Best area around Houston to raise kids?

[bachanon]

a second language should be required in public schools from elementary school. it is embarrassing that every russian student can speak english while few american students grasp a second language.

[RedScare]

Heh, well, Houston maybe. Try that in Waco sometime. Here the politics split very neatly along racial lines and if you don't go with the mainstream people look at you with a mixture of surprise, horror, and curiosity. Like you are some sort of rare specimen they've heard about but never seen. People talk politics and religion here. It just doesn't even occur to them that you might not disagree.

The question we get all the time from strangers as well as neighbors is "what church do you attend?" The idea that you might have other plans for your Sunday mornings doesn't register. My kid constantly gets church-related material stuffed in her backpack at school and she attends a local public school.

I'm exaggerating, but only slightly. It's part of the reason we are looking for a more interesting and diverse place to live. Because I get the feeling that we could live here for 50 years and still feel somewhat like outsiders.

As you get farther into the suburbs, you will find it to be more and more like Waco, both politically and religiously. However, it is still an extremely large metro, so it will not seem as oppressive as Waco may have felt. The Katy area can seem almost Stepford at times, if you do not fit the stereotype. I still chuckle at a friend of mine who dated a woman in Katy (she lived there so her boy could go to school out there). His description of the "dress code" of suburban white males was priceless!

If I had to pick an area, I might consider Pearland. It has a higher concentration of medical professionals, due to its proximity to the Med Center. It is close to both Clear Lake and the Gulf of Mexico. There are plenty of horse riding opportunities in the area. Most importantly (for me), cycling is better in this area than either the Katy area or Montgomery County. I do a lot of weekend cycling, and the roads in Katy and Montgomery County are notoriously dangerous. Brazoria County drivers are slightly more courteous to cyclists. Plus, you are still not too far from your Sugar Land friends.

Of course, Ron Paul represents Brazoria County.

[texasdiver]

As you get farther into the suburbs, you will find it to be more and more like Waco, both politically and religiously. However, it is still an extremely large metro, so it will not seem as oppressive as Waco may have felt. The Katy area can seem almost Stepford at times, if you do not fit the stereotype. I still chuckle at a friend of mine who dated a woman in Katy (she lived there so her boy could go to school out there). His description of the "dress code" of suburban white males was priceless!

If I had to pick an area, I might consider Pearland. It has a higher concentration of medical professionals, due to its proximity to the Med Center. It is close to both Clear Lake and the Gulf of Mexico. There are plenty of horse riding opportunities in the area. Most importantly (for me), cycling is better in this area than either the Katy area or Montgomery County. I do a lot of weekend cycling, and the roads in Katy and Montgomery County are notoriously dangerous. Brazoria County drivers are slightly more courteous to cyclists. Plus, you are still not too far from your Sugar Land friends.

Of course, Ron Paul represents Brazoria County.

Sounds like its worth a look. I like to do a lot of weekend cycling too. Around here its a tradeoff between the larger farm roads with large shoulders where everyone drives 80 mph and uses the shoulders as a turning lane, or small country roads that have absolutely no shoulder and you have to ride in the traffic. It's unnerving because most country folk really aren't accustomed to encountering cyclists on the roads and you just don't know how they will react.

[Urbannomad]

I would be interested in finding similar such schools in the Houston area, if they exist.

They definitely do exist in Houston. Here are two that immediately come to mind and I'm sure there are more I don't know about.

A highly rated, very competitive private school:

http://www.awty.org/

As I mentioned earlier, one of the HISD magnet schools in the heights. The program continues beyond elementary school at different magnet schools throughout the city:

http://www.helmsduallanguage.org/

I think a lot of older generations in America are having a very hard time dealing with the reality of globalization. They like the fact it brings cheap goods and allows us to make a profit exporting our own goods, but they hate the fact it is creating a "merging" of cultures and languages. I don't think a second language should be mandatory just yet, but I think if you want to prepare your children to really excel in the new 21st century, than you must realize that accepting and learning new languages and cultures is going to be a major part of being successful in our future. For better or for worse, that's just how things are, and no matter how hard some people fight it, this is one train that isn't stopping. How does the saying go... change is the only constant? The key is embracing change and being better at it then everyone else so that you can maintain dominance... successful American corporations learned this a LONG time ago and now it's time for everyone else to also.

