Basis families: talk to me about the building

[Anonymous]

Thought some on this thread might like to see what BASIS seniors are doing for the next few months. Today was their last day in the building. They had breakfast together and put on their caps and gowns and walked through the building for the last time. The seniors are at a lock-in at school right now hanging out together. I’d say they’re pretty happy kids.


https://basisseniorprojects.com/washington-dc/academics/senior-projects/basis-senior-projects/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thought some on this thread might like to see what BASIS seniors are doing for the next few months. Today was their last day in the building. They had breakfast together and put on their caps and gowns and walked through the building for the last time. The seniors are at a lock-in at school right now hanging out together. I’d say they’re pretty happy kids.


https://basisseniorprojects.com/washington-dc/academics/senior-projects/basis-senior-projects/

Yes, I agree. They look very happy and have the world at their feet. Some very impressive projects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is at BASIS. I would not make the decision about whether to go to BASIS on the building, but I find it depressing, dark, and somewhat cramped-feeling.

I just toured Basis last month. I made the decision not to consider it because of the building. IMO, the good academics just can’t compensate enough for the terrible facilities.

I realize we are privileged in that we have other options while some families don’t.

They can take your clothes, they can take your riches, they can even take your freedom, but one thing they cannot take is your education. I'll go for the academics. You can't take the pretty buildings and manicured lawns with you but your knowledge and skills will travel with you everywhere. This famous quote comes from my mother.

if the education at BASIS were worth missing out on much in way of natural light for 8 years, I’d agree with your mother 100%. We weren’t impressed impressed by at least half of my kid’s classes in 5th and 6th grades, along with the ban on modern language instruction until 8th and along with the requirement that students learn languages at the beginning level (some sort of 80s throwback). We hired an English tutor to ensure that our kid wrote weekly essays that were corrected. His parochial doesn’t require half as much memorization but offers a much better/livelier education overall. But if DCPS is your only viable alternative,sure, BASIS is terrific.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thought some on this thread might like to see what BASIS seniors are doing for the next few months. Today was their last day in the building. They had breakfast together and put on their caps and gowns and walked through the building for the last time. The seniors are at a lock-in at school right now hanging out together. I’d say they’re pretty happy kids.


https://basisseniorprojects.com/washington-dc/academics/senior-projects/basis-senior-projects/

So exciting! My (8th grade) daughter mentioned the parade down the hall - very festive and fun (and wow, what an impressive group of seniors)!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is at BASIS. I would not make the decision about whether to go to BASIS on the building, but I find it depressing, dark, and somewhat cramped-feeling.

I just toured Basis last month. I made the decision not to consider it because of the building. IMO, the good academics just can’t compensate enough for the terrible facilities.

I realize we are privileged in that we have other options while some families don’t.

They can take your clothes, they can take your riches, they can even take your freedom, but one thing they cannot take is your education. I'll go for the academics. You can't take the pretty buildings and manicured lawns with you but your knowledge and skills will travel with you everywhere. This famous quote comes from my mother.

PP here, we have the option of getting good facilities and academics. Also IMO it’s terrible to try to cram all these AP classes by the end of junior year. For what? The heavy emphasis on rote memorization does not impress me either.

Academics may be good if you compare it to DCPS but it’s not fantastic to compensate for the facilities. I want my kid to have a well rounded middle/high school experience with good academics, good facilities, lots of sports and extracurriculars at the school like I did growing up.

If it’s Basis or DCPS, sure go for it But if you have options, Basis isn’t the best choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is at BASIS. I would not make the decision about whether to go to BASIS on the building, but I find it depressing, dark, and somewhat cramped-feeling.

I just toured Basis last month. I made the decision not to consider it because of the building. IMO, the good academics just can’t compensate enough for the terrible facilities.

I realize we are privileged in that we have other options while some families don’t.

They can take your clothes, they can take your riches, they can even take your freedom, but one thing they cannot take is your education. I'll go for the academics. You can't take the pretty buildings and manicured lawns with you but your knowledge and skills will travel with you everywhere. This famous quote comes from my mother.

if the education at BASIS were worth missing out on much in way of natural light for 8 years, I’d agree with your mother 100%. We weren’t impressed impressed by at least half of my kid’s classes in 5th and 6th grades, along with the ban on modern language instruction until 8th and along with the requirement that students learn languages at the beginning level (some sort of 80s throwback). We hired an English tutor to ensure that our kid wrote weekly essays that were corrected. His parochial doesn’t require half as much memorization but offers a much better/livelier education overall. But if DCPS is your only viable alternative,sure, BASIS is terrific.

