Manayunk is a bad place to raise a family! - Page 3 - PhillyBlog

Hillrunner · #21 (**permalink**) 07-10-2008, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lawmummy

In our neighborhood, we recently held a meeting for interested parents to discuss what our local school (Cook Wiss) had to offer. There was overwhelming support and interest.

For the past two years, I have sent my daughter to a private Friends school. I am excited to say that next year, she will be a student at Cook.

One of the parents at the meeting made a fabulous point - he realized that if he invested a fraction of the tuition he was paying and the time he was spending at his child's private school to make the public school better, there would be a different result. And he is right.

A great group of concerned parents at Cook have already moved mountains - there are fresh snacks in the school now and small gardens. Bussing is down and walking is up - the neighborhood is moving in! There is a full time art teacher with a dedicated classroom, a small orchestra and great partnerships at the school A Green Committee is working on design improvements to the outside (look for announcements coming soon!) and a subcommittee is looking for ways to make walking and biking to school a more viable option.

If you look at the test scores, they are really competitive. PSSA scores for the 3rd grade in 2007 were 87% reading (state was 73%) and 95% math (state was 79%).

Shawmont and Dobson have similar success stories - and now that a group of parents is interested in Levering, I have faith that it will improve, too.

Neighborhood schools in the City have awesome potential. There's a lot to be said about the social impact of walking to school together, playing together and learning together.

When I was a kid, I grew up in the woods. I had to be driven to school. It was my dream to be able to walk to my school - my kids get to do that. How cool is that?

they would rather get a ride

OldMama · #22 (**permalink**) 07-10-2008, 10:58 AM

I agree with Lawmummy. We are really lucky to have good public schools in our area. I chose to stay put with my cheap mortgage and short commute (no need for new cars until the old one dies of old age). With the money I saved I have been able to send my older child to a private college where he is very happy. My kids have travelled extensively. We have museum memberships everywhere and use them. Best of all my kids have friends of all races, creeds, and economic levels. But what I want to emphasize is that most of the parents from outside this neighborhood who send their kids here have the same dreams for their kids and the same values as I have. They had to leave their neighborhood to find good elementary schools for their kids. We don't.

And, Billy, where are you getting your information? I work in the system and I haven't heard this. Not saying you're wrong but I'd like to know where I can get more information.

Count Malachi · #23 (**permalink**) 07-10-2008, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hillrunner

they would rather get a ride

Haha. So true.

I walked to school and the greatest days where those in which I slept over a friend's house and got to ride the bus home with him on Friday afternoons. The bus was awesome to an 11 year old. Total chaos and so much fun.

I remember being struck by the whole social order that existed on the bus - first graders up front, 8th graders had claim to the back few rows, "losers" had to sit in seats with the wheel well, etc.

D-Man · #24 (**permalink**) 07-10-2008, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hillrunner

they would rather get a ride

Eh, I guess the "grass is always greener" rule might apply here. I went to a Catholic school, and we lived too close to be eligible for bus service, yet too far away to be able to walk. Therefore, my parents got involved in a carpool with other families in the neighborhood that went to the school. I grew tired of the carpool and couldn't wait until I was in 8th grade and allowed to ride my bike to school (don't remember if this was a school rule or just a rule that my parents made up).

Valley Twin · #25 (**permalink**) 07-10-2008, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldMama

Children from outside the neighborhood can only go to a school if there is space. Space is created when neighborhood parents do not send their children to their neighborhood school. So if parents truly want a neighborhood school, they need to send their kids there. But, frankly, my experience with non-neighborhood children in the elementary schools (as both a parent and as an educator) has been overwhelmingly positive. Their parents are looking for a good education for their kids and are willing and able to participate in the educational process. Many of these kids thrive and excel in their new school.

That'll last until the schools become racially segregated again. Isn't that one of the main reasons they opened them up to begin with?

OldMama · #26 (**permalink**) 07-10-2008, 03:20 PM

True, schools were opened to out of area kids in an effort to provide desegregated schools. But that alone does not lead to segregation. If neighborhood parents continue to send their kids to the neighborhood school, the school will remain desegregated. Again, out of area kids can get transfers into the school only as space allows. The neighborhood kids always have the right to go to their neighborhood school. Schools become segregated for one of two reasons. One, the population of the neighborhood changes. Two, parents stop sending their kids to the neighborhood school.

BTW, busing for desegregation is almost a dead issue in Philly now. There are just a few schools which are segregated enough to bother taking deseg students, Shawmont and Dobson being two of them. Also since Dobson is well integrated, white kids as well as black kids from outside the neighborhood can, and do, apply for and get deseg transfers. Not sure if this is true at Shawmont.

billy ross · #27 (**permalink**) 07-10-2008, 09:58 PM

When I said that magnet schools are and will continue to be for the elite, I meant talent-wise, not finances-wise. The elite are the very best, and the magnet schools pull them out of the neighborhoods. You may not consider yourself to be elite, but if you grew up in Kensington and now teach in Lower Merion Public Schools, you are no slouch, and you may quite well be elite.

I heard about the schools' neighborhood school policy from a new high school teacher. He is not my only source, as I have seen quite a few oblique references to it elsewhere, but he expounded upon it at length and in depth. I am very excited about it, and it seems to be consistent with the goals of the mayor and his team. I am, of course, concerned about whether this is consistent with the worldview of our new superintendant.

Segregation occurs when the wealthy move into the catchment area of a 'good' school and drive the prices up sufficiently to exclude all but the wealthy from living in said catchment area. It has already happened with the Penn-Alexander school's catchment area, not to mention the fancier suburbs. The problem for Philly for years was a dumbing down of the entire system (Washington High, for instance) in the name of 'fairness'. I would rather have segregation with a few good schools than no segregation with all bad schools. Unfortunately, the people with means will seek out better services, leaving those without means out in the cold. It is not fair, but it is how the world works.