LawTalkers - Towards A Virtual Williamsburg!

Now this is interesting. Do you pronounce "bogeymen" the way it's spelled or do you pronounce it, "boogeymen?" I spell it and say it with the double O. Is this a regional thing?

TM

Boogedyman

Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)

10-28-2013 11:18 AM

Re: school tours

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall (Post 483694)

But the main problem I have with all private schools (except for religious ones--if you want to teach your kid Creationism is science, then please set up a private school to do so) is that it is another way for rich people to separate themselves from everyone. And they use the quality of the public schools, which they have historically destroyed by pulling their kids out, as an excuse. It's just another form of white flight. And, yes, if you point to any one person it's clear that it isn't their fault and they're in a situation where their kid will suffer, etc. But I think it's wrong in general.** And I feel the same way about vouchers and charter schools and the kids in terrible neighborhoods who end up in charter schools through a voucher program have better arguments for leaving than those being sent to Exeter. You take all the good kids out of a school, you destroy that school.

TM

Thank you for explaining this.

Although do you really think people should be free to go off and set up their own school to teach creationism? Or are you just more concerned about white flight than idiot flight?

ThurgreedMarshall

10-28-2013 11:37 AM

Re: school tours

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.) (Post 483698)

Although do you really think people should be free to go off and set up their own school to teach creationism? Or are you just more concerned about white flight than idiot flight?

I would rather keep the lunatics who want to supplant science with religion out of public schools and off of school boards.

TM

Not Bob

10-28-2013 11:39 AM

I could teach you, but I'd have to charge.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bold_n_brazen (Post 483689)

At Dunkin', I just say "Coffee with milk" and then I hold up my fingers this far apart to indicate how much milk. Works every time.

Yes, but you're a girl.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bold_n_brazen (Post 483689)

eta: You have all turned into a Jay Macinerney novel while I was away last week. A newish one. Not one of the old ones. Still, I likey.

I know it was based on the other guy's book, but your edit put that wonderful "Victor Takes a Trip" montage from "Rules of Attraction" into my head. Don't let people lie to you; hostels are for the ugly.

taxwonk

10-28-2013 11:50 AM

Re: school tours

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall (Post 483695)

Now this is interesting. Do you pronounce "bogeymen" the way it's spelled or do you pronounce it, "boogeymen?" I spell it and say it with the double O. Is this a regional thing?

TM

I'm a double O boogeyman and so is everyone I know.

taxwonk

10-28-2013 11:53 AM

Re: school tours

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.) (Post 483698)

I am all in favor of idiot flight. Let them set up their own schools, their own churches, their own towns. Just like an American Taliban.

sebastian_dangerfield

10-28-2013 11:57 AM

Re: school tours

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall (Post 483694)

It's just another form of white flight. And, yes, if you point to any one person it's clear that it isn't their fault and they're in a situation where their kid will suffer, etc. But I think it's wrong in general.** And I feel the same way about vouchers and charter schools and the kids in terrible neighborhoods who end up in charter schools through a voucher program have better arguments for leaving than those being sent to Exeter. You take all the good kids out of a school, you destroy that school.

TM

For what it's worth, I have one friend who sends a child to a fancy day school in significant part because there's more diversity there than in the public high school full of obscenely rich kids from his area. And this is not an outlying anecdote. Boarding schools do tend to attract a broader diversity of foreign students, and kids of many different backgrounds, than the average high school. Are most of those kids rich? Sure. But that's another issue.

The white flight you see is more class flight, and it isn't flight so much as an arms race. Parents are fucking nuts these days. They micromanage every aspect of their kids' lives and would slit another parent's throat if they thought it'd get little Bobby or Becky into Harvard. It's a fucked up game of Collecting Credentials. Blacks, Whites, Asians, Latinos, Arabs... Every member of every race and background who has a few bucks to spare plays this game.

sebastian_dangerfield

10-28-2013 12:01 PM

Re: school tours

Quote:

Originally Posted by taxwonk (Post 483702)

I am all in favor of idiot flight. Let them set up their own schools, their own churches, their own towns. Just like an American Taliban.

