Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
@HudsonCoNJ, if you combed through msg you would have realized we focus on the quality of education, not steoretyping any subgroup. We just want to get the best education within our means. You need to start with some public data point and verify in the real world.
@HudsonCoNJ, if you combed through msg you would have realized we focus on the quality of education, not steoretyping any subgroup. We just want to get the best education within our means. You need to start with some public data point and verify in the real world.
This is completely understandable. The part that's not so logical is that you think that if your children attend a school where their peers have free lunch, that will somehow hinder their education. And what public data point did you reference when you came to the conclusion that interacting within your peer group would stimulate one more so than interacting outside your peer group?
@HudsonCoNJ,
We all know how important family env is for the kid's growth. I see it via the parents' engagement in the school. We'd like to stimulate the kid with parents-alike who engage with the school, not offloading to the school.
I said based on my observation in the introduction session, "The representative of AA is way below their fair share. That makes me wonder if PTO engagement is widespread. It added to my concern originated from higher % of free/discount lunch. ". Nothing dramatic or final, just some verification which might be superficial. BTW, I read the posts on the facebook of PTO and count the participation ratio in the picture posted. Also I read all I can about SABIS and aware of the pro and con.
You can list all the counter examples in life which might be valid. But I have limited time and possible alternative and the experiment subject is the kid.
I think that when a school has so many free lunch students it means that a lot of the families are dealing with tough economic situations that very well may be effecting their home life. Being poor is stressful and they might not have the time or the bandwidth to be as involved with the school and pta as they would like. They also may not have the skills to help their children with school work. More of the responsibility would then fall on the school.
Jersey City has access some of the best public schools in the country, in some of thep oorest high crime districts. From the Academy I AEP program to McNair Hightech? WHy are you going Charter?
Erh, you are the first one to say public school is good and I have met a lot of people living in jc. You know McNairi s meganet, right?
Jersey City has access some of the best public schools in the country, in some of thep oorest high crime districts. From the Academy I AEP program to McNair Hightech? WHy are you going Charter?
Not the same age group. It's easy to create such striations in upper grades and filter out the high achieving students and place them into one or two schools. But do you have any such examples for elementary school, which is what this thread is concentrating on? I think not...
Once the highly involved, academically focused families start to leave to suburbs due to lack of good elementary schools, do you think they will move back for higher grades? Then the pool that is left for the Academy/McNair schools isn't as great as it could be, if there were better elementary school options.
I think that when a school has so many free lunch students it means that a lot of the families are dealing with tough economic situations that very well may be effecting their home life. Being poor is stressful and they might not have the time or the bandwidth to be as involved with the school and pta as they would like. They also may not have the skills to help their children with school work. More of the responsibility would then fall on the school.
In addition, I have found that many of these free lunch students are from huge families whose parents haven't taught them respect and "normal" societal values. I don't care what the kid's test scores are, but if they act like animals, I don't consider him my child's desired peer group.
For example, I took my son to the park a few summers ago. Several Egyptian/Muslim women with 3-5 children each camp out at the park. They sit on the bench chatting to each other while their children run amuck, shoving each other down slides, hitting each other, not waiting their turns, etc. It was reckless to the point of dangerous (e.g. last weekend a kid was pushed off a bouncy bridge and cracked his head. An ambulance had to be called). While I was watching my son, some boy twice his age comes up and takes my son's cup out of his stroller and starts drinking it. He's chomping on the straw with his molars. I look at him in shock, then turn to the group of women I assume are responsible for him. They just keep talking to each other. I interrupt them to show them what he's doing and they say, so what? What do you mean so what? They refused to have him apologize and would not apologize either.
It's hard to teach our kids to be considerate and kind. I do not want my children learning unacceptable behavior at school and telling me it's ok because everyone does it.
This is all absolutely hilarious to me at this point. I don't see the relevance of your playground story. Were you able to confirm that the women you encountered in the park were on free lunch?
As the son of immigrant parents who were of no help to me when it came to school work, I was still able to be an honor student all the way through high school. I graduated college and I make a decent living for myself. I never took another kid's drink and started drinking from it. And for the most part, I feel I was closer to my family than some of my more well off peers whose parents were too consumed with work to spend time with their kids. Oh, and I was on free lunch. You don't need to be wealthy to be respectful.
I'm sure some of what you are referencing is true but try not make such generalizations especially when based of a very limited number of encounters.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
