Hingham's not working for me anymore... (Boston, Reading: upper-class, professionals, licenses)

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by pennyone

I hope you save up lots of money for those expensive outside SAT prep tutorials etc for your kids because those things are what inflate the scores in those "excellent" schools, not necessarily the actual quality of teaching.

I definitely will. But are you saying the quality of teaching at Concord Academy or Brown is no better than at Quincy High or URI? To be honest, I don't know if they are. The teachers may not be better or more dedicated than their counterparts who teach in lower-performing school districts, but they absolutely have more resources and that's what you are paying for when you live in an affluent town or attend private school.

[xo_kizzy_xo]

Originally Posted by kingeorge

All of this "anxiety" in teenagers about what they have or not, is most often cultivated by their insecure parents. Some people never leave high school.

There you go

In more affluent keeping-up-with-the-Joneses areas like Hingham it's much more obvious.

I get it. I live in a similar community but on the less glamorous (for lack of a better word) side of town. I graduated from an area prep school on partial scholarship and was one of those *gasp* kids who had to take the T because there was no way my single mother could afford to gift me a vehicle, nor would I have ever asked her to.

I went to school with kids who traveled every vacation, who summered on Nantucket, who had every single advantage you can think of that comes with affluence.

Was I upset about not being able to keep up with them? Of course I was. I was in high school, after all. Was my mother? I know at one point she lamented about my scholarship because it would've been easier on her financially and me socially had I gone to public high school. It didn't last long. She never concerned herself with what other people were doing/saying/buying/whatever. It took me awhile to catch on.

I have family who has the affluence the OP describes. On the one hand I don't fault them in the least because they've earned it fair and square through a lot of hard work. On the other I can see how easily one with that affluence can fall into the keeping-up-with-the-Joneses track.

[pennyone]

Originally Posted by Parsec

I definitely will. But are you saying the quality of teaching at Concord Academy or Brown is no better than at Quincy High or URI? To be honest, I don't know if they are. The teachers may not be better or more dedicated than their counterparts who teach in lower-performing school districts, but they absolutely have more resources and that's what you are paying for when you live in an affluent town or attend private school.

Don't be silly. Concord Academy should not be compared to Quincy High. The public high school of your town should not be compared to CA or MA either. North Quincy High should be compared with Milton High and they are both ranked 8 on Greatschool, for what it's worth. URI should be compared to UMass, not Brown. Camp Bruno should be compared to the Elises or the Crimsons.

Frankly, I am not sure you get any better teaching per se in Sharon High compare to North Quincy High or even Quincy High. The teachers are generally extremely dedicated, and it's all up to the kids and their home culture to make the most of the learning. Much of the angst for wanting to be in a town with "excellent schools" come from the parents. There are plenty of mediocre kids (or even bad kids) coming out of Hingham high, and plenty of great kids coming out of Somerville Hugh or Quincy High.

And there are plenty of AP courses and extracurricular programs in Somerville and Quincy. Both are well funded.This is also true with Framingham High and Medford High, both fine schools with lots of academically challenging programs.

I think the real discernible difference is most likely between the public schools and the best ranked private schools like Milton Academy and Andover etc.

In any case, off topic.

[alidmc]

Hingham-X, read this article and thought of you. Maybe Hinghamites will start to adopt the new trend.
Forget flash cars, being ECO-FRIENDLY is the new status symbol | Daily Mail Online

[hingham-x]

Originally Posted by alidmc

Hingham-X, read this article and thought of you. Maybe Hinghamites will start to adopt the new trend.
Forget flash cars, being ECO-FRIENDLY is the new status symbol | Daily Mail Online

What’s sad is that there needs to be any public display of discretionary economic power as a means of attaining or of maintaining a given social status, bling or green. Both are used to determine the pecking order, to show off, signal status, and the endless pursuit of social climbing.

The luxury-new-car-at-16 buyers are stupid: accident risk, depreciation, social status = waste of money. They go down in my opinion, not up. The era of conspicuous consumption is dead. But Hingham hasn't gotten the memo yet. Am I the only one in the midst of a simplistic slowdown here?

Conspicuous Consumption Is Not What You Think | Quillette

[mdovell]

To be frankly nearly everything bought drops in value so there's really no utility within it.

