Any neighborhoods with elementary, mid and high schools all good? (Houston: condos, homes)

[jerbear30]

Originally Posted by MAROON79

Why is it unrealistic to expect students to "show up on-time, follow rules, study hard and graduate."?

Because they're not stupid. If the poor were stupid, and they believed all the ideology about how if they just work hard, everything will work out, then you'd be right, but they're smarter than that. They see how it is. You don't just magically rise up the class ladder by practicing virtuous habits.

Also, you're comparing apples to oranges. The poor don't have the same day to day resources, comfort and so on that the middle class and wealthy kids do. Put the middle class and wealthy kids in the same environment as the poor and the same thing would happen.

[MAROON79]

Originally Posted by jerbear30

Because they're not stupid. If the poor were stupid, and they believed all the ideology about how if they just work hard, everything will work out, then you'd be right, but they're smarter than that. They see how it is. You don't just magically rise up the class ladder by practicing virtuous habits.

Also, you're comparing apples to oranges. The poor don't have the same day to day resources, comfort and so on that the middle class and wealthy kids do. Put the middle class and wealthy kids in the same environment as the poor and the same thing would happen.

then what is your proposal on how to fix the poor schools?

[jerbear30]

Originally Posted by MAROON79

then what is your proposal on how to fix the poor schools?

I think when you phrase it like that, the battle is probably already lost. The issue is not in fixing poor schools that are not working, the issue is in fixing the education system, which is not working for the poor in the same way it does for others. In my district, SBISD, there is something approaching educational apartheid--wealthy and white below the 10, poor and non-white above the 10 (excepting the small strip of land above the 10 with one of those "village" names--I think it's Hillshire, but I'm not sure). I'm not sure how you fix this. I think probably the only way to fix it is to make sure that everyone has a stake in their society. How do you do that? You value the labor of the poor and working class more, and the labor of the wealthy a bit less. Many people struggle to send their kids to good schools, but only by living in very dumpy apartments that happen to be zoned to good schools and at the cost of two to three jobs. Then they get called "uninvolved" by the wealthy parents who in truth just send their kids to tutors and go play tennis all day. So it's a bind that goes beyond the districting--it cuts to the heart of our entire economic system. I would say we need a better social safety net for all, so that the parents don't have to worry about things like how to get their kids medical care and food from week to week and they can concentrate on education, quality of life and intellectual and spiritual development. I see educators often feel like they need to make up the imbalance in the system--like if only educators could somehow compensate for the injustices that the kids bring with them to the classroom but that won't happen. It will remain basically the way it is until we attack the root of the problem, which is the class warfare the rich have been waging on the poor and working class for well over a century but which has gotten much, much worse since about the 80s and especially worse recently. Look at the percentages of income separating the average company worker from the ceo. It's gotten so much greater and yet nobody sees this is a problem. That's the problem that needs to be fixed.

[Failed Engineer]

The main difference is the poor kids don't have the same parental influence on education as middle class and up kids do. Whether by negligence, parents working multiple jobs and not available to assist with education, or the parents lack of ability to understand the concepts the kids need help with.

More and more, wealthy kids are also failing from factors 1 and 3. But the rich parents can hire help for 3. But a lot more poor kids fail from a lack of parental involvement.

The resources the poor schools have versus middle class and up schools really is not the reason kids fail.

[houston-nomad]

Originally Posted by jerbear30

i think when you phrase it like that, the battle is probably already lost. The issue is not in fixing poor schools that are not working, the issue is in fixing the education system, which is not working for the poor in the same way it does for others. In my district, sbisd, there is something approaching educational apartheid--wealthy and white below the 10, poor and non-white above the 10 (excepting the small strip of land above the 10 with one of those "village" names--i think it's hillshire, but i'm not sure). I'm not sure how you fix this. I think probably the only way to fix it is to make sure that everyone has a stake in their society. How do you do that? You value the labor of the poor and working class more, and the labor of the wealthy a bit less. Many people struggle to send their kids to good schools, but only by living in very dumpy apartments that happen to be zoned to good schools and at the cost of two to three jobs. Then they get called "uninvolved" by the wealthy parents who in truth just send their kids to tutors and go play tennis all day. So it's a bind that goes beyond the districting--it cuts to the heart of our entire economic system. I would say we need a better social safety net for all, so that the parents don't have to worry about things like how to get their kids medical care and food from week to week and they can concentrate on education, quality of life and intellectual and spiritual development. I see educators often feel like they need to make up the imbalance in the system--like if only educators could somehow compensate for the injustices that the kids bring with them to the classroom but that won't happen. It will remain basically the way it is until we attack the root of the problem, which is the class warfare the rich have been waging on the poor and working class for well over a century but which has gotten much, much worse since about the 80s and especially worse recently. Look at the percentages of income separating the average company worker from the ceo. It's gotten so much greater and yet nobody sees this is a problem. That's the problem that needs to be fixed.

