeat offenders that bite, hit, grope, use wildly inappropriate language. My kid will be ok, so I swallow it.

The Fistbook debacle asking young children to identify and write down the racists in their family...the Trans posters in the Kindergarten hall reminding kids who can't read or even comprehend yet that "everyone gets to choose if they are a boy or a girl or both or neither or something else"...the teachers who CONTINUE to mask. There is a way to teach children to be good human beings without the self-flagellating kabuki.

As a neighborhood parent, it feels like there is an abnormal amount of energy placed on things that -- in the scheme of elementary education --don't matter. My kids can't tell time and they don't know the months in the year. They don't know the states on the east coast, but they will learn about American Revolution mainly from the perspective of indigenous populations.

I'm not incensed, but I am indifferent to what is supposedly the finest ES in the city. I won't miss it, and I won't give money until they get their priorities in check. But then again, I am an outlier in a neighborhood of "In this house we believe"ers.

Anonymous wrote:It's hilarious that people here think these issues only pop up in DCPS schools. They're in every school district: rich, poor and in between.

Signed,
A parent who got fed up with Janney, moved to allegedly exceptional Montgomery County, and encountered the exact same problems in the schools there.

Anonymous wrote:You are making me feel very satisfied with our experiences at Mann and Hardy (well, Hardy this year).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP- you aren't alone.

There are a lot of things Ive been impressed with (referrals to the school psych for loneliness, excellent pullout structure to right-size learning), I think the teachers are mostly great (WAY better education than Key FWIW which my kids also attended). But for whatever reason they can't even seem to write a single personalized line on a child in a report card. I know they care about these kids, As a parent, that matters to me. You have 25 kids, write one line.

Additionally, the culture is SO equity-focused that (for fear of "not checking my privilege") I have avoided on numerous occasions voicing concerns about my child being harassed and hit by other kids, simply bc they are POC. Multiple repeat offenders that bite, hit, grope, use wildly inappropriate language. My kid will be ok, so I swallow it.

The Fistbook debacle asking young children to identify and write down the racists in their family...the Trans posters in the Kindergarten hall reminding kids who can't read or even comprehend yet that "everyone gets to choose if they are a boy or a girl or both or neither or something else"...the teachers who CONTINUE to mask. There is a way to teach children to be good human beings without the self-flagellating kabuki.

As a neighborhood parent, it feels like there is an abnormal amount of energy placed on things that -- in the scheme of elementary education --don't matter. My kids can't tell time and they don't know the months in the year. They don't know the states on the east coast, but they will learn about American Revolution mainly from the perspective of indigenous populations.

I'm not incensed, but I am indifferent to what is supposedly the finest ES in the city. I won't miss it, and I won't give money until they get their priorities in check. But then again, I am an outlier in a neighborhood of "In this house we believe"ers.

I'm EOTP and none of this is happening at our DCPS elementary. I wonder if this is a thing that only happens in majority white schools?

+1. I was going to say the same.

There are staff and teachers that think they solve the problem of MAGA-types far off in TX or CO by subjecting the inoffensive kids of NW DC to lots of lessons about equity. At least that's my nice take on it. It more cynical moments, it appears as people using kids to feel their own power.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like all 3 of OPs kids were special needs kids. That is what I assume private schools is usually for - for kids who can’t cut it in mainstream public. (yes, I know public is supposed to provide supports to special needs students, but there just isn’t sufficient funding for that.) Not sure I see your point here.

You have it twisted. Everyone can cut it in DCPS. OP's kid was probably slipping through the cracks because zero attention is given to the middle of the road readers.

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like all 3 of OPs kids were special needs kids. That is what I assume private schools is usually for - for kids who can’t cut it in mainstream public. (yes, I know public is supposed to provide supports to special needs students, but there just isn’t sufficient funding for that.) Not sure I see your point here.

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like all 3 of OPs kids were special needs kids. That is what I assume private schools is usually for - for kids who can’t cut it in mainstream public. (yes, I know public is supposed to provide supports to special needs students, but there just isn’t sufficient funding for that.) Not sure I see your point here.