White Flight in Bowie?! (Bethesda, Annapolis: fit in, hair salon, foreclosed)

[TuborgP]

Tracing The Roots Of Mathematics Anxiety Through In-Depth Interviews With Preservice Elementary Teachers | College Student Journal | Find Articles at BNET
Although prevention is the most desirable solution for mathematics anxiety, this is not a possibility for many mathematically anxious elementary teachers already in place. However, in looking for solutions and potential interventions, a thorough investigation of teachers' and preservice teachers' perceived causes of their own mathematics anxiety could help to build a theory as to future prevention. Also, through exploration of their own backgrounds, preservice teachers may perhaps identify and confront their own personal levels of mathematics anxiety prior to entering the classroom as teachers.


Now if it is a common acceptance in education that many elementary teachers suffer from Math Anxiety and transfer that to their students we must ask the following. Does PG get more or less of their fair share of math anxious teachers? How are the one's they get distributed and are they more often found in schools with high FARM populations? Perhaps the discussion should not be about the economic status of the children or work habits of the parents. Perhaps the discussion ought to focus in on the intellectual capacity sitting in the teachers lounge moaning and groaning.

[bowian]

Originally Posted by TuborgP

Tracing The Roots Of Mathematics Anxiety Through In-Depth Interviews With Preservice Elementary Teachers | College Student Journal | Find Articles at BNET
Although prevention is the most desirable solution for mathematics anxiety, this is not a possibility for many mathematically anxious elementary teachers already in place. However, in looking for solutions and potential interventions, a thorough investigation of teachers' and preservice teachers' perceived causes of their own mathematics anxiety could help to build a theory as to future prevention. Also, through exploration of their own backgrounds, preservice teachers may perhaps identify and confront their own personal levels of mathematics anxiety prior to entering the classroom as teachers.


Now if it is a common acceptance in education that many elementary teachers suffer from Math Anxiety and transfer that to their students we must ask the following. Does PG get more or less of their fair share of math anxious teachers? How are the one's they get distributed and are they more often found in schools with high FARM populations? Perhaps the discussion should not be about the economic status of the children or work habits of the parents. Perhaps the discussion ought to focus in on the intellectual capacity sitting in the teachers lounge moaning and groaning.

Hmmm. The math test scores do seem to be lower much of the time. And many times, it seems that children have a difficult time becoming proficient at math. Provocative.

[TechlawyerinPG]

