Anonymous
Post 03/10/2014 13:03     Subject: Silver Springs schools?
Anonymous wrote:We also live in downtown Silver Spring and I echo what my neighbor said above. We have children thriving at Blair and Takoma Park Middle (regular program at each, not magnet). Before that, East Silver Spring Elem and Piney Branch Elem. Around us are older kids who've gone on to Smith, Cornell and UMD honors--all came up through Silver Spring public schools.

OP, you say you're attracted to Silver Spring for its mix of urban and suburban appeal--trust that instinct. We love it for that, too. Wouldn't trade our walkability for anything. Others like to live farther out, surrounded by land and quiet, and that's great for them. But that doesn't sound like what you're looking for.


Another SS poster here. Thanks, neighbors. My kids are happy in SS schools too.
Anonymous
Post 03/10/2014 12:58     Subject: Silver Springs schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

"I can't be racist. I have black and brown friends."


Wow. More of the same inappropriate race remarks on DCUMs. I've never even heard a remark like that before, but I am a Washingontian. I guess people actually talk like that where you are from. You can take a DCUMer out of their hick town, but you cannot take the hick of a transplant DCUMer.


Sarcasm is lost on you, I guess.
Anonymous
Post 03/10/2014 11:12     Subject: Silver Springs schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Last 4 PPs - I'm reporting you for being WAY too reasonable to be posting on DCUM.

Also, to OP: these four posters are symbolic of the attitude of people living in Silver Spring and sending their kids to the local schools - laid back, able to communicate well, reasonable, likable. If these characteristics are what you're looking for in a community, you'll find them in ample supply here.


Dunno. I think the argument that people only avoid certain schools because they want to justify their purchase of more expensive homes is about as lacking in originality as you can get on DCUM.


It is just a theory.

Why do you think people on DCUM are so invested in making everyone understand that Silver Spring and Wheaton schools are bad and to be avoided?
Anonymous
Post 03/10/2014 11:07     Subject: Silver Springs schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Last 4 PPs - I'm reporting you for being WAY too reasonable to be posting on DCUM.

Also, to OP: these four posters are symbolic of the attitude of people living in Silver Spring and sending their kids to the local schools - laid back, able to communicate well, reasonable, likable. If these characteristics are what you're looking for in a community, you'll find them in ample supply here.


Dunno. I think the argument that people only avoid certain schools because they want to justify their purchase of more expensive homes[b] is about as lacking in originality as you can get on DCUM.


Good thing that nobody's saying that, then.

The argument is that some people paid a large premium so that they could send their childrern to these schools, over here, which are supposed to be good, instead of spending less money to send their children to those schools, over there, which are supposed to be bad. If it turns out that those schools, over there, are actually also good, then they wasted their money, and they might not be able to sell their house to somebody who is also willing to pay a large premium. So it's in their interest for everybody to keep believing that those schools, over there, are bad.

(Also, an argument can be unoriginal and also valid.)
Anonymous
Post 03/10/2014 11:02     Subject: Silver Springs schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Last 4 PPs - I'm reporting you for being WAY too reasonable to be posting on DCUM.

Also, to OP: these four posters are symbolic of the attitude of people living in Silver Spring and sending their kids to the local schools - laid back, able to communicate well, reasonable, likable. If these characteristics are what you're looking for in a community, you'll find them in ample supply here.


Dunno. I think the argument that people only avoid certain schools because they want to justify their purchase of more expensive homes is about as lacking in originality as you can get on DCUM.


Your reading comprehension needs some work. The PP said people feel the need to justify their real estate choice by denigrating others' schools (that they typically have no firsthand knowledge about). Didn't say anything about "avoiding".
Anonymous
Post 03/10/2014 11:00     Subject: Silver Springs schools?
Anonymous wrote:

"I can't be racist. I have black and brown friends."


Wow. More of the same inappropriate race remarks on DCUMs. I've never even heard a remark like that before, but I am a Washingontian. I guess people actually talk like that where you are from. You can take a DCUMer out of their hick town, but you cannot take the hick of a transplant DCUMer.
Anonymous
Post 03/10/2014 10:52     Subject: Silver Springs schools?
Anonymous wrote:Last 4 PPs - I'm reporting you for being WAY too reasonable to be posting on DCUM.