If this is the end result of not requiring a little "memorization" ( https://www.thefp.com/p/dishonor-code-what-happens-when-cheating) I will take BASIS! Seriously - learning new things takes memorization/hard work. No other way to go about it. (of course should be combined with discussion/explanation, etc, but first you need to know key concepts/facts to even have the discussin!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is at BASIS. I would not make the decision about whether to go to BASIS on the building, but I find it depressing, dark, and somewhat cramped-feeling.

I just toured Basis last month. I made the decision not to consider it because of the building. IMO, the good academics just can’t compensate enough for the terrible facilities.

I realize we are privileged in that we have other options while some families don’t.

They can take your clothes, they can take your riches, they can even take your freedom, but one thing they cannot take is your education. I'll go for the academics. You can't take the pretty buildings and manicured lawns with you but your knowledge and skills will travel with you everywhere. This famous quote comes from my mother.

if the education at BASIS were worth missing out on much in way of natural light for 8 years, I’d agree with your mother 100%. We weren’t impressed impressed by at least half of my kid’s classes in 5th and 6th grades, along with the ban on modern language instruction until 8th and along with the requirement that students learn languages at the beginning level (some sort of 80s throwback). We hired an English tutor to ensure that our kid wrote weekly essays that were corrected. His parochial doesn’t require half as much memorization but offers a much better/livelier education overall. But if DCPS is your only viable alternative,sure, BASIS is terrific.

If this is the end result of not requiring a little "memorization" ( https://www.thefp.com/p/dishonor-code-what-happens-when-cheating) I will take BASIS! Seriously - learning new things takes memorization/hard work. No other way to go about it. (of course should be combined with discussion/explanation, etc, but first you need to know key concepts/facts to even have the discussin!)

No one said you don’t need to memorize some basic things. People are saying that there is too much emphasis on memorization. The 2 are not the same at all.

Some kids will slog thru and spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to memorize everything. This works for some. Other kids will memorize the basics but are better at critical thinking and figuring things out. This latter requires a significant less amount of time.

This division of how kids approach learning is most apparent in my medical school and medical school in general. Way too much information to memorize everything. Some kids would skip all classes and just spend 8-10 hours a day trying to memorize everything, I kid you not. Even with this, you could not memorize it all. My good friend was like this.

I went to all the classes, actively assimilated the topic as the professor was lecturing and spent 1/10th the time memorializing and reviewing things. I was good at figuring things out.

Guess who had fun in med school and who had no life. FWIW, I did find and graduated in the top 10% of my class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is at BASIS. I would not make the decision about whether to go to BASIS on the building, but I find it depressing, dark, and somewhat cramped-feeling.

I just toured Basis last month. I made the decision not to consider it because of the building. IMO, the good academics just can’t compensate enough for the terrible facilities.

I realize we are privileged in that we have other options while some families don’t.

They can take your clothes, they can take your riches, they can even take your freedom, but one thing they cannot take is your education. I'll go for the academics. You can't take the pretty buildings and manicured lawns with you but your knowledge and skills will travel with you everywhere. This famous quote comes from my mother.

if the education at BASIS were worth missing out on much in way of natural light for 8 years, I’d agree with your mother 100%. We weren’t impressed impressed by at least half of my kid’s classes in 5th and 6th grades, along with the ban on modern language instruction until 8th and along with the requirement that students learn languages at the beginning level (some sort of 80s throwback). We hired an English tutor to ensure that our kid wrote weekly essays that were corrected. His parochial doesn’t require half as much memorization but offers a much better/livelier education overall. But if DCPS is your only viable alternative,sure, BASIS is terrific.

If this is the end result of not requiring a little "memorization" ( https://www.thefp.com/p/dishonor-code-what-happens-when-cheating) I will take BASIS! Seriously - learning new things takes memorization/hard work. No other way to go about it. (of course should be combined with discussion/explanation, etc, but first you need to know key concepts/facts to even have the discussin!)

No one said you don’t need to memorize some basic things. People are saying that there is too much emphasis on memorization. The 2 are not the same at all.

Some kids will slog thru and spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to memorize everything. This works for some. Other kids will memorize the basics but are better at critical thinking and figuring things out. This latter requires a significant less amount of time.

This division of how kids approach learning is most apparent in my medical school and medical school in general. Way too much information to memorize everything. Some kids would skip all classes and just spend 8-10 hours a day trying to memorize everything, I kid you not. Even with this, you could not memorize it all. My good friend was like this.