Edited June 3, 2007 by Urbannomad

[bachanon]

..........but the restaurants in pearland. there is an average to below average mexican restaurant in every other strip center. both vietnamese restaurants i've been to are average. both chinese restaurants i've visited were abominable. and the traffic on 518 at 288 is a nightmare. kudos to discount tire though, those guys have really pulled through for me and sonic is consistently..........sonic.

[RedScare]

The restaurant scene may be below average, but 10 miles to the east puts you in Clear Lake, which has the same chain restaurants that you find in the Woodlands or Katy, and 15 miles to the north will put you in the middle of every restaurant choice imaginable. It is actually a quicker drive into Houston than driving from the back of the Woodlands to the mall.

However, my opinion was based on outdoor activities, such as beach, lake and cycling, not restaurants. The Woodlands has good golf (which you do not care for), great walking trails (terrible for cyclists), a lake 15 miles away, but no beach.

[dalparadise]

..........but the restaurants in pearland. there is an average to below average mexican restaurant in every other strip center. both vietnamese restaurants i've been to are average. both chinese restaurants i've visited were abominable. and the traffic on 518 at 288 is a nightmare. kudos to discount tire though, those guys have really pulled through for me and sonic is consistently..........sonic.

You've missed one of the best steaks in in the country...much less Houston.

http://www.killenssteakhouse.com/index.asp

The chef turned down a position to be assistant chef at the White House to open his small restaurant. The jumbo lump crab cake appetizer is the stuff of legend. The sides are incredible. The steaks are... well, I've been all over the country and have never had such perfectly prepared, fine cuts of beef. This is what I imagine Kobe beef to be like.

The original Gringo's is in Pearland. I think it's very good Tex-Mex. There's a Vietnamese place called Van-Loc, I believe, which ventures beyond being just a pho house and is good. Over on the "New Pearland" side, where I suspect you are limiting your search, yes -- it's mostly crappy chains -- but even they have Tokyo Bowl, which is a pretty good sushi option.

Edited June 3, 2007 by dalparadise

[musicman]

Exactly. I grew up near Portland and some of the most exclusive and competitive private schools in the entire Portland area are bilingual schools. There's L'Ecole Francaise de Portland (Portland French School) where classes are taught in French, Spanish, and Chinese as well as English from 2 1/2 years onwards:

doing it privately is one thing, at the taxpayer expense is another. learning english WELL should be a priority. I do see an advantage in being multilingual BTW. the practice where HISD teaches hispanic children in spanish for YEARS is a boondoggle.

[texasdiver]

Actually I don't really mind commuting to restaurants and social scene now that I have 3 young kids. The number of times per month that my wife and I can get away in the evenings is really embarrasingly low. Getting a sitter and getting out of the house alone is always a trial. And when we go to games and cultural things like museums its usually on the weekends when traffic is less of an issue. Heck, my wife and I frequently drive up to the museums in Fort Worth and Dallas with the kids on the weekends and that's a 1.5 hour drive for us.

What I do mind is daily long commutes to work. I will absolutely refuse to move into a situation that has a guaranteed long commute. We'll stay here before we do that. Ideally I'd like to live close enough to bike or walk to work but I don't expect that to necessarily happen in Texas where the suburban streets are less than friendly to anyone on less than 4 wheels.

For my wife its even more crucial to live very close to work. Not necessarily to the clinical offices where she'll be seeing patients on a regular schedule, but to the hospital where she'll be doing on-call work because she does OB and is on-call for deliveries at least once a week in the evenings. We currently live 20 minutes from the hospital where she does deliveries which means she is pretty much forced to drive in and camp out all evening when she has patients close to delivery. If we lived 3 minutes away she could stay home and still make it into the hospital on short notice in the middle of the night when necessary. That's the sort of thing that makes all the difference.