+1

[ftbend06]

I think, besides all the political stuff, people earlier were on point about Meadows Place and Greatwood having good schools top to bottom. Those are at fairly reasonable price ranges. I suppose if money is not a factor lots more neighborhoods could be named.

[Lucyinthskyy]

What about Pecan Grove? Are the schools zoned to this neighborhood good schools?

[curbur]

Originally Posted by Mr. Football

Longwood Village in Cypress has an excellent K-12 feeder in Hamilton Elementary, Hamilton Middle School, and Cy-Fair High School.

Really most of the feeder systems for Cy-Fair, Cy-Ranch, & Cy-Woods fit the description and that covers a huge swath of home price ranges, granted someone is probably about to reply to me and state that those aren't the only CFISD schools that are decent and it's unfair to only point to the ones in the nicer, newer parts of the district.

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by MAROON79

Why is it unrealistic to expect students to "show up on-time, follow rules, study hard and graduate."?

Probably has to do with these Los Angeles Unified School District: Inner-City Teacher Blues

This was the reality: most Berendo parents (working long hours as house cleaners, janitors, security guards, mechanics, parking lot attendants, maids, or factory workers just to pay the rent and put food on the table with little chance of ever getting a better job) unfortunately did not actively involve themselves in the education of their children or come to see their children's teachers. All too often the family lives in a tiny apartment with eight or twelve other people with children having no place in which to study or do their homework - in a household where nobody reads for pleasure and hardly a book can be found on the premises. I remember staying in during lunch once to teach a child how to wash his clothes in a sink because his family lived in a cheap hotel and rarely did laundry. I knew that many of my students would not have eaten if the school did not provide free breakfasts and lunches every school day. I knew that some of my student's parents hardly even checked their children's report cards. This was the reality.

The majority were not disciplined students for whom school was #1 in life. They, in fact, had other more "survival oriented" concerns on their mind. Often students were content to have simply gone through the motions rather than truly have worked hard and as a consequence truly learned. All too often the students who excelled stuck out from the crowd and received negative attention from their peers. "Mr. Geib, please take down my "A" paper from the wall! People will think I'm smart and that is embarrassing. I don't wanna be a schoolboy!" For many poor people, ideas and thought are ephemeral, dollars and cents concrete. It might be true that knowledge is power and power results in wealth, but it is hard for poor people to see it. And in a family or community which tolerates academic mediocrity or worse, an ambitious student with pretensions towards higher education often swims against the tide. I still to this day think uniquely touching and commendable a young person living in poverty who strives to realize the power an education in depth confers upon an individual. I still to this day would climb mountains to help such a student! Yet the Los Angeles educational system as it presently is conspires against this... I do not agree with those who look upon education as an exercise in self-esteem. Blood, sweat, tears - years, and even decades, of hard work and persistence; this is what an education costs, the price the heart pays, as Richard Rodriguez poignantly observed. Too many students at Berendo were literally not on the same page as their peers in other more successful academic communities. And they didn't even know it, growing up so isolated from the larger middle-class culture. This was the biggest problem, this isolation.

This too: http://www.rjgeib.com/biography/inne...ant/immig.html

For a poor Mexican family, the effort needed to obtain a degree does not imply a devotion toward schooling. There is no cause-effect relation. And lacking a support network, many students face their academic fate not only in isolation but fighting an adverse environment. Even in the still rare instances where professional parents can assist their children educationally, the environment does not reward their involvement. It is not uncommon in Mexican homes to hear parents scolding their kids for reading they "could be doing something useful, like fixing the door."

It's a combination of factors - extreme levels of poverty, parents being uneducated (can't afford tutors, too busy working to look after the kids, can't help with homework after middle school), an inner city street culture that disrespects education (one that working parents would despise), and an isolation from middle class culture.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by curbur

Really most of the feeder systems for Cy-Fair, Cy-Ranch, & Cy-Woods fit the description and that covers a huge swath of home price ranges, granted someone is probably about to reply to me and state that those aren't the only CFISD schools that are decent and it's unfair to only point to the ones in the nicer, newer parts of the district.

You are learning but failing to put your learning into practice.

To the OP, the Cy-Falls, Cy-Creek and Langham Creek zones provide a great and affordable K-12 education, with likely a better commute than the three schools mentioned above.