I am a corporate attorney working in Dulles and my husband is in graduate school and works in DC. I reside in the Ft. Washington/Nat'l Harbor area. It is an easy commute for my husband to downtown DC and reasonable for me in a reverse commute taking about 50-60 minutes. We are nearly a $400k annual income household and can live anywhere we want to in the area. For now we are in a single family home in a nice community that I bought into when single and find no reason to 'flee' right now. We are planning to start a family and then of course schools come into question. Frankly our view has been that we love the affordability and diversity in our community and have not seen it to be the 'haven of crime and all things awful' that everyone makes the entire county out to be. My neighbors are white, black, asian, hispanic, young families with children and older folks in retirement or nearing it. We too do not desire for our kids to be the token black kids in a community or school. That said we also do not want them in an 80% black school either....therefore if we do choose to stay in this area we will most likely be going the private school route. School is but one part of their life and development...their neighborhood and exposure you give them to the world is another. For us staying here is the best of both....living in a diverse community of minorities that assist in being proud of that identity and attending school that may not be as diverse. We have a lovely 3700 sq ft single family home (though may upgrade to another in Ft. Washington with more acres and a waterview of the river with all the great foreclosure deals here) and as it is affordable below our means and we can foresee paying it off before we are 45 which creates financial freedom and ability for me to choose to stay at home with kids if we so choose or to take jobs we are most passionate about versus just the jobs that pay the big bucks to pay a mortgage in the premier elite neighborhoods that everyone suggests and feels people like us should live in (that is part of the Keepin Up with the Jones mentality here to...the elitism over your zip code which we try hard not to buy into). My husbands family lives all around us currently and his aunt even owns a day care. As we have kids and continue to be dual working professionals...moving far away from this support system would also not be wise. We love being 15 min from downtown DC and enjoying downtown and the Smithsonians or the Zoo on a beautiful weekend....living around true culture is an important part of what I'd like to impart as a parent....as well as international travel...summer trips abroad as a family are doable when you are not a slave to a mortgage. I am not certain that we want to live in a generic suburb/exurb with soccer moms, chain strip malls and restaurants that lack authenticity. I want my children to grow up around a diversity of socioeconomic classes. There are other ways of living life and thinking but I find too many here are conformists that follow versus leaders...which is interesting considering how many highly educated people live here. Of my colleagues that have taken 'flight' to the exurbs, they admittedly never venture into the city much anymore. Right now we are not going to give up any of the above to relocate to Loudoun/MoCo/ FFX and take on a higher mortgage. With our low mortgage we can afford the finest private schools in the area instead of just affording a mortgage and hoping the public school where we live will be one of the great ones in MoCo or FFX vs. the no so great ones (which do exist despite the hype that it is all so fabulous there). There are negative influences everywhere in this area. What truly matters is how you parent you can't depend on a "comfort zone" that everyone you send your kids to school with is going to impart the same values and that applies ANYWHERE in this area. I have legal colleagues whose kids are in the very best schools in this area and they complain at lunch of the heavy drug influences in the schools (by kids who can clearly afford it..heck in FFX a ring of them were even selling it!), the sense of entitlement the kids have and elitist attitudes, the Keeping up With the Joneses Kids thing that goes on with kids having BMWs in high school etc. Negative influences and environments come in many forms. I've had colleagues pull their kids out of "great schools" because they didn't like the values they were developing from peers. I understand wanting the best of the best and a desire to give kids the very best opportunities to be all they can be....I just believe that you can give them the very best by your choices as parents versus what zip code you choose to live in. I also understand and agree that there are lots of broken homes and generational dysfunction and bad behavior by a small number of people who live among us that may never break that cycle. My husband and I both grew up in such communities and we both turned out great. Perhaps there is some power in the experience of growing up in urban communities and not being 'afraid'. There really is no 100% safe place in this area (the theft and burglarly reports I see in the Dulles area where I work are on par with my own neighborhood). The fact is that the majority of violent crime all over this area is done by and happens to people who knew each other ...so don't hang out with a bunch of criminals, don't deal in drugs, don't marry an abuser or someone with mental issues, know more about all those contractors and servants you hire in your home (remember Chevy Chase and Potomac violent crimes?) and the odds of you experiencing violent crime are pretty similar in every county around here. You can't predict demographic patterns right now with all the foreclosures. Many predict cookie cutter exurbs with horrid commutes and high foreclosures and rapidly dropping home prices will become the next wave of section 8 housing, group homes for deliquents and a cheap place for HUD to buy up property to relocate the 'riff raff' as folks move closer in to the employment centers and Metro stations. Long story short...we are hanging tight and are happy where we are. Our children, by nature of who their parents are, will be successful no matter where we live.

[TechlawyerinPG]

Originally Posted by Skapov

Everybody has their own world view, and "black orientation" means feeling like an authentic member of the African-American community, and being proud of ones heritage and roots! For example, I remember last year my boss being "surprised" when I mentioned being off for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday (a company-wide holiday), because to him it doesn't mean anything and is just like being off for Veterans Day or President's Day (you know how people mix up them holidays). But for a Black Person, we know and respect that holiday, it means a lot to us to know about Black History and to pay attention to what is relevant as far as news and events that concern Black Americans.

I don't want my child to completely assimilate into the "Mainstream", I want them to treasure black traditions and have black friends and date/marry other black people etc.! Barack Obama could have assimilated, but he chose to marry a black woman, have black children, and live his life as a black man. I want my children to do the same, and this is why I currently live in PG County and had initially wanted to settle here, because it's majority-black with solid Middle Class families. Now the schools...that's another issue .

