Posted on 09/06/2006 10:05:36 AM PDT by Ben Mugged
West Seattle High School seemed too violent and private school seemed too elitist, so Barbara Tippett looked across the water to find the right school for her son, Sky.
Starting this morning, his first day of high school, Tippett will drop off Sky at the Fauntleroy ferry dock to catch the 6:45 boat to Vashon Island. He won't be alone. About 75 Seattle kids commute the same way every day — filling two school buses that shuttle them from the Vashon dock to the island's three public schools.
The rural, 550-student Vashon Island High School meets Sky Tippett's criteria of a "real high school." And Barbara Tippett likes the socioeconomic diversity of a public school without the problems she sees at some of Seattle's.
"I found they're much too violent," she said. "I have safety concerns for a freshman boy going into a public high school."
Seattle Public Schools faces a funding crisis that is tied largely to its falling enrollment — half what it was in the 1960s — and is closing school buildings to cut costs. Families are leaving Seattle in search of cheaper housing, while many of those who remain send their kids to the suburbs for school.
~snip~ A Seattle superintendent's committee appointed last year to study the 47,000-student district's financial crisis said enrollment is falling partly because of a lack of public confidence. Similarly sized districts across the country have seen the middle class flee their public schools, and the state's open-enrollment policy — ~snip~ could make it affordable for more middle-class families to leave.
Already, about a quarter of school-age children in Seattle — some 15,000 — choose not to attend public schools. Most of them go to private or parochial schools, while nearly 1,000 enroll in surrounding districts.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
Here's another school story. It seems that they are never good anymore.
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Sky?
Hopefully short for 'Schuyler'.
That's better?
Less new-agey-hippie-wannabe? Undoubtedly.
"Real Men Don't Eat Quiche"
I once met a woman who had a son named Ocean. No kidding.
Mr. Tired of Taxes and I once discussed naming one of our kids Seven (after a Seinfeld episode). But we came to our senses and picked a more traditional name in the end. ;-)
Education ping.
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I know of a girl named Virginia Chastity. Try going through school with that name.
'Likes the socioeconomic diversity' -- I think it is disgusting when parents make their KIDS live their fantasies. Inner city schools are dangerous and chaotic. You wouldn't want to be in them, why put your kids in them? Homeschool homeschool.
Went to a reception recently where the groom's name was Skyler. Didn't know him so I don't know if he went by Sky or not. I might choose Bubba if I had a name like that.
What little I know of Vashon Island is that it's a hangout for what passes today for Hippies: mainly DINKs who like to spend their time biking, hiking, growing flowers and other back-to-nature activities but also like to have Seattle just a ferry ride away. Some vacation homes rented to year-round residents. Pretty but exclusively in a middle-class way.
Does anyone know the inside about Seattle schools? I did 10 years in Philly. They recently had a group of high school girls, and a mother, jump and beat up another girl. That is par for Philly and it often gets much worse.
Compared to what goes on there, Seattle seems like a dream environment. Aside from the high level of PC crap that I've read about, what's the problem w/the local schools? Of all the things they might be, "too violent" wasn't something that came to mind. Maybe mom is just a tad overprotective?
I could provide plenty of good ones if needed. While there are indeed many negative ones, the positive ones never get heard or emphasized in our cynical society.
I'm happy to be a man's man...but can I still eat sushi?
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