In the world of the blind the one eyed man is king.

In the world of zero marginal costs the one with nothing is king.
One man from India told me long ago that "Being the richest man in the world does not mean owning the most, it means needing the least"

[cantthinkofanewusername]

It seems to me you're looking for something nice and safe where you can loosen your collar a bit too. I've lived in many places and I will say that the jump from the South Shore to the North Shore is a huge one. It's completely different up there. Remember, during forced busing (and even beforehand), most Italians went North and the warm Irish went south. Why don't you consider a less wealthy town on the South Shore? Braintree would be a bit looser and a great commute. Marshfield is the only other place I'd want to go if I had an option. Great schools, camaraderie...you can be anyone or anything you want...and lots of good liberals

[semiurbanite]

Originally Posted by kingeorge

All of this "anxiety" in teenagers about what they have or not, is most often cultivated by their insecure parents. Some people never leave high school.

The way I look at it, your child's close friend will have a new car, your daughter will likely benefit from free rides, with much less headache to your or your husband (except obvious safety concern). Hopefully your kid is savvy enough to forgo the ride if driver is not gifted in this department. But all being equal I would rather have my child ride in new safe Lexus SUV, then 20 year old hunk of junk.

Most likely nothing bad happens, and if something does go wrong, you are again in better position then parent who foolishly provided this car, and can lose their shirt in court. Win-win for you, great life lesson for your kid. Move on. Nothing to gripe about here.

Be happy not to be surrounded by poverty, violence, and despair. This is lightweight (and stupid) stuff that doesn't scar anyone for life, but bad parents do. No one knows what is really behind those staged facebook "family life catalogs" of anyone you know. You should get a grip for your child's sake.

You seem to be understating the "obvious safety concern". Statistically the biggest risk to the life of any teen is being in a car where other teens are driving. Put them in an environment where there is no need to drive and you make them much safer statistically.

Its also sort of ironic that the high income peers are supposedly a good thing in school because they get good grades, but when they act like privileged brats its all about the parenting and it wont rub off onto your kids.

[mdovell]

Do you actually think SUV's are safer? Huh...yeah about that.

SUVs are safer than cars in front crashes, but there is more to the story

"Choosing an SUV for safety isn't an automatic win, as their higher center of gravity makes them more prone to rollover, an often fatal event. Electronic stability control (ESC) substantially reduces rollover risk, and we highly recommend it when shopping for a used vehicle. ESC has been mandatory since the 2012 model year and was widespread for several years before then. It is telling that most of the 6,800 occupants killed in rollovers in 2010 were not wearing seat belts, suggesting that many of those deaths were easily preventable. (Learn more in "Rollover 101.")"

So think about all the SUV's right now that are on the road older than four years..do you really think that's safe?

Which reminds me I get sick of those with all wheel drive thinking it gives them carte blanche to slam on the gas during a snowstorm. If you don't know how to drive in the snow you can't drive in the snow...period.

Technically speaking if you really want to be safe get a mini van. Statistically they crash less. Why? Because the drivers are more likely to be driving children around. Of course the other aspect is frankly public transit is safer due to much less driver error. Yes it is slower but the fact of the matter remains is the accident rate per capita is much lower.

[MrLinderman]

Originally Posted by mdovell

Do you actually think SUV's are safer? Huh...yeah about that.

So think about all the SUV's right now that are on the road older than four years..do you really think that's safe?

Your own source kinda contradicts this thought. "ESC has been mandatory since the 2012 model year and was widespread for several years before then."

For instance, all Jeep models have it standard since 2007. All Jeep models except the wrangler had it in 2006. It's been standard on Hummers since 2008. It's been standard on Toyota 4Runners, Rav4s, and Highlanders since 2004. Range rovers since 2003. You get my point.

If you're using ESC as the barometer of safety in an SUV, you should really research how common it was prior to being required. Realistically, you're looking at SUVs 8-12 years old that don't have them standard. to put it in perspective, when these SUVs were new (say 2006 for argument), airbags had only been required for cars that were built 8 years before them.

I will go to my grave convinced that I would have died if I wasn't driving a grand cherokee when I got into an accident like 3 years ago.