SF Breeders

San Francisco School Lottery Results are Out- SFK Files

This month is the time of tears, joy and lots of angry discussions as the San Francisco public school lottery results were mailed out on Friday, March 7, and the private school decisions are mailed out on March 12th.  As one might imagine in a city with an entirely broken school choice process where neighborhood proximity gets ZERO weighting, parents are a little frustrated at being assigned half-way cross town in many cases.

The best way to follow this discussion is through the amazing blog, the SF K Files (here).  It's a great example of how a single blogger can become the focal point of an entire city's discussion, with her post about the lottery results getting 312 comments so far, including the principal of one of the schools commenting as well.  Just in case someone thinks the lottery is fixed, "Kate" got none of her 7 choices, which only keeps the blog even more relevant since we can now all live through her agony. 

Some of the comments are starting to fray a bit, including an interesting SAHM (Stay at home mom) debate vs working moms, but in general, the discourse is helpful and supportive, and it provides a good place for parents to vent about how broken the system is.   The funniest thread is that a bunch of parents who listed McKinley school didn't get it, while a bunch of parents were assigned to it, but have no interest in going there - it would tend to point to a flaw in the process :)

Now the debate turns to the Phase 2/Appeals process, as well as the Private School admission results this week.  Is it any wonder that this city has the lowest percentage of children of any major city, especially when one has a mayor with ZERO interest in fixing the school system, and a school board generally concerned with irrelevant issues such as protesting the Iraq War?

Great NYT Article on Children and the Internet

New York Times technology columnist David Pogue recently posted one of the best articles I have seen rationally discussing how dangerous is the Internet actually for children.  I have posted an excerpt below, but the entire article should be read here.

“Sure, there are dangers. But they’re hugely overhyped by the media. The tales of pedophiles luring children out of their homes are like plane crashes: they happen extremely rarely, but when they do, they make headlines everywhere. The Internet is just another facet of socialization for the new generation; as always, common sense and a level head are the best safeguards.”

As a father of 3 children and CEO of social entertainment company Meez with millions of teenage users, I spend a lot of time looking at how young people use the Internet and drawing the line in the sand over different types of behavior, whether at home or at Meez.  But I find myself constantly arguing with friends who are completely and irrationally convinced that stalkers are after their children, whether it's in the local park or on a PC.  I recently even sat on a panel with a young social network CEO who repeatedly argued that the key differentiator for his service was that he had hired a former FBI profiler (Jodi Foster, maybe?) as a key part of his team.

I realize that fear-mongering is a way for certain companies or reporters to break through the clutter of every day news, and that some individuals will try to play up the risk in order to help their businesses, but it's nice to see the subject tackled in a rational way unlike most of the drivel I normally see around the topic.

This post was originally done on the blog Sharkjumping.

Dogs vs Children in San Francisco

According to the SF Chronicle article here, there are more dogs than children in San Francisco, and the disparity is increasing, not decreasing - and you wonder why Mayor Newsom doesn't care about reforming the schools?

Why SF Breeders?

Why is the blog named SFBreeders?  Not because we raise dogs.  It's because we love San Francisco and we love our children (see photo), but we feel much of the time that the city is actively anti-"Breeder", which is a term for those who choose to have children.  I'd like to raise awareness of issues in San Francisco around children, as well as point out how many families actually choose to live here, and how we can band together to try to create some change.  We'll talk more in later posts about the reasons we feel the city is difficult for children and how we can make a difference.

The term "Breeder" was originally a Gay vs Straight differentiator, but this has changed as increasing numbers of our gay friends, particularly lesbians, have chosen to have or adopt children.  Plus, calling the site "Families for San Francisco" or something like that would be really boring...