8:31 again ...

And it's not really about the bread, it's about coming in with the attitude that the school needs a makeover & should be grateful to you for offering the oppty.

Switching from white to whole grain is an improvement to some, but it's a loss to others. And if you're new to the school & in the minority as far as your bread preferences, maybe you just ... let it go? Maybe you say to yourself, white bread isn't usually my thing, but most of the other families are enjoying it, so I'm going to leave it be.

Anonymous wrote: I completely disagree that it is a "white" thing to question whether the school should be serving white bread. I say this as someone who has a family full of people with diabetes and high blood pressure. Wanting healthy food for your kids is not "white." If there is ever going to be a shift at LT, the white families and black families (and Asian and latino families) must raise concerns at the school and hold it to the same standards they would have if their kid attended Brent. Or SWS. It's absurd to let LT get away with providing less. Maybe "white bread" isn't the best example of this, but frankly this conversation is exactly why we are leaving LT.

As a Brent parent, I disagree with you. When our child started at Brent, we focussed on the things that were really important-- getting decent books in the library, getting bathrooms in the pre-K 3 classroom(s), etc. If we had pointed out every "slice of white bread" we had a problem with, we would have been completely burnt out. Looking back I'm thinking the problem that I saw that I kept my mouth shut over was chocolate and strawberry flavored milk provided everyday-- white bread provided once a year to eat with fried fish-- that's a clown problem, bro! was I "absurd" to let Brent "get away with providing" flavored milk?

Anonymous wrote: I completely disagree that it is a "white" thing to question whether the school should be serving white bread. I say this as someone who has a family full of people with diabetes and high blood pressure. Wanting healthy food for your kids is not "white." If there is ever going to be a shift at LT, the white families and black families (and Asian and latino families) must raise concerns at the school and hold it to the same standards they would have if their kid attended Brent. Or SWS. It's absurd to let LT get away with providing less. Maybe "white bread" isn't the best example of this, but frankly this conversation is exactly why we are leaving LT.

Of course wanting healthy food for your kids is universal -- & I know plenty of white people who eat white bread (my husband and step-dad among them). But there's definitely a race/class component to the white bread complaints. If the festival featured a fancy French cheese crammed with saturated fats, I doubt you'd hear the same complaints.

About the bread -- you HAVE to have white bread with fried fish!

PP-Technically that is incorrect. There have been many DCPS schools that have turned into charters. Paul, and Malcolm X are two examples.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2020.

+1. Sounds about right, too darn slow, But, hey, by 2020 LT might have gone charter, with Cobbs simply gone.

Schools don't "go charter" That's not a concept. Charter schools start as charter schools. They have worse teachers (one's race and alma mater are excellent forms of deception however) and a population duped by a "mission statement" created by someone with a background in god knows what but not education. Most of these "principals" who often are referred to as "CEO's" hold MBA's and not M. Ed.'s. They might seem lovely now but they are destined for disaster.

I completely disagree that it is a "white" thing to question whether the school should be serving white bread. I say this as someone who has a family full of people with diabetes and high blood pressure. Wanting healthy food for your kids is not "white." If there is ever going to be a shift at LT, the white families and black families (and Asian and latino families) must raise concerns at the school and hold it to the same standards they would have if their kid attended Brent. Or SWS. It's absurd to let LT get away with providing less. Maybe "white bread" isn't the best example of this, but frankly this conversation is exactly why we are leaving LT.

Anonymous wrote:2020.

+1. Sounds about right, too darn slow, But, hey, by 2020 LT might have gone charter, with Cobbs simply gone.

Anonymous wrote:
Signed, mom who packed cold bacon, a pickle, sugary yogurt and goldfish crackers in the lunch box today. Mom. Of. Year.

Hey now, you got protein, veggie, dairy, & bread/cereal in there -- all you need are some fruit snacks (preferably in the shape of cartoon characters) & you'd have every food group! (No judgment here, I can honestly say I've packed every one of those ingredients at some point myself.)

I actually find parents with their oldest in PK3 more annoying than older parents. Now older (40+) with their oldest in PK3? Hands down worst.

^ this is actually a brilliant insight. Now that my kids are older (and multiple) I find myself rolling eye at crap I wouldn't have 5 years ago, as the boom ages maybe attitudes will as well. Everyone needs to chill a bit, kids are going to be ok.

Signed, mom who packed cold bacon, a pickle, sugary yogurt and goldfish crackers in the lunch box today. Mom. Of. Year.

Anonymous wrote:The bread complaining does sound like a white complaint - but it also totally sounds like the kind of thing that parents of 3 year olds complain about. Parents of older kids get over stuff like that.

That's definitely part of it, I think -- as others have observed, there's a greater concentration of white families in the pre-K years, so I think you have parents who lean a little high-maintenance b/c they are parenting young kids the first time around - but those parent are also more likely to be both white and high-SES, so the new-parent-to-a-3-y-o high-maintenance can easily be mistaken for white-high-SES entitlement.

So those kind of complaints aren't received favorably -- and then the unfavorable reception is interpreted as anti-white bias, and then you get one side walking away feeling dinged for their food preferences and the other side walking away feeling dinged for their color, and everyone's indignant.

The bread complaining does sound like a white complaint - but it also totally sounds like the kind of thing that parents of 3 year olds complain about. Parents of older kids get over stuff like that.

I have kids of different ages. My youngest is 5. My concerns are different than those whose only or oldest is 5. Like parents complaining about what other kids bring for lunch. I put that in the not my problem category.

Its a great culture. Ditch your kids in day care for ten hours a day starting at age 2 months then spend your time complaining about things like bread and the fact that you are concerned your child's classmates might not be as ipaddy and organic as you think they should. I am contemplating a move.

Welcome to capitol-hill-parent-version-2013.