I belong to a great school. Yes, there are some problems. Nothing terribly devastating though. The biggest problem I can see that we have is a bad reputation.
People talk like only crack moms and people who abuse their kids let their kids go to school here. I have tried to ignore it but I'm about to explode. Every time I say something good about my experience at the school someone has to freak out and argue how horrible the school is. At the end of the conversation, they condenscendingly concede that if I like it that's very nice for me.
Let me tell you a little about myself before I launch into this - I have an associate's degree from a good school. I have not completed my bachelor's in Portuguese and Italian because I married a wonderful man who unfortunately won't live anywhere that that's useful for a job so I didn't go back when I quit school for health reasons. But I am well educated and value continued life long learning. When I entered college my scores on literacy tests were near the PHD level. In short, I am not DUMB.
Now, my husband and I researched schools before we bought our home and saw that, with a couple exceptions, ours was at least as good at test scores, ect. as any school in the district. I live one block from the school and enjoy it very much.
Our problem is that a neighboring school has higher test scores and recruits the best students in the area. They have a vested interest in making us look bad. Their parents spread and inflate rumors of drug problems and accademic problems quite viciously.
Of course, my friends who have decided to go there cannot stand to hear something positive about our school and it is endangering my ability to not point out how stupid and rude they are being. (I like having friends
)
The other school
does have better scores but they also seem to be able to get rid of nonperforming students. When every other school in the county has at least 10% reduced and free lunch students, it seems suspect that they only have 3%. I also have a close friend that applied to work in their special education department. She was horrified to see that the special education students are in a separate building and are not even allowed to have lunch with the rest of the school. (I would take my sons somewhere else if that happened.)
There is a theme when talking about schools in this area - ours is for drug addled ne'er do wells and theirs is for future Ivy league scholars. The grudge runs so deep that people actually have physical reations to my school. While talking about how great my son's teacher is, I can see people physically tensing up and clenching as if they were getting ready to fight.
Very few of them have first hand or even specific incidents to back up their hatred. I finally convinced one neighbor to elaborate on why she thought the school was so bad. She talked about how horrible the teachers were and how they had picketed the school to get some of them fired. I was shocked and asked when that had happened. After beating around the bush, she admitted that it was when her kids were in school 20 years ago. Is she still mad at the building?!! She's holding a grudge for people who aren't there any longer! But does that stop her from bad mouthing the current teachers, staff and students? NO. GRRR!
It's every where. I just can't get away from it. The principle says that we need to work on talking up our school. I think we need a PR specialist. (Hey, I'm married to one.
)
It's driving me nuts to have to defend my school. I asked one of my friends why she didn't come here. "Because my son likes math," was her answer. - 'Cuz no one at my school has ever heard of this avant garde concept??!!
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
:confused:
Okay, think of your blood pressure.
I feel a little better now. I hate to fight but I can't stand to hear bad things about a school I love so much. I avoid these friends now. It's sad because my son wants to play with their kids. I pass some of them at church. I talk about the school a lot because I'm so involved and education is a love for me. I can't avoid the subject because it's so dear. That's what makes this so hard for me.
I understand that they love their school, but it is a sign of insecurity to have to insult us in order to feel superior. There's a difference between being pleased with your performance and being so prideful that you have to hurt others to expedite praise for yourself. I guess to be the good school, they feel they need a bad school to prove it.
Very, very annoying.
Thank you for putting with that. It's been brewing for over a year.
