I like PG. It's got a Big Ten university, an NFL football team, NASA, the IRS, USDA , NOAA , The national archives, the American physics institute , nationally famous DeMatha HS, IRS, census bureau, Andrews AFB. Soon to have FBI.

Compare that to the dozens of hurting counties in south central Va.

Anonymous wrote:How do you navigate the schools in PG? The homes are lovely and people are nice, but these schools are awful! We commute to GDS and its a terrible drive everyday. I would love to sell my house but it's underwater. What do people you know in similar circumstances do about this?

I think a lot of people repeat "the schools in PG are awful" without really doing any research or comparing them to similar neighborhoods in Montgomery or NoVA. Some are bad, but as a pp said, some are really good. MD school ranking has two of the TAG magnets as #1 and #2 in the state, and some of the other elementary schools also rank highly.

As someone else pointed out, there are also good private schools in the area, though if GDS is your standard, perhaps you won't be happy with the PG options.

One way or another, we're happy here. I'm tired of the "the schools suck" mantra, but in some cases it is based in fact. But there are crappy schools in other districts too.

I agree. I live in one of the "affluent," outside the beltway parts of PG ("affluent" being very much a matter of debate lol) and I pretty much enjoy it. It's not optimal because it is NOT walkable AT ALL, which was a big part of the nearby NoVa city I grew up in. But as far as bang for the bucks, it works. PG's image is still suffering somewhat from how much violence/crime there was during the late 80's through the early 2010's.. but things are getting better (or at least seem to be).

Lets be honest, PG is bad because a certain group is full of hood rats and thugs which ruin the overall image of the collective.

Anonymous wrote:I drink out of this coffee cup:
http://www.cafepress.com/mf/30374186/2pgcountyshirtswhite_mugs?shop=PGCountyBitch&productId=310035598

I don't bring it to work, but I'm so tempted.

Hilarious!!

Anonymous wrote:How do you navigate the schools in PG? The homes are lovely and people are nice, but these schools are awful! We commute to GDS and its a terrible drive everyday. I would love to sell my house but it's underwater. What do people you know in similar circumstances do about this?

What area in PG do u currently live? Also use the MD state report card as a guide, "Great Schools.com" isn't always accurate. They have a school like Perrywood Elementary as a 5 but there test scores are about 88-92 proficiency in both Math & Reading.

Better than Bangladesh I always say.

I drink out of this coffee cup:
http://www.cafepress.com/mf/30374186/2pgcountyshirtswhite_mugs?shop=PGCountyBitch&productId=310035598

I don't bring it to work, but I'm so tempted.

Anonymous wrote:How do you navigate the schools in PG? The homes are lovely and people are nice, but these schools are awful! We commute to GDS and its a terrible drive everyday. I would love to sell my house but it's underwater. What do people you know in similar circumstances do about this?

There are a number of good schools within PGCPS, some you can easily recognize by their Great Schools ranking, but others are not as obvious because there's a poor summary score, but if you break down the data you find that children coming from education, married households are doing really well in the school and the PTA engagement is strong, lots of enrichment activities, etc. Whether you're willing to dig to find out more or just want an impressive single summary score depends on the person.

There are also affordable privates and parochial schools through out the county and numerous charter & specialty public options. We live in Mount Rainier and walkability factor and fantastic enrichment activities for children just blocks from our house is really outstanding. We used to live in Virginia and paid the same amount for a small 2 bedroom, terrible schools, and nothing other than a cupcake shop within walking distance for family outings. For families, the Gateway Arts district has a lot going for it.

Anonymous wrote:How do you navigate the schools in PG? The homes are lovely and people are nice, but these schools are awful! We commute to GDS and its a terrible drive everyday. I would love to sell my house but it's underwater. What do people you know in similar circumstances do about this?

Some are/some aren't. It really depends on where you live and what grade your kids are in. Mine have gone to both public and private depending on what was the best fit for them at the time. I can tell you I have put a lot of thought into their education and they are thriving. My pals in Montgomery County tend to send their kids to the default and have put much less consideration into their kids' education. To me, it seems possible to get a relatively mediocre educational experience by default in Montgomery County whereas a lot of kids in PG county have excellent educations because so much thought and effort goes into it.

Anonymous wrote:I don't know who you are hanging out with that looks down on you living in PG. I work in a high end field where 90% of my co-workers (and thus friends) live in Bethesda/Chevy Chase/NW DC. No one has ever commented on me living in PG or my kids attending PG schools. We all want what is best for our kids and are trying our hardest to make that happen regardless of where we live.

They most likely say them behind your back, amoung other things. The best anybody has ever said to me was "this isn't so bad at all". I can only imagine the conversation that took place in the car as they left their home to come visit.