Also, to OP: these four posters are symbolic of the attitude of people living in Silver Spring and sending their kids to the local schools - laid back, able to communicate well, reasonable, likable. If these characteristics are what you're looking for in a community, you'll find them in ample supply here.


Dunno. I think the argument that people only avoid certain schools because they want to justify their purchase of more expensive homes is about as lacking in originality as you can get on DCUM.
Anonymous
Post 03/10/2014 10:40     Subject: Silver Springs schools?
Last 4 PPs - I'm reporting you for being WAY too reasonable to be posting on DCUM.

Also, to OP: these four posters are symbolic of the attitude of people living in Silver Spring and sending their kids to the local schools - laid back, able to communicate well, reasonable, likable. If these characteristics are what you're looking for in a community, you'll find them in ample supply here.
Anonymous
Post 03/10/2014 10:29     Subject: Silver Springs schools?
We also live in downtown Silver Spring and I echo what my neighbor said above. We have children thriving at Blair and Takoma Park Middle (regular program at each, not magnet). Before that, East Silver Spring Elem and Piney Branch Elem. Around us are older kids who've gone on to Smith, Cornell and UMD honors--all came up through Silver Spring public schools.

OP, you say you're attracted to Silver Spring for its mix of urban and suburban appeal--trust that instinct. We love it for that, too. Wouldn't trade our walkability for anything. Others like to live farther out, surrounded by land and quiet, and that's great for them. But that doesn't sound like what you're looking for.
Anonymous
Post 03/10/2014 10:25     Subject: Silver Springs schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Doesn't anyone stop to wonder why so many professional families live and send their kids to school in DTSS? What do they know that the rest of us don't. If they feel comfortable with the education their kids are getting, who cares what those of us in bethesda, who have never set foot inside a SS school have to say.
Live and let live people


These are very good questions.

We live near downtown Silver Spring. I'm a lawyer, DH is a professor. We have two kids who went to school here in Silver Spring. The first is in medical school now, the second is at a highly regarded (top ten nationally) small liberal arts college in New England. We have hit occasional bumps along the road in their educational experience, but nothing out of the ordinary and nothing that I imagine we would not have encountered in a public school anywhere, including in Bethesda.

On these threads, I am always struck by how very dedicated people seem to be in making us all understand how bad the schools in Silver Spring and Wheaton are. These threads go on for pages and pages, with people posting in passionate tones about why we all need to avoid Silver Spring at all costs. The people who post these things generally have zero personal experience with the schools they discuss.

Why is that?

Is it because those who bought in the W districts feel compelled justify their expensive real estate choices by denigrating others' choices?


This is honestly all i can figure out. Because so many those people who choose a school based on Greatshcools (in other words on test scores), then complain about standardized tests.
We have had great experience with our silver spring schools. I have friends who have had good experiences in Bethesda. Live and let live.
Anonymous
Post 03/10/2014 10:06     Subject: Silver Springs schools?
Anonymous wrote:Doesn't anyone stop to wonder why so many professional families live and send their kids to school in DTSS? What do they know that the rest of us don't. If they feel comfortable with the education their kids are getting, who cares what those of us in bethesda, who have never set foot inside a SS school have to say.
Live and let live people


These are very good questions.

We live near downtown Silver Spring. I'm a lawyer, DH is a professor. We have two kids who went to school here in Silver Spring. The first is in medical school now, the second is at a highly regarded (top ten nationally) small liberal arts college in New England. We have hit occasional bumps along the road in their educational experience, but nothing out of the ordinary and nothing that I imagine we would not have encountered in a public school anywhere, including in Bethesda.

On these threads, I am always struck by how very dedicated people seem to be in making us all understand how bad the schools in Silver Spring and Wheaton are. These threads go on for pages and pages, with people posting in passionate tones about why we all need to avoid Silver Spring at all costs. The people who post these things generally have zero personal experience with the schools they discuss.

Why is that?