[KatieDidIt]

Well if you don't have to have a brand spanking new home, consider Nottingham Forest, its within your price range. Its in SBISD, wedged nicely inbetween the Hospsital at Gessner and ones popping up in Katy.Near enough to the Beltway to loop around to all medical centers. Great park/pool/ club for residents and close enough "to it all."

[texasdiver]

the woodlands is worth seeing. there are multiple websites, interactive maps, homefinder centers and more to help you get oriented. simply driving around is not a good idea. once you get past the town center the majority of the scenery is trees and underbrush. do some homework before you make the road trip. feel free to IM me if you have specific questions.

So how exactly would you advise someone to take an initial look at the Woodlands on say an afternoon detour when driving down I-45? I've looked at all the web sites you mentioned and see the maps and all. My general approach to checking out a new neighborhood is to study the maps and mark a few interesting-looking destinations on my GPS and then just drive around and look at them. I try to get a feel for the housing stock, parks, commercial zones, schools (from the outside) and streetlife (are the parks and sidewalks actually used or purely decorative? are there lots of kids or mostly retired duffers? etc.)

Are there some particular destinations within the woodlands that are must-see on a quick drive through with the wife?

[dalparadise]

Actually I don't really mind commuting to restaurants and social scene now that I have 3 young kids. The number of times per month that my wife and I can get away in the evenings is really embarrasingly low. Getting a sitter and getting out of the house alone is always a trial. And when we go to games and cultural things like museums its usually on the weekends when traffic is less of an issue. Heck, my wife and I frequently drive up to the museums in Fort Worth and Dallas with the kids on the weekends and that's a 1.5 hour drive for us.

What I do mind is daily long commutes to work. I will absolutely refuse to move into a situation that has a guaranteed long commute. We'll stay here before we do that. Ideally I'd like to live close enough to bike or walk to work but I don't expect that to necessarily happen in Texas where the suburban streets are less than friendly to anyone on less than 4 wheels.

For my wife its even more crucial to live very close to work. Not necessarily to the clinical offices where she'll be seeing patients on a regular schedule, but to the hospital where she'll be doing on-call work because she does OB and is on-call for deliveries at least once a week in the evenings. We currently live 20 minutes from the hospital where she does deliveries which means she is pretty much forced to drive in and camp out all evening when she has patients close to delivery. If we lived 3 minutes away she could stay home and still make it into the hospital on short notice in the middle of the night when necessary. That's the sort of thing that makes all the difference.

Given your various criteria, I'd say virtually anywhere in Metropolitan Houston would be an awful choice for you. You could conceivably look for a place in the Meyerland/Braeswood area for good family atmosphere and reasonable biking commute to the Med Center, but that's about it. Otherwise, Sugar Land probably represents your best of all worlds...except for the biking. In Sugar Land, you would have a large concentration of urban amenities and medical facilities closely grouped. The neighborhoods are nice and the restaurants/cultures are diverse. The problem is -- a freeway runs through it. Highway 6 divides it all going the other way. This makes for pretty terrible biking.

The Woodlands offers less diversity, but similar grouping of professional, medical and shopping amenities. Biking would be better here, but in The Woodlands, you are pretty much giving up on Houston and "real" urban life. You will slowly figure out ways to never venture into the city again. Worse, if you're like most people in The Woodlands, you will proudly proclaim this fact.

[Jeebus]

What I do mind is daily long commutes to work. I will absolutely refuse to move into a situation that has a guaranteed long commute. We'll stay here before we do that. Ideally I'd like to live close enough to bike or walk to work but I don't expect that to necessarily happen in Texas where the suburban streets are less than friendly to anyone on less than 4 wheels.