How do you navigate the schools in PG? The homes are lovely and people are nice, but these schools are awful! We commute to GDS and its a terrible drive everyday. I would love to sell my house but it's underwater. What do people you know in similar circumstances do about this?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know who you are hanging out with that looks down on you living in PG. I work in a high end field where 90% of my co-workers (and thus friends) live in Bethesda/Chevy Chase/NW DC. No one has ever commented on me living in PG or my kids attending PG schools. We all want what is best for our kids and are trying our hardest to make that happen regardless of where we live.

+1000

I used to think that -- that my colleagues didn't look down on me for living in PG. But then I, by chance, found out about some sort of mean/insulting things said about where I live. I realized that many people don't say what they really think. And I do think a lot of people who live in the areas you mention do indeed look down on people living in PG. They just never mention it or express it. But it's there.

That said, though it has taken me a while to realize this, it really doesn't matter what they think of where I live. If I'm generally happy with my location, then I don't need to convince them.

I also think that all places in this region have positives and negatives. There are always tradeoffs. I could never live in Bethesda. There's something about the traffic there that drives me insane. It's like suburbia but with city traffic. There are lots of great things about Bethesda. But the negative things are deal breakers for me, especially given the cost of real estate.

So other people have deal breakers about PG. That's fine. The only time I get upset is when their deal breakers are really about or rooted in racism.

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Anonymous wrote:i live in PG but if I could afford to I wouldn't. I read over the other threads and many say to the same effect that was the only way to get a middle class life style in the area. My husband and I are content but my 12 year old son is having problems. Maybe he is a knuckle head but there are just so many other knuckle head kids in the malls & schools he is under the impression it isn't as serious of a deal as it is. He actually dumbs down his speech when away from the home. We lament not being able to afford a better area or private schools. The are some area with nicer houses for sure but much of the county has a few too many knuckle headed kids IMHO.

Not to be mean, but ur child is a reflection of what is taught and enforced at home. I grew up in Landover, went to public schools my whole life and graduated from Duval. I never had any "pressure' to be a "knuckle head" and my parents would have never allowed it anyway. and never thought about "dumbing" down my speech....never had to. I had tons of friends and none of us fit that stereotype or got mixed into a "bad crowd" I never understand that saying anyways. You are what you are taught and what u see

So every bad kid has bad parents and every good kid has good ones? Do you really think that peer pressure and environmental influences can't override and sabotage parenting. Not to be mean but "ur" not the brightest.

Not if u follow the guidelines of "do what I do..not what I say". My parent never drank never smoked etc. neither do I even when around friends who did. Yes there is always peer pressure but if u teach ur kids to have their own mind then the peer pressure won't matter. Also kids gravitate towards the peers they most identify with. There aren't a bunch of knuckle heads running around pg ur kids r just deciding to hang with the few that are. U need to find out why. Because if u move elsewhere I assure u they will seek out the knuckle heads there as well

20:57 here, just thought I would point out I that I am not the poster you think you're talking to. I just disagree with most of your overly simplistic assertions about being in absolute control of a child's destiny and also the numbers of knuckleheads locally too but that is another topic. If your premiss is true, would we be to take it that your parent(s) had exceptionally weak English skills and were shallow thinkers? That would be the case if a "child is a reflection of what is taught and enforced at home" was to be taken as an absolute.

You don't really have the tone of somebody who actually has kids, by regurgitating tired clichés you are really coming off as some barren old biddy who is not in touch with reality.

NP here. I agree that you can't always blame the parents for how kids turn out. Sure, good parenting is important. But unless you keep your kids with you 24 hours a day, every day a week, and don't let them out into the world, they are going to be exposed to other influences. I have a good friend who has two grown children. They are close in age. One is a model citizen, successful, never had any disciplinary problems or got into trouble. The other has a long history of problems and addictions. They were exposed to the same parenting. The downfall of the one with problems was ultimately getting into the wrong crowd. It's amazing how just a couple of friends can completely derail good parenting and influence a teenager in such a horribly negative way.

I think it's a combination of factors. And I do think there are plenty of cases where the parents are to blame for their kids turning out horribly behaved. But there are also cases where the parents did everything right, but there were environmental forces that were just too strong to push back against.

That said, I don't think PG county is a horrible place where your kids are going to turn into "knuckleheads" (what does that word even mean?). I think there are pockets in PG where, yes, there are some really strong bad influences. But there are plenty of suburban areas in PG that are fine.

I also think that your kid can get in with the wrong crowd in places that have great reputations. I grew up in an area that was considered a good area, but I still saw kids get involved in bad things and struggle.

Anonymous wrote:I don't know who you are hanging out with that looks down on you living in PG. I work in a high end field where 90% of my co-workers (and thus friends) live in Bethesda/Chevy Chase/NW DC. No one has ever commented on me living in PG or my kids attending PG schools. We all want what is best for our kids and are trying our hardest to make that happen regardless of where we live.

+1000