The Most Active Threads since Friday

As has been my habit, I didn't post on this blog over the weekend. Therefore, today I'll discuss the most active threads since Friday. The most active thread during that period was titled, "UK Coronation" and posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum. Obviously, this thread is about the coronation of King Charles III. At 34 pages, you would think that this thread would have covered just about everything, but you would be sadly mistaken. There is a second 12-page thread in the "Beauty and Fashion" forum focused on the fashion of the coronation. That thread was the 8th most active over the weekend. I don't have a lot to say about either of these threads. They are too long to read now and I haven't been interested in reading them beforehand. My only interaction was a result of posts from each thread being reported. The most common reason for reports was due to the threads going off-topic into discussions of royal drama, especially involving Meghan Markle who didn't even attend the coronation. I also managed to avoid most news or discussion about the coronation on TV or social media and, frankly, I'd like to keep it that way. As a result, other than my knowledge that there is nothing that will prevent some people from discussing Meghan Markle, I know very little about the event. I'm sure that any DCUMer with even a passing interest in the British Royal Family has already perused the threads, but if you have such an interest and have not already indulged, we have 46 mostly Meghan-free pages at your disposal.

The next most active thread was the thread about the killing of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train. But, since I wrote about that thread on Friday, I'll move on to a thread that was posted in the "DC Public and Public Charter Schools". This thread, titled, "BASIS DC will seek to expand to include K to 4th grade" focuses on, as the title makes clear, plans by the BASIS DC public charter school, which is now a middle school, to expand to lower grades. Some background is probably in order for those not familiar with this topic. BASIS is a chain of private schools that focuses on high achievement. BASIS Independent McLean, for instance, is one of their private schools located in Fairfax County, VA. In DC, however, the chain decided to open a public charter school rather than a private school. This has led to a number of conflicts involving different values. BASIS, as noted, stresses achievement and academic rigor. Its goal is to attract high-performing students and push them to their highest level of achievement. But, as a public charter school, BASIS DC has little control over who enrolls in the school and must accept students of all academic calibers. There has been constant criticism of BASIS for allegedly not providing sufficient support for students with special needs or those who need additional academic support to keep up. Whether true or not, there is a perception that BASIS encourages lower-performing kids to leave the school. As this thread discusses, BASIS DC now wants to expand its public charter school offerings to grades kindergarten through 4th. This thread is 20 pages long so I can't read it all. But, from what I have read, at least the initial reaction is exactly what I would expect given past discussion of BASIS. The first to respond mostly express concern that underperforming students or those with special needs will not be adequately supported and that lower-performing kids will be encouraged to leave the school. BASIS supporters describe the track record of other BASIS schools, all of which serve younger grades, as developing very strong students. This again highlights the contradiction of BASIS as a public charter school. A private school can be selective of the students it enrolls and emphasize high achievement with a "keep up or leave" attitude, but a public school cannot. Not surprisingly, posters in this thread express concern that the BASIS model is appropriate for lower grades. In addition, much of the discussion focuses on a particular phenomenon involving BASIS DC's current enrollment trend. Capitol Hill families tend to have access to good elementary schools but often are not happy with their assigned middle schools. As a result, many have targeted BASIS DC for middle school. Several posters expressed concern that BASIS elementary students might take spots at the BASIS middle school that are coveted by Capitol Hill parents. The other obvious takeaway from this thread is that many posters would love to have a public school that routinely kicked out lower-performing or disruptive students the way they believe a private school is able to do. Others strongly believe that all students should be supported.

The next thread that I'll discuss was titled, "Companies are on the war path against remote work" and posted in the "Jobs and Careers" forum. The original poster says that she hates putting on makeup and commuting to work but she feels the momentum has turned in favor of returning to the office rather than working from home. This has been a heated topic for some time on DCUM and the 18 pages of this thread attest to its ability to attract interest. There are really three strongly-motivated groups at work here. On the one hand are posters who have adapted to working at home and greatly prefer it over working in the office. Several such posters are present in this thread to tout the advantages of working from home, chief among them being that they feel more productive. On the other hand are city and business leaders who are eager to see downtown areas revitalized by the presence of office workers. This group predicts all sorts of economic doom and gloom if downtowns remain empty, particularly in the commercial real estate sector. Their concerns are amply represented in this thread. A third group, smaller in my perception, consists of those who prefer working in the office to working at home. Such posters argue in favor of their own interests but also in support of those who don't have good home lives and for whom the office is a sort of sanctuary to which they can escape most days. Personally, I'm a dedicated member of the work-from-home club which I joined even prior to the pandemic. I couldn't imagine doing anything else at this point. But, at the same time, I live in DC and am concerned about the economic well-being of the city. So, I am sympathetic to both sides of the dispute. Feelings are very strong among each party with proponents of working from home threatening to quit their jobs if they are forced back to the office and return-to-work supporters warning of layoffs and other job loses if offices remain empty. I have no idea how this conflict will be resolved and it will more than likely not be a universal solution. I imagine different companies will choose different responses. Similarly, cities may have to rethink their downtown areas. In a situation in which downtown buildings sit empty while city parks fill with encampments for the unhoused, maybe there is a serendipitous solution?

The final thread at which I'll look today was posted in the "Off-Topic" forum, Titled, "What secrets do most of your friends & family not know about you?", the original poster discloses that she had a three-year marriage when she was in her 20s. This is a 15 page thread which I don't have time to read but from skimming it I see that several of the secrets involve romances of some sort.  In addition, I noted a number of posters saying that their financial situations are considerably better than those who know them might believe. Also, quite a few posters are keeping abortions secret. For the most part, it appears that posters stuck to describing their secrets and not getting into much discussion. Abortion was a clear exception in that many posters were compelled to respond to those posts. I guess there is not much more I can say about this thread other than listing people's secrets which I don't think would be particularly interesting. Those who are interested can always read the thread.