For my wife its even more crucial to live very close to work. Not necessarily to the clinical offices where she'll be seeing patients on a regular schedule, but to the hospital where she'll be doing on-call work because she does OB and is on-call for deliveries at least once a week in the evenings. We currently live 20 minutes from the hospital where she does deliveries which means she is pretty much forced to drive in and camp out all evening when she has patients close to delivery. If we lived 3 minutes away she could stay home and still make it into the hospital on short notice in the middle of the night when necessary. That's the sort of thing that makes all the difference.

Then Pearland is all but out of consideration. 288 is a nightmare. 59 coming from Sugar Land can be bad for about 1 hour each morning & evening, but even at its worst, you'll still be moving at least 10-20 miles per hour for about a 2 mile stretch right before the 59/610 interchange. 288 out of Pearland will have you sitting still for long periods of time with accordian style stop & go traffic. Also, 59 was just widened and had the best network of Park & Ride Transit & HOV lanes for the metro.

[bachanon]

the woodlands is worth seeing. there are multiple websites, interactive maps, homefinder centers and more to help you get oriented. simply driving around is not a good idea. once you get past the town center the majority of the scenery is trees and underbrush. do some homework before you make the road trip. feel free to IM me if you have specific questions.

So how exactly would you advise someone to take an initial look at the Woodlands on say an afternoon detour when driving down I-45? I've looked at all the web sites you mentioned and see the maps and all. My general approach to checking out a new neighborhood is to study the maps and mark a few interesting-looking destinations on my GPS and then just drive around and look at them. I try to get a feel for the housing stock, parks, commercial zones, schools (from the outside) and streetlife (are the parks and sidewalks actually used or purely decorative? are there lots of kids or mostly retired duffers? etc.)

Are there some particular destinations within the woodlands that are must-see on a quick drive through with the wife?

the woodlands comprises over 27,000 acres. it is easy to spend hours driving around.

most of the over 100 parks in the woodlands are very well used. walkers, joggers, bikers, rollerblading, fishing, dog parks, pavilions, nature preserves, athletic fields abound. also, most of the parks are not visible from the main streets. if you are interested in seeing the parks, identify one or two and map them out. town green park is in town center and is atypical of most parks in the woodlands.

when you exit at woodlands parkway off of i-45N there is a homefinder center on the right, less than a mile west. the center contains a model of the entire master planned community. if you head further west (turn right) from the parking lot of the homefinder center, you'll cross lake woodlands. the further west you drive the newer the neighborhood. there are homes from 100K to over 1 million in every village. every village has retail, schools, religious institutions and most have income and/or age restricted communities.

when you are at the homefinder center you are on the southern edge of town center. head over to the waterway or market street for food and/or a stroll. if you decide to wonder in the neighborhoods/villages, make sure you have a map from the homefinder center.

i've lived in the woodlands for four years and lived near the woodlands for most of my life. i still discover neighborhoods and parks i was not aware of.

property near i-45 (the older neighborhood of grogan's mill, the new development of east shore and waterway residences) are appreciating faster than neighborhoods further back in the woodlands. i'm partial to grogan's mill; however, at your price range (for new construction) you could consider east shore, sterling ridge or the newest village of creekside park.

i am a professed woodlands geek. feel free to IM if you have more questions.

[dalparadise]

Then Pearland is all but out of consideration. 288 is a nightmare. 59 coming from Sugar Land can be bad for about 1 hour each morning & evening, but even at its worst, you'll still be moving at least 10-20 miles per hour for about a 2 mile stretch right before the 59/610 interchange. 288 out of Pearland will have you sitting still for long periods of time with accordian style stop & go traffic. Also, 59 was just widened and had the best network of Park & Ride Transit & HOV lanes for the metro.

I think Sugar Land is great, but don't discount their traffic. It's pretty bad more than just a few hours a day -- still manageable, though.

Likewise, Pearland isn't as bad as you make it out to be. Remember -- only "New Pearland" uses 288. Most of the rest of the city -- including really nice, new neighborhoods like the Lakes of Highland Glen -- use 45 for commuting into town. It has a really nice elevated section dedicated to Downtown destinations that covers the last couple of miles of the commute and speeds times into Downtown from Pearland to about 15 minutes off-peak and 25-35 on. That's a bit better than Sugar Land on most days. It's at least comparable on the on-peak times.

