Pyle or eastern Humanities/communication program?

[Anonymous]

My child was accepted to the eastern humanities program. Would you select to go there over Pyle middle school?
Transportation won’t be an issue, more asking from an education and social standpoint. Pros and cons?

[Anonymous]

people with children on the waitlist will advise you not to accept. This is DCUM, after all.

[Anonymous]

We found the tour very helpful to our decision process. Will they do that in person this year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:people with children on the waitlist will advise you not to accept. This is DCUM, after all.

This

[Anonymous]

Will they allow your child to shadow a current student? We did this (pre-covid times), and it was helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We found the tour very helpful to our decision process. Will they do that in person this year?

According to the email no.

[Anonymous]

Some of this depends on your own personal kid.

The integration of World Studies and English at Eastern is amazing, and there is an explicit focus on the pragmatics of writing that you won't get at Pyle (or any other non-magnet program).

The non-magnet classes can be a little hit-or-miss, but math instruction is very good.

The Eastern Humanities workload is pretty staggering for a lot of kids, and requires a fair amount of self-motivation and organizational skills. If your child has a very time consuming extracurricular, they might find it hard to balance the obligations without some help.

On the flip side, the Humanities adjacent extracurriculars (writing club, theater, etc) at Eastern are great.

As the parent of an Eastern 8th grader, the kids I've seen hate it there are either not that into Humanities, struggled to make friends and didn't know many kids coming in, or disorganized to the point that big projects like the documentary or the research project end up overwhelming them.

The good news is that you don't have a bad option.

[Anonymous]

The closer you live to the school, the more likely you are to accept an offer. This ends up, as they work through the waitlist, creating a class predominately from Silver Spring and immediately adjacent areas. You should talk to families who have done it from your area. Many of the Humanities Magnet kids go on to CAP at Blair or private schools for HS. Would you consider continuing to Blair for HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of this depends on your own personal kid.

The integration of World Studies and English at Eastern is amazing, and there is an explicit focus on the pragmatics of writing that you won't get at Pyle (or any other non-magnet program).

The non-magnet classes can be a little hit-or-miss, but math instruction is very good.

The Eastern Humanities workload is pretty staggering for a lot of kids, and requires a fair amount of self-motivation and organizational skills. If your child has a very time consuming extracurricular, they might find it hard to balance the obligations without some help.

On the flip side, the Humanities adjacent extracurriculars (writing club, theater, etc) at Eastern are great.

As the parent of an Eastern 8th grader, the kids I've seen hate it there are either not that into Humanities, struggled to make friends and didn't know many kids coming in, or disorganized to the point that big projects like the documentary or the research project end up overwhelming them.

The good news is that you don't have a bad option.

The poster above gave you great advice. I'd also mention that the kids are learning approximately two grade levels ahead of mcps curriculum, like the long term report with citations they write in 7th grade, so good organizational skills are very helpful. Students read a lot of books, from cover to cover, not excerpts, so it helps if your child likes to read and reads quickly. I hear Pyle has great teachers and cohorts so I don't think you can make a bad decision, as the other poster said. It can get intense at times since the kids work a couple of grade levels ahead, but they're supportive of each other and it's not a competitive culture. I would've considered private school for DC if he hadn't gotten a spot but so far I've been quite happy with his progress.

[Anonymous]

DP whose child is also considering accepting the spot at Eastern. I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but I thought OP might be interested too — how’s the administration at Eastern (principal/assistant principal/magnet coordinator)?

[Anonymous]

NP here. I really like both the principal (Mr. Johnson) and the magnet coordinator (Mr. Kerwin). Both are efficient and effective in my view -- and both are really good coordinators.

I have an older kid who went through the humanities magnet program under the previous principal -- Casey Crouse of the Damascus HS football team sexual assault scandal. Eastern was a hot mess under her administration. I have no idea what brain trust at MCPS Central decided she was ready for prime time with a high school principalship, but I wasn't at all shocked to learn about her total bungling of the scandal.

Since she left, I've been really pleased with the administration of the humanities magnet in particular and the school in general. The teacher team and Mr. Kerwin are all very experienced and at least from the parent perspective the program runs very smoothly.

[Anonymous]

*Meant to say communicators not coordinators in my first paragraph.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DP whose child is also considering accepting the spot at Eastern. I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but I thought OP might be interested too — how’s the administration at Eastern (principal/assistant principal/magnet coordinator)?

They're great! Love the magnet team and how responsive they are. Even better than our ES and I thought highly of our ES principal and staff. Mr. Johnson, the principal, is out in the carpool loop in front of the school every day. Even in the cold! I really appreciate that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. I really like both the principal (Mr. Johnson) and the magnet coordinator (Mr. Kerwin). Both are efficient and effective in my view -- and both are really good coordinators.

I have an older kid who went through the humanities magnet program under the previous principal -- Casey Crouse of the Damascus HS football team sexual assault scandal. Eastern was a hot mess under her administration. I have no idea what brain trust at MCPS Central decided she was ready for prime time with a high school principalship, but I wasn't at all shocked to learn about her total bungling of the scandal.

Since she left, I've been really pleased with the administration of the humanities magnet in particular and the school in general. The teacher team and Mr. Kerwin are all very experienced and at least from the parent perspective the program runs very smoothly.

I am 1000% in agreement with the part of this post that says Casey Crouse’s administration of Eastern was a hot mess - we saw disability discrimination, gay and lesbian discrimination and sexual harassment normalized and perpetuated by her. How she has a job in central office is a mystery to me.

But, Mr. Johnson was a vice-principal at the time with her. IMO, he helped Crouse normalize the sexual harassment girls experienced under successive rounds of “Slap Ass Week” at school. He also was very obstructive on disability discrimination issues. He left Eastern for awhile and went to Banneker and then came back as principal at EMS. I sincerely hope that he has grown as an administrator.

That said - while my DD is still angry about the harassment she experienced at Eastern, as an educational experience she will say it is the single best educational choice we made for her. The IDRIP paper writing project is unique writing instruction that leaves the kids prepared to write college level papers. It made all high school writing easy. The peers are amazing and very diverse and provide great intellectual and social support for each other. She is still close friends with a core group of them today and 6 years later finds them popping up all over the world unexpectedly at university and work.

The commute is manageable - we had an AM carpool and let the kids ride home on the bus in the PM. (We live in a Pyle-adjacent cluster.). TBH, I’m not sure I would be wild about letting my child take the bus during COVID. YMMV.

If your kids like the subject matter of the magnet, I highly recommend it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DP whose child is also considering accepting the spot at Eastern. I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but I thought OP might be interested too — how’s the administration at Eastern (principal/assistant principal/magnet coordinator)?

Not a fan of the magnet coordinator, and I don't understand the parents who think he's great. There are issues with the program and he is totally uninterested in trying to solve them. People who are in the program know what these issues are.