Liberty High School (good or not so good)? (Bethlehem, Whitehall: living in, gangs)

[FightinPhils]

Originally Posted by toobusytoday

That said, I am kind of curious about what a sub-division lifestyle is..
.

Materialism. Kids who look down on the poorer kids who have to wear Wal-Mart clothes instead of Abercrombie and Fitch and Gap, the ones who drive new cars instead of beaters, and make fun of the kids who don't have fancy cars and cell phones, I would think materialism and keeping up with the Joneses describes the "subdivision lifestyle." I lived in a new subdivision growing up and when I got married and started raising a family, we bought an older city home in an established neighborhood with front porches, sidewalks, and neighborhood schools. Subdivison people tend to not socialize as much, they drive right into their attached 3 car garage and into the house without having to so much as say hello to their next door neighbor. Their kids have to ride a bus for 5 miles to go to a fancy new mega-school with 1000 other kids that don't necessarily live in their neighborhood. I like the lifestyle of the established older neighborhood over the materialsm and sterility of a subdivision anyday.

[toobusytoday]

Gee, I don't like any of that either and I can't say my kids grew up that way. Which is why I think it's important to not pre judge each other. My kids could care less about brand names. We tend to shop at Kohls, Bon Ton and Target. If it's clothes, it must be on sale. When my daughter tells me about her clothes purchases the deal she got is always part of the story. I have never, ever bought anything at Abercrombie and Fitch. I will buy at the Gap if it's on sale. We do try to avoid Walmart because of it's global buy-out policies.

We hang out with our neighbors all the time. We car-pooled with them when our kids couldn't drive. We watch their pets/homes when they go out of town and they do the same for us. I have keys for two of our neighbors houses and they have ours. I know people that play Bunco and have book discussion groups across this area and it's both the people in the borough of Coopersburg and in the "sterile" developments. People are people. I think we all like to feel a part of something, no matter what type of house we choose to live in.

My oldest son was an Eagle Boy Scout and now spends his off times at college hiking the AT in rural Virginia. All of my kids were/are in Marching Band. I play bunco monthly with my neighbors. My husband grew up in a similar neighborhood in Delaware and still keeps in touch with some of those people 30 years later. I don't think our lifestyle is in any way unusual.

We do have an attached two car garage...

[theshan]

The posters are talking about classism, and the differences between socio-economic classes in this country are well-documented. They aren't talking about you personally, toobusy, but about a materialistic lifestyle that money may lead to.
Kudos to you for keeping it real in Coopersburg

[toobusytoday]

I realize that it wasn't especially personal but I do live in a neighborhood where the houses are pretty similar and our school is about 96% white but I think it's important to realize that where someone lives does not define the people inside the house. I think we're a pretty good example of what normal is for people that live in small towns.

[markas214]

Originally Posted by toobusytoday

Gee, I had all kinds of comments but now that I'm wearing my moderator hat, I'm going to bite my tongue. Let's try to just give the OP our opinons in a civilized manner without picking on each other.

That said, I am kind of curious about what a sub-division lifestyle is. I bet that the teens in Bethlehem do just about the same things as teens in any of the towns surrounding the city.

Perhaps it would be good if we could try to find things unique about our schools. Sports is certainly a big plus for Liberty, your marching band is another.

The subdivision lifestyle, my term, is to have parents drive their kids everywhere, mostlt to the mall. They are surrounded by mostly white and middle and upper middle class students in school. The subdivisions are sterile and sameness abounds. Teens in my neighborhood can walk into town, musikfest, school, the river and canal, the historic district, etc. There school is diverse from those from great privilage to poor kids.

Subdivisions are fine and safe for the most part but I find living in a 100 year old house with everything from banking to bowling in waliking distance is better for me and my family. Again it is very insulting for me to read a post claiming that good kids are the exception. That is so far from reality. It's actually the bad kids who are the exception. Most kids come from good families and have caring parents.