[millennica]

some people aren't aware that a bilingual school is not necessarily one catering to non-english speaking students. i observed a "bilingual" school in tulsa, ok several years ago. the english speaking children were taught all of their courses in spanish. when tested, their scores for english vocabulary and writing skills were years ahead of english only counterparts. and of course, the kids were completely bilingual by the first year.

Sounds like the school I attended as a child although mine was not a public school. It was Academie Sainte Anne (Saint Anne Academy), a private Catholic school for girls run by the Sisters of Saint Anne in Marlboro, MA. In our all-day kindergarten we were taught entirely in French, then in grades 1-8 we had a half day of instruction in English and a half day of instruction in French. In high school, we had 90 minute of instruction in French. And all of the students who attended were bilingual by the end of first grade and we all tested several years ahead of our English counterparts. No surprise here. As I mentioned in a different thread, there is a lot of research evidence that demonstrates the cognitive advantages and flexibility of learning a second language as a child. Not to mention that fact that those who learn a second language early often have an easier time leaning other languages later on in life. Although many of the children who attended the Academy spoke French as a first language, many parent whose children didn't speak French as a first language enrolled their children in the school because they could see the benefits of dual language instruction. That's how I ended up attending the school. My family didn't speak French nor were they Catholic, but they realized what an advantage it would be for me to be bilingual and enrolled me in the school for which I thank them.

There was another school in Marlboro, MA similar to the one I attended. This school was a Catholic parochial school. Its students were Italian and they had a similar program it the elementary church sponsored school; half day instruction in Italian, half day instruction in English. Since the church had high school, the program didn't continue into high school. These programs were successful in part because there were 2 immigrant communities in the town that wanted their children to learn English fluently but also maintain their mother tongue. Since I grew up in this environment, I thought this approach was normal, and was surprised to discover the negative attitudes that many people had toward bilingual education.

Some of the most successful public schools use two-way immersion programs to help English speaking children learn the target language (can be Chinese, French, or Spanish) and children whose first language is Spanish learn English. This way both language groups are learning the other language with the goal of each group becoming bilingual. And in some areas, because middle class parents realize what an advantage it is for their children to learn a second language enjoy lots of community/parental support.

[bachanon]

Some of the most successful public schools use two-way immersion programs to help English speaking children learn the target language (can be Chinese, French, or Spanish) and children whose first language is Spanish learn English. This way both language groups are learning the other language with the goal of each group becoming bilingual. And in some areas, because middle class parents realize what an advantage it is for their children to learn a second language enjoy lots of community/parental support.

genius.

[houstonmacbro]

WTF?

My kids do speak English. They are not immigrants. It's their first and only language. What we want to do is teach them some Spanish while they are young enough to absorb it fluently.

I suppose you think spelling is an unnecessary burden on the school system too now that we have spellcheckers on every computer?

Man, you got the Houston spirit already! Don't take no BS and always speak your mind!

Love it.

Welcome to H'town!

[texas911]

My wife also Hispanic and we'd love to raise our kids bilingual so English/Spanish bilingual schools would be a big plus.

Hey just going by what you posted. In Houston, Bilingual School means, they cater to non English speaking student, meaning Spanish speaking. What a waste of resources. I guess what you "meant" was you wanted to teach your kids a second language, to me that's not a bilingual education. That's just regular education.

[texasdiver]

I think Sugar Land is great, but don't discount their traffic. It's pretty bad more than just a few hours a day -- still manageable, though.

Likewise, Pearland isn't as bad as you make it out to be. Remember -- only "New Pearland" uses 288. Most of the rest of the city -- including really nice, new neighborhoods like the Lakes of Highland Glen -- use 45 for commuting into town. It has a really nice elevated section dedicated to Downtown destinations that covers the last couple of miles of the commute and speeds times into Downtown from Pearland to about 15 minutes off-peak and 25-35 on. That's a bit better than Sugar Land on most days. It's at least comparable on the on-peak times.

