A blog success story: TheSFKFiles

Even though I'm years past that stage, I read the hot new blog TheSFKFiles almost every day, and often post comments. The blog was started by an anonymous (and very young) mom looking at SFUSD and private kindergartens who posts detailed reviews after touring schools. Its comments section has organically become the kind of forum that others have unsuccessfully tried to create. It's routine for each post to draw 20-30 comments, and many have 50-80.

One thing that keeps me reading avidly is the energetic discussion in the comments about the social impact of the public-vs.-private and city-vs.-suburbia decisions — the morality and values involved in those choices. I have definitely been one of the strong voices on those issues, but I don't even think I'm the one who first brought them up. And that's intriguing, because the social impact, morality and values involved in the decision weren't on my radar in the slightest when we were making those choices. Nobody talked about it, and I wasn't insightful enough to perceive that stuff on my own.

So with several hundred people reading that blog, and a large percentage of them preparing to apply to kindergarten, it'll be intriguing to know that they made their choices in full awareness that there are greater impacts to their decisions.

(There are some commentators on the blog disputing that there's any impact. At least one asserts that boycotting public schools is the most effective way to improve them, and that middle-class kids going to public schools only displace disadvantaged kids, thus harming them. One commentator — possibly the same one — compared choosing public schools to consuming Diet Coke and Skippy, and choosing private schools to selecting organic whole foods. Those views don't seem to win many adherents even among other self-described private-school parents.)

Anyway, I think that forum is a fantastic boon to parents and to San Francisco public education — and to widespread awareness of some important but not always obvious issues around education.

It should intrigue any blogger, including us here at SFSchools World Headquarters, that that particular blog has caught fire. I think PPS or someone connected with it even tried to start a listserve for San Francisco parents first looking at schools, and it went nowhere. Anyone care to speculate on why that blog has won so much avid interest and participation?

I'll pose some guesses:

• The K application process is a temporary but all-consuming obsession for many parents, mostly middle-class ones — since it's temporary, people are willing to devote major time and energy to it. And unlike the college application process (which we're addressing in the still-lightly-visited blog Taming the College Admissions Beast), parents have to do it all, and without resistance from a teen pushing for independence. (One regular College Admissions Beast reader told me her teen refuses to discuss the college search with Mom and Dad at all, even though the kid is a high-achiever and clearly college-bound.)
• The format of the blogger comments section is more user-friendly and less threatening in various ways than a format like a listserve, which you generally have to actively join. (I started a Yahoo listserve for Aptos Middle School and have learned over the years that some of our most active parents never joined it because they just don't get what it is, and many others have tried and couldn't figure out how. )
• The default for the comments section is to post anonymously, which loosens inhibitions considerably.
• The blog has a face — though she's pseudonymous and I for one have no idea of her identity — and most posters seem considerate enough of her to avoid getting too heated. And the blogger has ultimate control. I was on vacation and missed the whole thing, but she seems to have taken down one thread entirely when the comments got too abrasive. Nobody yells "censorship!" since it's so clearly her own personal blog.

Interestingly, the blogger seems willing only to post positive reviews. In at least a couple of cases she has posted that she's about to tour a school and will be posting her review later, and then has not posted anything, clearly by choice. I was about to post the name of one school with which I recall that happening, but then decided I should keep to the blogger's spirit, just for this post.

I initially thought that was an overly timid attitude — especially after I posted some not-too-flattering information about a private school in the spirit of "knowledge is power" consumer awareness and it was met with disapproval. But actually, maybe that's what's keeping the blog so effective, so perhaps I should be rethinking my own belief that the more information, the better.

That particular blog presumably has a lifespan of only one school application season, so I wonder if PPS can find a way to replicate it in an equally effective format in future years.