I went to all the classes, actively assimilated the topic as the professor was lecturing and spent 1/10th the time memorializing and reviewing things. I was good at figuring things out.

Guess who had fun in med school and who had no life. FWIW, I did find and graduated in the top 10% of my class.

Super weird flex, bro.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is at BASIS. I would not make the decision about whether to go to BASIS on the building, but I find it depressing, dark, and somewhat cramped-feeling.

I just toured Basis last month. I made the decision not to consider it because of the building. IMO, the good academics just can’t compensate enough for the terrible facilities.

I realize we are privileged in that we have other options while some families don’t.

They can take your clothes, they can take your riches, they can even take your freedom, but one thing they cannot take is your education. I'll go for the academics. You can't take the pretty buildings and manicured lawns with you but your knowledge and skills will travel with you everywhere. This famous quote comes from my mother.

if the education at BASIS were worth missing out on much in way of natural light for 8 years, I’d agree with your mother 100%. We weren’t impressed by at least half of my kid’s classes in 5th and 6th grades or the ban on modern language instruction until 8th and along with the requirement that students learn languages at the beginning level (some sort of 80s throwback). We hired an English tutor to ensure that our kid wrote weekly essays that were corrected. His parochial doesn’t require half as much memorization but offers a much better/livelier education overall. But if DCPS is your only viable alternative,sure, BASIS is terrific.

I can't argue with this take on BASIS. Their science education rocks, but we can live with less science acceleration at Deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is at BASIS. I would not make the decision about whether to go to BASIS on the building, but I find it depressing, dark, and somewhat cramped-feeling.

I just toured Basis last month. I made the decision not to consider it because of the building. IMO, the good academics just can’t compensate enough for the terrible facilities.

I realize we are privileged in that we have other options while some families don’t.

They can take your clothes, they can take your riches, they can even take your freedom, but one thing they cannot take is your education. I'll go for the academics. You can't take the pretty buildings and manicured lawns with you but your knowledge and skills will travel with you everywhere. This famous quote comes from my mother.

if the education at BASIS were worth missing out on much in way of natural light for 8 years, I’d agree with your mother 100%. We weren’t impressed impressed by at least half of my kid’s classes in 5th and 6th grades, along with the ban on modern language instruction until 8th and along with the requirement that students learn languages at the beginning level (some sort of 80s throwback). We hired an English tutor to ensure that our kid wrote weekly essays that were corrected. His parochial doesn’t require half as much memorization but offers a much better/livelier education overall. But if DCPS is your only viable alternative,sure, BASIS is terrific.

If this is the end result of not requiring a little "memorization" ( https://www.thefp.com/p/dishonor-code-what-happens-when-cheating) I will take BASIS! Seriously - learning new things takes memorization/hard work. No other way to go about it. (of course should be combined with discussion/explanation, etc, but first you need to know key concepts/facts to even have the discussin!)

In our experience, too often, memorization in BASIS middle school classes provides cover for lazy teaching. 11 and 12-year-olds are expected to sit in too many darkened rooms watching PP presentations taking notes to help them memorize info as prep for quizzes and tests. The balance between memorizing facts to prep for endless quizzes and applying knowledge could be better. I get it, BASIS can't afford to hire or retain better trained and more motivated and experienced teachers. New parents should understand that BASIS isn't a GT program, where kids are encouraged to memorize as preparation to apply and discuss concepts. Honestly, the students tend to be better than the instruction outside of sci classes, an arrangement which has a way of letting weak teachers off the hook. Yes, the instruction is probably better than in DCPS and other charters overall, but it's very uneven.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is at BASIS. I would not make the decision about whether to go to BASIS on the building, but I find it depressing, dark, and somewhat cramped-feeling.

I just toured Basis last month. I made the decision not to consider it because of the building. IMO, the good academics just can’t compensate enough for the terrible facilities.

I realize we are privileged in that we have other options while some families don’t.

They can take your clothes, they can take your riches, they can even take your freedom, but one thing they cannot take is your education. I'll go for the academics. You can't take the pretty buildings and manicured lawns with you but your knowledge and skills will travel with you everywhere. This famous quote comes from my mother.

if the education at BASIS were worth missing out on much in way of natural light for 8 years, I’d agree with your mother 100%. We weren’t impressed impressed by at least half of my kid’s classes in 5th and 6th grades, along with the ban on modern language instruction until 8th and along with the requirement that students learn languages at the beginning level (some sort of 80s throwback). We hired an English tutor to ensure that our kid wrote weekly essays that were corrected. His parochial doesn’t require half as much memorization but offers a much better/livelier education overall. But if DCPS is your only viable alternative,sure, BASIS is terrific.