Remember, we're not looking to commute to downtown or anyplace else for that matter. The idea is to find a nice neighborhood where my wife can live near or next to a hospital and medical offices so that her commute is blocks or minutes away. If we move to Katy, Sugarland, the Woodlands, etc. it would be with that objective in mind. Myself, I would be looking for work in the local public schools. So top quality schools are a very high criteria, not just for our kids, but for me professionally. My assumption is that no matter where we live in the greater Houston area there will be nearby schools looking for science teachers. The turnover in that field is huge and with all the new schools being built Texas school districts are so desperate for hard-to-fill teaching positions like science that they resort to trolling out-of-state teaching fairs.

If we moved to Sugarland it would be to live next to or near the medical complex where my wife would work. So my assumption is that traffic would be less of an issue than if we were trying to get someplace else like downtown. Especially if we can avoid major highways and drive around on surface streets for our commuting. The ideal would be to live a few blocks from both work and schools so we don't have to hassle with traffic at all if we don't want to.

The objective of this thread is to generate a list of the most ideal neighborhoods around Houston which we can visit and get a feel for. Then as we commence the job search we can focus in on just those areas where we have chosen to live. We can afford to be extremely deliberative about this because we are both currently working and under contract in our current jobs and we live close enough to make research trips on weekends.

This past year we basically did the same thing for cities in Texas. We spent lots of free time visiting DFW, Austin, San Antonio and Houston and for a variety of reasons we seem to be gravitating towards Houston. Dallas seems more sterile and overtly consumptive. I like Fort Worth and it is probably our 2nd choice. Austin has less professional opportunities. The medical profession there is pretty overcrowded because so many doctors have moved their for the Austin lifestyle. San Antonio is reasonably nice to my eye but my wife doesn't really like it there. The Houston area just seems more vibrant and we like the more lush tropical feel to the city as opposed to the windy high plains of north Texas.

[bachanon]

Remember, we're not looking to commute to downtown or anyplace else for that matter. The idea is to find a nice neighborhood where my wife can live near or next to a hospital and medical offices so that her commute is blocks or minutes away. If we move to Katy, Sugarland, the Woodlands, etc. it would be with that objective in mind. Myself, I would be looking for work in the local public schools. So top quality schools are a very high criteria, not just for our kids, but for me professionally. My assumption is that no matter where we live in the greater Houston area there will be nearby schools looking for science teachers. The turnover in that field is huge and with all the new schools being built Texas school districts are so desperate for hard-to-fill teaching positions like science that they resort to trolling out-of-state teaching fairs.

If we moved to Sugarland it would be to live next to or near the medical complex where my wife would work. So my assumption is that traffic would be less of an issue than if we were trying to get someplace else like downtown. Especially if we can avoid major highways and drive around on surface streets for our commuting. The ideal would be to live a few blocks from both work and schools so we don't have to hassle with traffic at all if we don't want to.

The objective of this thread is to generate a list of the most ideal neighborhoods around Houston which we can visit and get a feel for. Then as we commence the job search we can focus in on just those areas where we have chosen to live. We can afford to be extremely deliberative about this because we are both currently working and under contract in our current jobs and we live close enough to make research trips on weekends.

This past year we basically did the same thing for cities in Texas. We spent lots of free time visiting DFW, Austin, San Antonio and Houston and for a variety of reasons we seem to be gravitating towards Houston. Dallas seems more sterile and overtly consumptive. I like Fort Worth and it is probably our 2nd choice. Austin has less professional opportunities. The medical profession there is pretty overcrowded because so many doctors have moved their for the Austin lifestyle. San Antonio is reasonably nice to my eye but my wife doesn't really like it there. The Houston area just seems more vibrant and we like the more lush tropical feel to the city as opposed to the windy high plains of north Texas.

memorial hermann and st. luke's have excellent facilities here. both organizations are growing rapidly.