This is exactly why my husband and I desire to stay here as well. That is important to us. Just as it is important for Vietnamese have communities they have settled in Falls Church and Filipinos have a large community in my neighborhood and have restaurants and stores with items from their culture. There is a large Filipino community near me in Ft. Washington/Oxon Hill. I live near a Filipino restaurant, a Filipino cultural center and grocery stores that cater to their culture. Similarly, I like being near black bookstores that stock things I'd never find in Barnes & Noble, a library that has areas designated for books of interest to my culture, hair salons that understand my ethnic hair needs, I like having 2 soul food restaurants nearby and an amazing BBQ spot that to me has been the best I have had in this area, I like living around a lot of entrepreneurs vs. mainly just folks with 'good jobs'. There is definitely a sense of pride about who you are that is instilled when you live amongst your community vs. completely assimilating. I watched American Idol this week and kind of cringed at the part where the contestants from Puerto Rico had been told to disguise their accents. They are American and that is part of who they are and their identity. Just as Asians should not feel a need to get eyelid surgery to look more European and Asian women raised in mainstream white neighborhoods seem to cringe at the thought of dating an Asian man, I think this is so sad. I feel that being a part of a community where you have a presence can be important growing up and helps to instill a pride in who you are. All our neighborhoods are not out of Boyz in the Hood. I wouldn't want to raise my child there either. Parents and role models in such neighborhoods can sometimes be lacking....the kids handle conflict just as their parents do...inappropriately. The young men without fathers emulate the men they see in those neighborhoods. But we also have culturally rich neighborhoods that are more similar to the Cosby Show as well where kids grow up seeing black doctors, lawyers, businessmen, African art on the walls, are as familiar with Howard as they are with Harvard...there is an importance in this that cannot be underestimated. It is important to me that they learn about more than just their own culture...nothing is more important in this increasingly global economy and a world that is turning majority minority.

[Skapov]

Originally Posted by TechlawyerinPG

Similarly, I like being near black bookstores that stock things I'd never find in Barnes & Noble, a library that has areas designated for books of interest to my culture, hair salons that understand my ethnic hair needs, I like having 2 soul food restaurants nearby and an amazing BBQ spot that to me has been the best I have had in this area, I like living around a lot of entrepreneurs vs. mainly just folks with 'good jobs'. There is definitely a sense of pride about who you are that is instilled when you live amongst your community vs. completely assimilating.

Very well-said! We ended up buying a home in Fairfax County (Burke) about 4wks ago, because ultimately I just wasn't reassured that the PG County schools will get better and we can't afford Private Schools. I've been trying to find a hair salon that does black hair (relaxer w/ wrap&curl), and have yet to find one. I also see NO black people in my neighborhood or at the grocery stores, and it's starting to make me quite sad. Definitely I felt more pride to live in Upper Marlboro, and I'm really worried that my children won't have that opportunity to grow up among normal black families, and might just believe the sterotypes they see in the media. It's hard to strike the right balance, b/c the schools in PG County are often 95% Black, with low SAT scores, and that's not representative of the race either.

[TechlawyerinPG]

Originally Posted by Skapov

Very well-said! We ended up buying a home in Fairfax County (Burke) about 4wks ago, because ultimately I just wasn't reassured that the PG County schools will get better and we can't afford Private Schools. I've been trying to find a hair salon that does black hair (relaxer w/ wrap&curl), and have yet to find one. I also see NO black people in my neighborhood or at the grocery stores, and it's starting to make me quite sad. Definitely I felt more pride to live in Upper Marlboro, and I'm really worried that my children won't have that opportunity to grow up among normal black families, and might just believe the sterotypes they see in the media. It's hard to strike the right balance, b/c the schools in PG County are often 95% Black, with low SAT scores, and that's not representative of the race either.

