Thursday's Most Active Threads

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Thomas Jefferson High School drops to 5th in latest US News ranking" and posted in the "Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)" forum. This thread was inspired by a new release of U.S. News & World Report’s “Best High School Rankings”. Thomas Jefferson High School, or TJ, as the school is normally called, has led these rankings for the past three years but is listed as 5th in the latest list. U.S. News says that this is not a big deal, the school's supporters say it is not a big deal, and those who think it is a big deal are largely ignoring the facts. So, in many ways, this thread is a whole lot of todo about nothing. First, regarding the position change itself. As a U.S. News managing editor is quoted as saying, the top schools are so close that very small changes in the data can result in what appear to be big changes. "But it doesn’t mean too much has really changed there." Next, the reason for the change. As anyone even vaguely familiar with the recent history of TJ will well know, the school recently underwent a change in its admission policies. Opponents of the changes have warned that the best applicants are no longer being selected and, as a result, the quality of the school will decline. Therefore, some saw this drop in rankings as an indication that their prediction is coming true. The flaw in that thinking, however, is that, as the article to which the original poster linked makes clear, the data on which the rankings were based was collected prior the admissions changes. This did not prevent some posters from still blaming the changes. One poster was so insistent that the admissions changes have harmed the school's quality that he literally wrote that it didn't matter how many times others posted the quote saying that the data was prior to the changes. He claimed that the significant impact of the changes was being ignored. Other posters pointed out that TJ must indeed be a leading STEM school if it was capable of developing a time machine that went back to the past to influence data based on changes that hadn't occurred. As is the case with almost all TJ threads these days, this one soon devolved into a debate about race and ethnicity. Posters argued that Asian students were denied admissions in favor of less-well prepared minority students. Others pointed out that Asians remain the largest group of students admitted to the school. The rhetoric suggesting that Asians have been victims of discrimination often has as unfortunate tendency to become racist itself. One poster suggested that minority students admitted under the new policies are "lazy kids who just want a quota for them to get in". To be clear, no quota exists and the new admissions system is race blind. The racist slant of these threads tends to snowball, causing me to lock the threads. So, it's not clear how long this thread will remain open.

Next was a thread that was posted in the "Tweens and Teens" forum. Titled, "How are you advising your daughters on career/working motherhood?", the original poster has been thinking about what to advise her teen daughters with regard to "work-life balance, monetary and non-monetary contributions to household from both spouses, childcare, etc" as she helps them to prepare for the future. While the original poster has been a stay at home mom, her daughters are interested in careers. But, the original poster is not a believer in the notion that women can “have it all”. She is struggling to articulate the “ideal for working motherhood going forward?” Several posters suggest that original poster is overthinking this and instead of worrying about what advice to provide, simply concentrate on supporting her daughters as they pursue their own goals. Other posters suggested providing advice about partners, emphasizing that they find partners who either do their share of the work or can afford to hire household help. A number of posters suggest holding off on children until their careers have been established and advising the girls to only have children if they truly desire them. This second part gets some pushback from posters who said they never really wanted to have children but now consider their children to be among the best things in their lives. This thread almost immediately took on the qualities of many of the threads we typically see in the relationship forum. Posters who have apparently had bad luck with relationships have a number of stories of marriages gone wrong. One poster who offered advice based on the success her own daughters have had in life was quickly warned that things can still go bad for them. Nobody is going to be allowed to rest on their laurels in this thread, that's for sure. Frankly, my main takeaway from this thread is that whatever pride or joy you may feel, posters in this thread are going to squeeze it out of you. The only acceptable feelings seem to be regret and remorse. If the original poster reads this thread and comes away with any other conclusion beyond "why bother?", she must be a much more discerning reader than I am.

Next was the thread about banning AR-15s which is still going strong. But, since I discussed that yesterday, I'll go on to a thread titled, "Why do people with millions of dollars still work?" and posted in the "Money and Finances" forum. The original poster claims not to dislike working so much, but all the things that go along with it such as waking up early, a long commute, not having time for other things, etc. The poster is only working for the money at this point and, once the original poster has a few million, will be gone. The poster asks why those with $7 million or more continue to work. I am not sure how many posters with $7 million or more are active in our forum, but a number of those responding say that they continue to work because they love their jobs. Most of the posts are not from posters with that kind of money and, instead, they are merely speculating why those with such money continue to work. Some say that once you have $7 million you want $14 million. That might be due to greed or to maintain an increasingly expensive lifestyle. One poster says that people are forced to work for wages because they don't understand investing which, if done correctly, would allow them to live comfortably without working. For some, this is a question of fear and not knowing the future. They might have a lot of investments, but worry that they could be wiped out in a market crash or that a job could be lost or something else could negatively impact their wealth. Others are so dedicated to their jobs that they haven't developed hobbies and wouldn't know what to do if they quit working. Others cite the uncertainty of the cost of healthcare for older folks. The thread seems to have gone off-topic and simply become a discussion of the posters' financial situations. For instance, several posters say they continue to work because their kids will soon be in college and they will need to pay for that. But, with $7 million in the bank, that wouldn't be an issue. For many, working is a question of identity, both in their own perception and in how society views them. Posters say that identities, especially for men, are very wrapped up in their jobs and giving up their work would be losing their identity. Similarly, one poster says that when he spent a year not working in his late 50s, he was simply viewed as unemployed and it was horrible. Now that he is working agan, he feels alive.

The final thread at which I'll look today was posted in the "Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)" forum. Titled, "Montgomery County MD Schools- A Horrific Nightmare", the original poster provided a very long list of links to stories about drug overdoses, shootings, sexual assaults, children undergoing gender transitions, and mandatory sex education. The poster describes the situation in Montgomery County Public Schools as an "apocalyptic nightmare". This thread immediately provoked a deluge of reports and a thread in the Website Feedback forum calling the original poster a troll and asking for the thread to be removed. It was quite obvious to me that the poster was not acting in good faith, but I could not identify any rule that was actually being broken. So, for now, I am leaving the thread alone. As posters pointed out, MCPS is a very large school system. At first glance, the links the original poster provided, appeared to show a lot of unwelcome activity. But the list actually spanned a number of years and didn't amount to that much in context of the school system's size. Moreover, it soon became clear that the poster's real concern was about sex education and policies towards transgender students. The original poster, probably intentionally, claimed that books that include non-traditional families and address gay and transgender themes are part of the sex education curriculum and claimed that parents are not able to opt-out. In fact, students are able to opt-out of sex education classes. The books in question are used in non-sex education classes and are not mandatory reading. A Federal judge recently sided with MCPS in ruling that families could not opt-out of reading those books because being exposed to the books would not violate the families' religious freedom. The poster was particularly bothered by MCPS policies that allow schools to support students' social gender transitions without parental consent. The poster quoted a description of the policy that was included in a court decision that ruled against parents who sued the school system over the policy. The judge in that case had told the litigants that they were asking the judicial system to play a legislative role. He said that they should direct their concerns to elected officials rather than judges. So, perhaps that is part of the original poster's motivations and he is attempting to create public opposition to school policies in hope of swaying elected officials, especially the school board. If so, the effort appears to be failing on DCUM. While the original poster found a few sympathetic responders, by far most of those participating in the thread support MCPS, especially where gay and transgender issues are concerned.