[millennica]

Hey just going by what you posted. In Houston, Bilingual School means, they cater to non English speaking student, meaning Spanish speaking. What a waste of resources. I guess what you "meant" was you wanted to teach your kids a second language, to me that's not a bilingual education. That's just regular education.

There isn't just one approach to bilingual education. There are different approaches to bilingual education currently underway in the US (and it appears in Houston as well) including the dual-language dual-immersion approach mentioned by Urbannomad in a previous post

As I mentioned earlier, one of the HISD magnet schools in the heights. The program continues beyond elementary school at different magnet schools throughout the city:http://www.helmsduallanguage.org/

[RedScare]

Hey just going by what you posted. In Houston, Bilingual School means, they cater to non English speaking student, meaning Spanish speaking. What a waste of resources. I guess what you "meant" was you wanted to teach your kids a second language, to me that's not a bilingual education. That's just regular education.

Actually, what texas911 means is, in some Houston political circles, Bilingual School means they cater to the non-English speaking student. He also means to say that SOME Houstonians believe this is a waste of resources. There is a large segment of the population that does not believe that education should be denied to those who do not speak English as their primary language, nor do we get our opinions on how best to educate children from talk radio.

But, as a teacher in Texas, I am sure you have heard all of this way too many times.

[houstonmacbro]

Myself, I would be looking for work in the local public schools. So top quality schools are a very high criteria, not just for our kids, but for me professionally. My assumption is that no matter where we live in the greater Houston area there will be nearby schools looking for science teachers. The turnover in that field is huge and with all the new schools being built Texas school districts are so desperate for hard-to-fill teaching positions like science that they resort to trolling out-of-state teaching fairs.

There is a big Texas Gulf Coast Teachers job fair tomorrow and Tuesday if you are interested.

[texasdiver]

Hey just going by what you posted. In Houston, Bilingual School means, they cater to non English speaking student, meaning Spanish speaking. What a waste of resources. I guess what you "meant" was you wanted to teach your kids a second language, to me that's not a bilingual education. That's just regular education.

Well OK, maybe I'm not clear on the terminology. My wife is originally from Chile where she attended English-speaking private schools from K-12. Her dad was a medical professor and also taught at Oxford and Edinburgh Scotland so she traded time between Santiago and the UK growing up. She speaks perfect unaccented English (actually she can do any accent you want from Irish or Scottish to deep southern belle). In addition to English and Spanish she also speaks fluent French, Italian, and Portuguese. She has that rare talent for languages where she can visit a country for a couple weeks and be speaking close to fluently just by listening.

Our kids understand quite a bit of Spanish but really don't speak it. They spend too much time in Texas schools so it's all "yes sir, no ma'am," and "y'all fixin' to come by?" Since they share half my genes they probably won't get my wife's rare talent for language. But we do want to do what we can to raise them bilingual.

There is a big Texas Gulf Coast Teachers job fair tomorrow and Tuesday if you are interested.

Thanks, but I'm already under contract locally for the next school year. So I won't be looking for Houston-area jobs until next spring. The medical profession hires with much longer lead times so it's not uncommon for doctors to be interviewing and lining up positions 9-12 months out. The sensible thing for us to do is for her to find her perfect job first, then have me follow her. Rather than the other way around. Since she is fussier than me and her jobs are harder to find.

[texasdiver]

Actually, what texas911 means is, in some Houston political circles, Bilingual School means they cater to the non-English speaking student. He also means to say that SOME Houstonians believe this is a waste of resources. There is a large segment of the population that does not believe that education should be denied to those who do not speak English as their primary language, nor do we get our opinions on how best to educate children from talk radio.

But, as a teacher in Texas, I am sure you have heard all of this way too many times.

Yeah, well, around here we have plenty of Hispanic kids in the high schools but they are mostly fluent English speakers. Or, perhaps more accurately, they are fluent "hip hop" and gangsta rap speakers. None of the schools I've dealt with in the Waco area have any sort of bilingual education, especially at the high school level. And there are certainly no dual-track immersion schools here.