[markas214]

Originally Posted by Lehigh Valley Native

Liberty is the best out of the Lehigh Valley inner city schools. However, compare it to Lehigh Valley suburban schools and it doesn't look so good.
If a quality district is important, I give you my personal Lehigh Valley top 5 districts:
1) Parkland ( North & South Whitehall, Upper Macungie & West End A-Town)
2) East Penn ( Emmaus, Macungie, & Lower Macungie)
3) Whitehall - Coply ( Whitehall & Coply)
4) Southern Lehigh ( Coopersburg, Limeport)
5) Saucon Valley ( Hellertown area)

This is just my opinion based on growing up in the Lehigh Valley for 35 years. I have had children attend two of these districts, friends kids in some others and a friend teaching in one.

The reason the schools listed do better on paper is because of the relative wealth of the students. Liberty has awesome advanced placement programs. They numbers look worst than what the achievers accomplish because of the mix of low income students whose parents teach them that they are entitled to everything without earning it. I've been here 45+ years and bought a house one block from where I grew up. Liberty is a fine choice to prepare your child for his or her future.

[valentine92]

I dont think there is anything wrong with Liberty HS. I know many kids that graduated from there that excelled and went on to attend a 4 year college.

[theshan]

Originally Posted by cupid881

thank you sooo much.. i was there today in bethlehem and also Whitehall area wasnt crazy about Whitehall.. im a little nervous as i have children and want to place them where it is safe..

This is interesting to me. The original poster, Cupid, asked if Bethlehem was "good or not so good" and then asked about safety. Compare that to the parents who come on here and ask which is the best Parkland or X. My purpose in pointing that out is not to judge either parent--everyone has different worries and worldviews, but I think we could all try to answer people's questions rather than feeding them the same old lines about X being the best according to X website based on test scores.

It is disheartening to come on here and read over and over that X is awful, when maybe that's all someone can afford, and they really want to know if it's SAFE. Which is a relative term, sure, but maybe that someone is moving from an inner-city out-of-control school. Or maybe that's near where they work and have to rely on public transport to get there. I just think that we cease to be helpful when we become broken records.

Kumbayah.

I moved here from Virginia. We had access to every school report on violence by district--is there something similar here in Pennsylvania? Let's get that to help Cupid.

[toobusytoday]

So what I'm hearing is that Liberty is better because it's diverse and it has good sports. Is that right?

And if you don't live in a city it means that the parents give their kids whatever they want?

[FightinPhils]

Originally Posted by markas214

The subdivision lifestyle, my term, is to have parents drive their kids everywhere, mostlt to the mall. They are surrounded by mostly white and middle and upper middle class students in school. The subdivisions are sterile and sameness abounds. Teens in my neighborhood can walk into town, musikfest, school, the river and canal, the historic district, etc. There school is diverse from those from great privilage to poor kids.

Subdivisions are fine and safe for the most part but I find living in a 100 year old house with everything from banking to bowling in waliking distance is better for me and my family. Again it is very insulting for me to read a post claiming that good kids are the exception. That is so far from reality. It's actually the bad kids who are the exception. Most kids come from good families and have caring parents.

Excellent post, my thoughts exactly, and its exactly why I coose to live in an 80-something-year-old house in the city after growing up in a sterile suburban subdivision. I am aslo sick of the stereotypes of cities as being full of bad people and the suburbs supposedly so safe and "Leave it to Beaver" perfect. You want to really know why those people are so against the cities....they may not admit this, but its racism (mixed with some classism as well). They see a few black people or Hispanics around and they get scared.

Now I'm glad to see my kids NOT growing up with racist attitudes, their school, while mostly white, still is fairly diverse and they see kids of other races as just other kids, they don't look down on them in any way shape or form for being a different race. When I lived in the suburbs as a kid, we had NO non-white kids in our elementary school, and there were maybe 3 or 4 in our high school.....and those handful of black kids got subjected to racial slurs on a daily basis....by white kids who didn't necessarily try to be mean or racist, its just that those names and stereotypes are so ingrained in the culture in some of the more lily-white small towns, those kids heard their parents throwing around racial stereotypes and slurs like the "n-word" casually.