Whats going at Oak Park River Forest High School? (Naperville: rentals, home)

[aragx6]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

Then move to Oak Park or River Forest--otherwise the school is not something you're entitled to. If your parents cared about your education they wouldn't allow you to stay in that awful Austin CPS school.

I can tell you from your post that you will have a VERY hard time at OPRF with your grammar and punctuation skills. You will go from earning A's to earning F's instantaneously. They actually expect you to be able to read and write at a collegiate level at that school.

I think you're being pretty harsh. You can't properly judge someone's reading level based on typing skills that might be lacking. She/he writes colloquially to be sure, and doesn't use periods, but his/her spelling is actually fairly good.

You're right, their parents probably don't give a damn about his/her education, but I hardly see how that's this poster's fault or how that makes your derision called for.

You should read some text messages written by "educated" kids ... ungodly! Do they know how to write a five-paragraph essay with a well-worded thesis? Yup, but you certainly wouldn't know it from the crap they send each other.

Is this child's education probably far below that? Yes, probably to the extent that they would struggle to keep up at OPRF, but that's the real tragedy and I'm not sure why you need to be an ass about it.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by aragx6

I think you're being pretty harsh. You can't properly judge someone's reading level based on typing skills that might be lacking. She/he writes colloquially to be sure, and doesn't use periods, but his/her spelling is actually fairly good.

You're right, their parents probably don't give a damn about his/her education, but I hardly see how that's this poster's fault or how that makes your derision called for.

You should read some text messages written by "educated" kids ... ungodly! Do they know how to write a five-paragraph essay with a well-worded thesis? Yup, but you certainly wouldn't know it from the crap they send each other.

Is this child's education probably far below that? Yes, probably to the extent that they would struggle to keep up at OPRF, but that's the real tragedy and I'm not sure why you need to be an ass about it.

I don't think my "derision" was particularly harsh, just direct and to the point. I'm just pointing out that this supposed student from Austin (if we are to believe the story) is going to have some serious trouble at OPRF with the grammar and writing skills displayed on this board. This was not a text message typed out on some cell phone, and it was pretty much illegible. She may be better off getting A's in Austin than getting F's at OPRF, where they actually expect you to be able to write complete sentences with punctuation by the time you're a Junior. She should be careful what she wishes for.

I've volunteered in CPS schools, and am often surprised at what passes for "A" work. It's really scary. The only teachers who actually seemed to enforce standards were the older teachers who had been in the system for decades, while the younger teachers could barely speak properly themselves in many cases. I personally went to a public high school in a very mixed-income working-class town, and the standards were MUCH higher. And I actually found the school to be quite sub-standard once I went to college and saw how many other kids were better prepared.

[Humboldt1]

Aragx,

I think you said essentially the same thing as Lookout regarding this sophomore from Austin who would likely struggle in Oak Park/River Forest schools, though perhaps in a nicer way.

You make the same judgement based upon grammar. This kid could have used their blackberry to send this message. We don't really know for sure, so your opinion is essentially the same as Lookout's though definitely put in a much more pleasant way.

You also assume just because they are from Austin that their parents most likely don't care about their education. I live with some very poor people, mostly Mexicans, who put the education of their children first. Poor people value education too, some more than others.

Do you really think an average kid in either Austin or even River Forest at sophomore level even knows what a "colloquialism" is?

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by aragx6

...but that's the real tragedy and I'm not sure why you need to be an ass about it.

Personal attack? Or is the use of the phrase "being an ass" different from actually calling someone an ass? I've had that argument with my wife before...

[treehouse12]

RBHS has hired a detective agency. They are very effective at what they do. A couple other school districts already utilize them and they have very good things to say. This agency tell us that according to their experience about 5% of enrollment (1500 at R/B) will be found to be out of district that's about 75 students. They will also be charging both monetarily and possibly filing charges for those individuals found to be coming from out of district. People that facilitate this scam are also subject to charges....free ride is over.....take it from an employee....

[Humboldt1]

I genuinely hope the free ride is over. You will not be able to collect any fines from these sort of people but at least these kids will be flushed out of the system. I still suspect people will end up saying they live with their aunt or uncle, whether they do or not in order to get around the residency requirement. There will still be kids from Austin attending RFOP, but they will have to have family or friend ties in Oak Park (I doubt people living in RF are facilitating this scam for reasons I am not allowed to post on this forum).

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Humboldt1

You also assume just because they are from Austin that their parents most likely don't care about their education.

My thought was that parents who truly care about their child's education would never stay in Austin when the CPS school there is so completely deficient. There are other options in the metro area with cheap rent, and almost ANY school is better.

But you're right, we shouldn't assume these things. Perhaps an angry pack of wolves is forcing this girl's mother to live in Austin against her will.

[team_evans]

The big picture here: the educational inequalities between neighboring communities that would lead parents to lie and cheat for a chance at getting their kids a decent education, and that lead to the necessity of hiring private detectives and counting pairs of socks in dressers to keep the riffraff out.

I understand the point of view of those who are paying through the nose for the quality schools their kids attend--I don't want my kids going to a school where lots of resources go to remedial services that are irrelevant to my kids, and frankly I don't want them picking up certain attitudes and habits either--but at the same time it breaks my heart that poor kids whose parents can't just pick up and move to a tony suburb are totally screwed.

If your ability to pay has such dramatic impact on whether your kid goes to school in a toilet or in a palace, why do we have public schools at all? It sounds like taxpayer-funded public schools wind up being de facto private schools.

[Lookout Kid]

Oak Park isn't really a "tony suburb" through and through. It has many poor black students (you can see this on the school report cards) and a plethora of affordable rental housing.

Note that Rev. James Meeks didn't single out Oak Park or Evanston in his protest of unequal school funding... Why? Because these schools have very diverse student bodies, and spend quite a bit educating black children.

[Anthera]

Originally Posted by team_evans

The big picture here: the educational inequalities between neighboring communities that would lead parents to lie and cheat for a chance at getting their kids a decent education, and that lead to the necessity of hiring private detectives and counting pairs of socks in dressers to keep the riffraff out.

I understand the point of view of those who are paying through the nose for the quality schools their kids attend--I don't want my kids going to a school where lots of resources go to remedial services that are irrelevant to my kids, and frankly I don't want them picking up certain attitudes and habits either--but at the same time it breaks my heart that poor kids whose parents can't just pick up and move to a tony suburb are totally screwed.

If your ability to pay has such dramatic impact on whether your kid goes to school in a toilet or in a palace, why do we have public schools at all? It sounds like taxpayer-funded public schools wind up being de facto private schools.

The problem is when a city chooses not to increase taxes for their school, but the residents of a neighboring community choose to increase funding for their school. Is it then fair for the kids in the first community to benefit from the other municipality's sacrifice?

All the CPS receive adequate funding, the problem is how they spend it. If Naperville and CPS spend the same per student, should Naperille be punished for spending it wisely? Lookout is correct, OP is NOT a tony suburb. There is plenty of Section 8 housing available, plus CPS has magnet schools available.

If this girls parents are unwilling or unable to help her get into a good school, that just means that if she's smart & hardworking, her class rank will be high enough to give her a full ride to the college of her choice.