If you want your opinion to be taken seriously then take a more serious approach. It is laughable that you refer to this as a "ban". It is a curriculum choice. It is clearly one with which you disagree. My kid is at BASIS now and I also wish they offered a foreign language. I knew when we chose BASIS that foreign language was not going to happen until 8th grade. My eyes were wide open. Were you not paying attention to the 40 different ways they described the curriculum before you enrolled? Did your sense of entitlement cause you to believe that the rules didn't apply to you and yours? If I was designing the curriculum I would not have assigned chemistry, physics and biology in 6th grade, but that has turned out to be a great fit for my science inclined kid who never took a real science class until they got to BASIS.

There's a difference between deficiencies (the building is not great) and choices with which you disagree. The idea that anyone who doesn't make the same affirmative choices you would make is somehow "banning you" or "canceling you" is weak sauce reserved for Tucker and Fox & Friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is at BASIS. I would not make the decision about whether to go to BASIS on the building, but I find it depressing, dark, and somewhat cramped-feeling.

I just toured Basis last month. I made the decision not to consider it because of the building. IMO, the good academics just can’t compensate enough for the terrible facilities.

I realize we are privileged in that we have other options while some families don’t.

They can take your clothes, they can take your riches, they can even take your freedom, but one thing they cannot take is your education. I'll go for the academics. You can't take the pretty buildings and manicured lawns with you but your knowledge and skills will travel with you everywhere. This famous quote comes from my mother.

if the education at BASIS were worth missing out on much in way of natural light for 8 years, I’d agree with your mother 100%. We weren’t impressed impressed by at least half of my kid’s classes in 5th and 6th grades, along with the ban on modern language instruction until 8th and along with the requirement that students learn languages at the beginning level (some sort of 80s throwback). We hired an English tutor to ensure that our kid wrote weekly essays that were corrected. His parochial doesn’t require half as much memorization but offers a much better/livelier education overall. But if DCPS is your only viable alternative,sure, BASIS is terrific.

If you want your opinion to be taken seriously then take a more serious approach. It is laughable that you refer to this as a "ban". It is a curriculum choice. It is clearly one with which you disagree. My kid is at BASIS now and I also wish they offered a foreign language. I knew when we chose BASIS that foreign language was not going to happen until 8th grade. My eyes were wide open. Were you not paying attention to the 40 different ways they described the curriculum before you enrolled? Did your sense of entitlement cause you to believe that the rules didn't apply to you and yours? If I was designing the curriculum I would not have assigned chemistry, physics and biology in 6th grade, but that has turned out to be a great fit for my science inclined kid who never took a real science class until they got to BASIS.

There's a difference between deficiencies (the building is not great) and choices with which you disagree. The idea that anyone who doesn't make the same affirmative choices you would make is somehow "banning you" or "canceling you" is weak sauce reserved for Tucker and Fox & Friends.

I’m a different PP and agree that BASIS is transparent with their curriculum for the most part. However, they did “cancel” Latin this year for 5th and 6th graders and added Linguistics in its place. We were not given a heads up prior to enrollment about this so they do make changes without advance notice from time to time. (My kid misses Latin, Linguistics is not a good substitute fwiw.)

[Anonymous]

Bring transparent about bone-headed curricular choices that wouldn’t have been out of place 50 years ago doesn’t make BASIS a great school. Their science instruction is first rate from the get-go. That’s about it. We weren’t even blown away by the math teaching. The miserable building only tells half the story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bring transparent about bone-headed curricular choices that wouldn’t have been out of place 50 years ago doesn’t make BASIS a great school. Their science instruction is first rate from the get-go. That’s about it. We weren’t even blown away by the math teaching. The miserable building only tells half the story.

. Being.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bring transparent about bone-headed curricular choices that wouldn’t have been out of place 50 years ago doesn’t make BASIS a great school. Their science instruction is first rate from the get-go. That’s about it. We weren’t even blown away by the math teaching. The miserable building only tells half the story.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I have found the math, chem, physics, bio, econ, and art instruction to be excellent (light years ahead of my instruction back in the day). English has been solid, with a a little too much emphasis on grammar and not enough on writing, for my taste. Spanish seems fine. (world) History seems a bit scattered - but it is such a voluminous topic to cover (especially without a textbook tying it all together!). As is proven time and time again by these threads, BASIS is very polarizing. IF it works for your kid - you will really appreciate the school. If it doesn't, apparently you will hate it with the power of a thousand blazing suns.