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D.C. Area Babies
To be (prematurely) concerned, or not to be?
I just saw this article and my first thought was, "this is where my son will go to high school, if we remain in this neighborhood." My next (totally irrational) thought was, "time to move to a school district that won't have stabbings in 14 years."
Is this a new hyper-protective instinct that I just need to try to sedate, now that I'm a mom?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: To be (prematurely) concerned, or not to be?
This might be an unpopular opinion amongst Wheaton/SS peeps, but those are three school districts that we are steering away from in our new home search. They're just . . . not great. In a variety of ways. But that is totally subjective and really just based on comparison to other MoCo schools.
That being said, I do think something like this could happen in any school, anywhere. It really just takes one bad egg to cause an incident. Also, we've been warned by teachers and our realtors that we can't assume that the high school our future house is assigned to now will be the same one it's assigned to when C is high school aged. Borders change all the time and who knows what can happen in twelve years.
Depending on what the school district looks like, I'm not totally opposed to sending my kid to private school (or taking advantages of various programs within the school district) when the time comes.
The funny thing is - anything can happen. My neice, who lives in one of the "plum" MoCo school clusters, now goes to school over on University close to the PG border. She decided to go to a magnet program. The kids at her new school are definitely a different crowd than her old school.
Also, I feel like I should mention that I personally know people that graduated from each of those schools, had decent experiences and went on to have successful lives.
And like K mentioned - Blair's magnet program is supposed to be amazing (I'm assuming that's where her niece goes on Univ.).
She's in jr. high, so it's a middle school... can't remember the name of it, but it's in that really not-so-great stretch just past Blair.
The only reason I'm starting to think about it now is because it will be harder for a kid to move away from his friends when he gets older. So if we decide to move to another school district during the summer between M's 8th and 9th grades, it will probably be a lot harder on him than if we move when he's 3. Even if we only move across the county or across the river, small distances can be a big deal to kids who can't drive themselves places, and they obviously wouldn't see the same friends at school anymore. (I say this from the perspective of someone who moved across the country between 6th and 7th grades and it was a HARD transition for me, although it ended up being a good thing in the long run.)
ETA: I've already thought about moving to Virginia, because they have a better state university system than Maryland. Talk about planning waaaay ahead.
DH has totally thought of this! He has a hang up on UVA and loves the idea of paying in state tuition for C.
you should totally move to VA!
Fairfax and Loudoun counties have some of the best schools in the country
We laugh that we are staying in Virginia so DD can go to UVA :-) However, Fairfax County Schools have the same issues as MoCo.
This is totally a plus for our move to VA. I went to a private college and I have no idea why my parents didn't make me go public in PA where there a bunch of great state schools all over the state. I had scholarships but it was still more than an in-state tuition would have been.
Us too, but it's William and Mary (number 5 this year in the rankings, go Tribe!) that we hope our LOs consider.
We made a tough decision like that recently when we bought our house. We had it down to two houses that we liked, one that was sending to an excellent HS and one that was sending to a good HS but has had some incidences in the past. We loved the latter house and decided that the worries about HS were far off. I feel like there are enough magnet programs that if we were having problems we could apply to one in Ffx. I assume MoCo is the same. I think if you encourage your child to be hard working and studious they will do well anywhere.
Riiiiiiight, 'cause then you wouldn't have to worry about public high schools at all
Yeah, then I'd have to pay for private high school, unless they got into the School Without Walls or one of those other select schools.
There are actually a lot of reasons why I'd consider moving to Virginia -- there's the college thing, but we also have some family in Nova, and it would be nice to live closer to them. I've lived in all three jurisdictions, and I have no problem crossing the river or moving to a different state. The main reason we live in Maryland is because my job is there. DH works in DC, so his commute would be the same either way, but my commute would triple if we moved to Virginia. If we seriously thought about moving, I'd probably look for a new job.
lots of gov't jobs here too
I figure that LO is probably not going to be hanging out in the parking lot after the game. But it is a little worrisome. Schools do change all the time, though. The high school I went to in MoCo was considered pretty ok when I went there, and is now known as having a lot of gang activity.
I know a young woman who just graduated from that school and she was so delighted that my LO would potentially end up going there because she thought it was the best experience ever. And if she is an example of the kind of kid that school can turn out, then I'd be happy for him to go there.
Also, research has said that the school only matters so much - parents matter much more. So the fact that you are concerned means that your LO is going to be ok.
Don't forget that the downcounty consortium has school choice, too, so LO may not end up there anyway - he could end up at Blair, or Einstein, or Kennedy, or at one of the other magnet programs in the county.
I'm pretty sure that we won't be in Arlington by the time DS goes to high school. I do have some dreams of him going to Thomas Jefferson since we would like to move to Lincolnia maybe. I have yet to look at high schools but we will be when we get in the hunt for a our first house late summer 2013.
I would love if DS went to UVA, my alma mater!
Off to the beach
DS 7/18/2010
Handy 2.0 Due Early August
2011/2012 Races
12/17/2011 Christmas Caper 10K
2/11/2012 Have a Heart 5K
3/17/2012 DC RNR Half Marathon
4/22/2012 10M Parkway Classic
10/28/2012 Marine Corps Marathon
Just to add to the discussion - I went to a private boarding school for high school. Excellent college prep school and all that and there were kids who still ended up screwed up, on drugs, not going to college, pregnant, etc. and it wasn't a school for troubled teens. Some of these kids had the whole world at their disposal and it wasn't enough. I guess my point is that school and teachers only count for so much - parents/grandparents/family life in general counts for so much more. I live in Loudoun so my kids may end up at a good high school, but I fully expect DH and I to be the ones to keep them on track.
And VA colleges rule...and I'm not saying that just because I went to VT
I'll grudgingly admit that UVA is a good school, as is University of Mary Washington and William and Mary and James Madison...and NOVA has a great reputation as well. Come on over, you ladies are great, we'd love to have you in VA!
The students that were actually involved in the fight were from two of those schools. Just sayin'.
if we stay in our house, H would go to Einstein. i won't lie, i contemplated moving to another area before she hits high school.
we probably won't be here anyway because of space issues, but it could be a totally different school in 14 years. i just don't know i want to wait and find out....