School Daze

"We're a bit naive and were expecting schools to be perfectly integrated and diverse cauldrons of social progressivism. However we were disappointed to discover that in the real world, many white parents value high academic standards over politically correct diversity. It's hard to balance our ideals with the real world."

They say that having a family is what stabilizes society and anchors people to the system. It causes their values to shift from the left-leaning idealism and progressivism of youth to a more moderate and centrist view that we must do what's right for our children. This writer appears to be in the midst of this shift, his gratuitous characterization of the President as a "white supremacist" notwithstanding.

"Wealthy homeowners had the resources and the motivation to put time and money into their neighborhood schools; good neighborhood schools in turn attracted other wealthy homeowners.

In her New York Times piece, she described the story of P.S. 8, in Brooklyn Heights, which had for years been a mostly black and Latinx school with low test scores, neglected by well-off parents in the neighborhood who opted to send their kids to private schools.

The school clearly prided itself on being both integrated and successful: the leadership of the school was black but the students who helped with the tours were black and white, as were the PTA representatives who led the tours.

As our zoned school was four blocks east of the more successful school I had just visited, so PS 1 was four blocks east of our zoned school.

The school to the east was the just choice; the school to the west was intriguing but out of reach; our zoned school was the laziest choice, though in this case there was a virtue to laziness, in the sense that it mimicked the situation of someone who didn't have six or seven mornings to kill touring schools.

A white couple we knew was mostly happy with their under-resourced school in Bed-Stuy, because it was close and friendly; a black couple we knew was mostly unhappy with their under-resourced school in the same neighborhood because their son was being shown too much TV. Yet another couple we knew had their kids in a school where the bathrooms weren't all working."

This is why skimming is important. It gives you a rough idea of what the author's voice, style, and opinion are; from that you can determine whether you want to invest the time to read the article in full.

So, since one of the criteria they mentioned in the article was the percent of students on the free/reduced cost lunch, will they start underfeeding their child because most of their classmates are probably undernourished?

They want to do everything they can to make their child succeed, and also feel bad that the opportunities their child has are not available to other children because of those children's socioeconomic status

Someone can have two conflicting opinions at the same time.

Everything in the world is not black and white, or all or nothing. Different things can have both good and bad parts that go with them.