The hippies are home schooling also. I've met a few. Not as bad as the religious nuts, but still, Quite Unsound. A kid growing up with a headful of leftist sympathies is going to face a tough road in a world increasingly dominated by rigid, hierarchical, corporate work structures.

Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)

10-28-2013 12:07 PM

Re: school tours

Quote:

Originally Posted by taxwonk (Post 483702)

I am all in favor of idiot flight. Let them set up their own schools, their own churches, their own towns. Just like an American Taliban.

So, you mean the South?

Atticus Grinch

10-28-2013 12:08 PM

Re: school tours

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall (Post 483695)

Now this is interesting. Do you pronounce "bogeymen" the way it's spelled or do you pronounce it, "boogeymen?" I spell it and say it with the double O. Is this a regional thing?

I pronounce it "boo", not "bo". I do not recall ever having written it before so I don't know that I have any particular way of spelling it. I must have seen it that way somewhere and assumed that's how it's done. Google shows 1.3M hits for the one-o spelling and 3.3M for two, so this might be just a disconnect on my part rather than a regional thing.

sebastian_dangerfield

10-28-2013 12:10 PM

Re: school tours

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.) (Post 483696)

If someone's sending their child there for "status", it's not to demonstrate wealth but rather that they have a child smart enough to get into Exeter. It's not as if Exeter creates exclusivity by having tuition higher than a bunch of lower quality private schools. Unless you mean helping the child with his/her status.

Anyway, I think the large majority of people send their children to private boarding schools because (a) they can afford it and (b) it's better (even if only marginally) than sending them to school while living it home (either because it's better by some increment than local public schools or private day schools; or because the home situation isn't conducive to the child growing). It's just not a good vehicle to demonstrating status as compared with more material things, or even other experiential things ("I'm wintering on my yacht in the Abacos").

I know this will make me sound like an old crank, but parents need to stop buying kids luxury cars. Have you seen the cars parents are buying for kids these days? I don't care how much disposable income I have when my kid's old enough to drive. The child is getting a used, modest car. Giving a kid a new Range Rover or BMW as a college vehicle sends just about every wrong message in the world, and is all but assuredly guaranteed to turn your kid into an out of touch asshole. It also makes you look incredibly pathetic.

And really, what the hell was so bad about a used Chevy Blazer hand-me-down? I was thrilled to have that old bucket of bolts. What kind of precious little twit needs a Range Rover for his friends to vomit in after a high school or college keg party?

Pretty Little Flower

10-28-2013 12:12 PM

Re: school tours

Quote:

Originally Posted by taxwonk (Post 483701)

I'm a double O boogeyman and so is everyone I know.

What about boogie?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFcI15e5liQ

Did you just call me Coltrane?

10-28-2013 12:14 PM

Re: school tours

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield (Post 483708)

And really, what the hell was so bad about a used Chevy Blazer hand-me-down? I was thrilled to have that old bucket of bolts. What kind of precious little twit needs a Range Rover for his friends to vomit in after a high school or college keg party?

I had a hand-me-down GMC Jimmy. It was awesome. I drove it through a river and had it airborne several times.

Oliver_Wendell_Ramone

10-28-2013 12:16 PM

Re: school tours

Quote:

Originally Posted by taxwonk (Post 483701)

I'm a double O boogeyman and so is everyone I know.

That would make an excellent song lyric. I may use it on the next Blowjob Camels album.

Atticus Grinch

10-28-2013 12:18 PM

Re: school tours

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield (Post 483703)

My Catholic high school was more ethnically and socioeconomically diverse than the public high school I would have attended, but was less religiously diverse (duh). Jews were particularly underrepresented although I am told that was not for lack of effort on Admissions' part (you can only get so far when you have bleeding crucifixes over every door). There were probably more Latinos in my school than in the town where I grew up.

Private schools can do things to create a school community that are flatly unconstitutional for public schools to do. That's a powerful force for good as much as evil. We've really hobbled the public schools from doing things that used to seem ordinary for them to do, then we act all shocked that they are the way they are. I want my kid to go to a school where if you post something racist or sexist on Facebook, you apologize or you're shown the fucking door, not one where you change the conversation to be about your First Amendment rights.

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