[musicman]

Hey just going by what you posted. In Houston, Bilingual School means, they cater to non English speaking student, meaning Spanish speaking. What a waste of resources. I guess what you "meant" was you wanted to teach your kids a second language, to me that's not a bilingual education. That's just regular education.

concur. unforunately HISD's bilingual ed now is all about getting federal funds vs. children learning english.

Edited June 3, 2007 by musicman

[gwilson]

Some might disagree with this, but I really do feel that Sharpstown is one of the best neighborhoods in town. Take a look in to the Country Club Estates sections of Sharpstown and I think you might be surprised.

Benefits:

Crime is low.

Neighborhoods are great.

Close to everything that matters in town (Downtown, Galleria, Pearland, Sugarland, US59, i-610, I-10, BW8, Medical Center, Reliant).

Very culturally diverse area. (white, black, hispanic, asian)

Lovely mid-century ranches & cottages. People are even starting (slowly) to buy & rebuild.

The only cons are:

Sharpstown has an unwarranted negative reputation as the ghetto. It isn't. The neighborhoods are still quite nice and among the most beautiful in town, especially for under a million for a house (oak tree lined streets with huge canopies, kids playing, couples walking, people bar-b-queing. It is like the things they show in ads for neighborhoods, but never really happen. Well, in Sharpstown, it does.

The schools aren't the best, but they aren't bad. I went to Sharpstown public schools and magnet schools. I had a better learning experience at Sharpstown High School than the magnet. As with any school, most of it depends on how the child engages the teachers, and the teachers themselves. Sharpstown also has two excellent jesuit run high schools (Strake for boys and St. Agnes for girls) and an excellent jesuit primary school (St. Francis).

Sharpstown is as safe as the Woodlands or Sugarland (safer in many cases if you look at the crime stats) but with the addition of different cultures and character.

Sure, you'll probably go to the Galleria to shop rather than Sharpstown mall.

Give it a shot.

[Jeebus]

Sharpstown is as safe as the Woodlands or Sugarland (safer in many cases if you look at the crime stats) but with the addition of different cultures and character.

I'm sorry Gwilson, but I'm going to have to disagree. I'm sure the residential streets of Sharpstown are some of the safest in America. But who wants to be a prisoner in their own home? Sharpstown is a very dangerous place after dark along its main thoroughfares. Sugar Land is not. A good example would be to compare the reported crimes just in the parking lots of the First Colony Mall & the Sharpstown Mall. All you'll find in the First Colony mall stats are thefts. You'll find alot worse in the Sharpstown Mall stats.

For public middle and high schools, Sharpstown is left lacking. How could you possibly compare Sharpstown High to Clements, Austin or Cinco Ranch?

Again Gwilson, I'm not attacking you, but I'm forced to disagree with the safety and convenience of Sharpstown, especially compared to the likes of Sugar Land.

Edited June 4, 2007 by Jeebus

[houstonmacbro]

I'm sorry Gwilson, but I'm going to have to disagree. I'm sure the residential streets of Sharpstown are some of the safest in America. But who wants to be a prisoner in their own home? Sharpstown is a very dangerous place after dark along its main thoroughfares. Sugar Land is not. A good example would be to compare the reported crimes just in the parking lots of the First Colony Mall & the Sharpstown Mall. All you'll find in the First Colony mall stats are thefts. You'll find alot worse in the Sharpstown Mall stats.

For public middle and high schools, Sharpstown is left lacking. How could you possibly compare Sharpstown High to Clements, Austin or Cinco Ranch?

Again Gwilson, I'm not attacking you, but I'm forced to disagree with the safety and convenience of Sharpstown, especially compared to the likes of Sugar Land.

I do agree with GWilson on the location part. It is VERY convenient to a lot of things. Only thing that messes it up in the 59 east where it meets up with 610/Galleria. That can be nightmarish --still- at certain times of day.