I agree it is a struggle to find everything we want. I also remember an article in the Wash Post about highly educated and successful black families who were very involved with their kids education and who relocated to Ashburn for better schools and they were shocked to find that though overall test scores were good that minority children even from involved homes were underperforming there as well. I think when we look at schools we cannot just focus on overall stats but specifically how black children are performing in those schools and particularly boys who face even more challenges. Boys in general of all races in this country are underperforming compared to girls and it is getting worse. A top school does not always fix the issue unfortunately.
We are working on babies now so I have some time to figure it all out still. I interned in Burke, VA for a small law firm when I was in law school...I'm familiar with the area. It is a lovely community but I know what you mean...I definitely didn't see many of us there. There was an accountant at my last job that I was friends with and she lived in Herndon. She struck a balance with where she lived by taking them to the black community for activities on weekends. Perhaps there is some way to find others nearby via the net and start a group that gets together? That is the beauty of the Internet...bringing people together. I know I have seen that Mocha Moms group of stay at home moms of color that get together with their kids. Seek out local sorority chapters, black churches, and black professional organizations that may have chapters that meet near you...the members likely live nearby. You can utilize those to meet others that may live near you but you are not seeing in stores. Here is a Fairfax AKA chapter Lambda Kappa Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc even if you are not a member, they always have fundraisers, activities and events that are open to the community.
My friends that are married with kids live all over the place...Haymarket, Herndon, Woodbridge, DC, Lorton, Arlington, Alexandria, Ft. Washington, Upper Marlboro, Adelphi, etc. We are all over this area...I just think working professional couples can be hard to see out and about...you just have to work a little harder to find them perhaps. This was my problem with dating when I lived in Virginia. Going about my normal day I was just not meeting black men that much. When I got ready to buy I was considering Fairfax, but figured that might be dating suicide for a single black woman so I purchased in Ft. Washington to help increase my odds of meeting a brotha to date Well it happened exactly 1 year after I bought the house (met him at a store in my neighborhood) and we married 3 years later (last year). For hair salons, I recommend trying a Bubbles or other mainstream place...I have worked in Fairfax and Loudoun for years now and often have found at least one person that can do our hair in these shops. You'd be surprised that many staff at least one stylist that specializes in this.

[RFMD]

^^ Your comments are refreshing and the reason why I reside in the county.

Living among people who look like me also is important. I choose not to live in a community where I need to conform or be pretentious. That is what you generally find out in the exurbs. I 'am very happy in Mitchellville/Bowie

I have a brother residing in Calvert County who tried to influence me to move out there prior to choosing my current location. He shared with me how uncomfortable he would have been to have placed an Obama poster outside his home among the sea of McCain posters. He does not talk with his next door neighbor because of a racial slur.

I always remind myself so called high crime and poor schools in PG county is not a given however long commutes less time for self and family higher transportation cost is certainly a given for those residing in the exurbs and for this reason the land mass within Prince Georges County is very valuable.

[Marylandkitten]

When I moved back to Bowie, about 2 years ago, I was told to quietly accept the fact that we (white folk :P ) were the minority around here now, and that it was very evident. Look at the wal-mart, target, bowie town center, etc.

I don't see an issue with minority/majorities of populations in places shifting the balance of things. When I lived here about 10 years ago, it was more towards the Glen Burnie area, and people were more backwoods there than they are nowadays. The whole world is changing around you, does it really matter whether you're black or white? or where the statistics came from that people get so defensive over now?

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by ateo

Actually, statistically speaking, it is.

Blacks have the lowest test scores, lowest IQ scores, lowest earnings, highest unemployment, highest rates of AIDS and other STDS, etc. of any group in America.

Statistically speaking, of course.

Based off of what criteria and administered by who? Also, those things need to be put into perspective based off of many factors like economics, history, etc. So, when you say in comparison to, it varies by the general experience of groups. Size is another aspect to consider as well. So, even with those stats, those things are an exception to the rule with the general Black population. For instance, the unemployment rate is 11%, but that means that 89% of the Black people that can work do.

[AeroGuyDC]

Sunday morning (church) is the most segregated hour in America. Nobody seems to be terribly bothered by that, right? It's a matter of personal choice of where one decides to worship, right?

So why do any of you care whether a family decides not to consider a neighborhood because of it's racial make-up (white or black)? It's a matter of personal choice, right? Why that offends anyone is beyond me, and how that could be considered racism smacks of the political correctness that will ruin this country.

Flame me to death, I don't care. My values and what I want to achieve for me and my family will trump political correctness disguised as diversity anyday.