Is it because those who bought in the W districts feel compelled justify their expensive real estate choices by denigrating others' choices?
Anonymous
Post 03/10/2014 09:46     Subject: Silver Springs schools?
Doesn't anyone stop to wonder why so many professional families live and send their kids to school in DTSS? What do they know that the rest of us don't. If they feel comfortable with the education their kids are getting, who cares what those of us in bethesda, who have never set foot inside a SS school have to say.
Live and let live people
Anonymous
Post 03/10/2014 09:31     Subject: Silver Springs schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Sherwood may be marginally better than Blair, but for twice the commute it isn't worth it to us. If we had horses or worked from home maybe.

People here are very happy with elem options and Blair. I can't speak to the other DCC schools.


marginally better?

lol!

The only plus to Blair is magnet/CAP. That's what gives Blair its reputation. It's a school w/in a school, and b/c of the magnet - and now with the DCC (aka - school "choice") - there's no community. That's what happened to PB and Springbrook. The consortium destroyed the neighborhoods, especially with the addition of Blake, which has NO true home base.

Sherwood opted out of the consortium b/c they knew it would create fragmentation. It's bad enough that Rosa Parks has split articulation - as does Farquhar to some extent. But it has a better community than the NEC and DCC, which is what helps schools function.

So you can compare all you want about test scores and this and that. I prefer that my children feel as though they're part of a community. And having lived in the NEC and worked in an NEC "cluster," we realized that community just wasn't there.



So families living in Silver Spring aren't part of a "community?" I guess you haven't been back to Silver Spring in the last 25 years.

Yes, Sherwood opted out of a consortium, as did BCC. You can try to justify the reasons as anything other than race, but you'll lose. I have nothing against the greater Olney area, and Sherwood is a fine school, but when you need to attack something else to pull yourself up, you've already lost the argument. And don't kid yourself, Blair and Einstein are every bit as well regarded as Sherwood academically.
Anonymous
Post 03/10/2014 07:41     Subject: Silver Springs schools?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If public school is important, then scratch SS off your list period. And I am born and raised from SS. It's a shit hole. Don't listen to all of the hippy posters on here who talk about how diverse or international or wonderful or la la la it is. It's not. Move farther west in Montgomery County if a decent school is important to you.


FYI, for "decent" read "white" or "affluent," because that's what this poster means. This is actually one of her less offensive posts.


I disagree PP. The poster is talking school quality. Either the quality of the school is high or low, regardless of race. If there is a high quality school that isn't, as you say, not the Poster before you, "white" or "affluent," I believe that school would be recognized as such.


Nope. This poster is well known for her views, and they all have to do with low SES and minority students. She conflates "low quality" with "low SES" and "black or Latino." Don't be an apologist for her, PP.


bullshit I have NEVER, EVER said anything about "latino" and black people etc. that is crap. I don't even know what SES means. You must have me confused with somebody else. Frankly, DD want in a full-on hispanic daycare (on purpose). And now because she has not started kindergarten yet, she is on a preschool that is, well, full-on another culture but not "white" and I prefer not to specify. And I am so done explaining myself on here. Again, to all you, stop talking about what you don't know about. You don't know shit. And frankly, you all DCUMer transplants are the WHITEST OF WHITE AS RICE people I have ever heard speak in my life. And you are such hypocrites. You read the New York Times or listen to NPR or whatever and get on here starting very tacky and uncomfortable discussions about race because you are so not diverse you don't even know how to speak. Yuck. I am so glad you mostly live in DC so I do not have to associate with you people. That's right - YOU PEOPLE, and I am referring to you DCUM transplant people.


News flash, you are on the internet interacting with strangers. It's okay, you can dial it back a bit.
Anonymous
Post 03/10/2014 07:38     Subject: Silver Springs schools?
Anonymous wrote:Oakland a Terrace and Flora Singer and Woodlin are fine. Some of the other schools that have been mentioned aren't in the same category. Fair?


There are plenty more schools you could add to this list in Silver Spring. You do realize there are well over 40 ES in Silver Spring. It is safe to assume that more than 3 can educate you high SES child.