Stuart Hobson Middle School?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks. I'm the 4th grade parent. I fully expect that a substantial amount of learning will occur outside of school, and I'm comfortable with that. That would be true at any school, but moreso at SH. With a curious kid, that hopefully will happen mostly naturally, with extracurricular reading, Smithsonian visits, etc., but I also expect it to include online learning, parental tutoring, and things like CHAW and Hill center classes. It sounds like you're both less optimistic about the quality of SH and have higher expectations about the extent to which a middle school should push kids academically.

Thanks for the polite but frank comments.

Just a warning, PP, from a parent with older kids on the Hill. The opportunities for learning outside of school are very different for elementary school students as opposed to middle and high school students. I felt the exact same way as you did when my kids were younger. As long as they were reading, messing around with science experiments in the kitchen, and involved with extracurricular activities and classes as CHAW, they were ok going to their not-so-challenging elementary school. Now that they’re older, their extracurricular activities are based at school. Classes at CHAW and the Hill Center are geared toward younger students. My older kids do spend lots of time on Khan Academy, as well as trying to take part in as many cultural opportunities (Smithsonian Museums, theater, etc) on the weekends. However, school is where they spend the bulk of their time and where I need them to be pushed academically. I’m just not going to be able to teach them physics or calculus or world history in any systematic way after the school day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks. I'm the 4th grade parent. I fully expect that a substantial amount of learning will occur outside of school, and I'm comfortable with that. That would be true at any school, but moreso at SH. With a curious kid, that hopefully will happen mostly naturally, with extracurricular reading, Smithsonian visits, etc., but I also expect it to include online learning, parental tutoring, and things like CHAW and Hill center classes. It sounds like you're both less optimistic about the quality of SH and have higher expectations about the extent to which a middle school should push kids academically.

Thanks for the polite but frank comments.

Just a warning, PP, from a parent with older kids on the Hill. The opportunities for learning outside of school are very different for elementary school students as opposed to middle and high school students. I felt the exact same way as you did when my kids were younger. As long as they were reading, messing around with science experiments in the kitchen, and involved with extracurricular activities and classes as CHAW, they were ok going to their not-so-challenging elementary school. Now that they’re older, their extracurricular activities are based at school. Classes at CHAW and the Hill Center are geared toward younger students. My older kids do spend lots of time on Khan Academy, as well as trying to take part in as many cultural opportunities (Smithsonian Museums, theater, etc) on the weekends. However, school is where they spend the bulk of their time and where I need them to be pushed academically. I’m just not going to be able to teach them physics or calculus or world history in any systematic way after the school day.

Good points. Where did your kids end up in school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks. I'm the 4th grade parent. I fully expect that a substantial amount of learning will occur outside of school, and I'm comfortable with that. That would be true at any school, but moreso at SH. With a curious kid, that hopefully will happen mostly naturally, with extracurricular reading, Smithsonian visits, etc., but I also expect it to include online learning, parental tutoring, and things like CHAW and Hill center classes. It sounds like you're both less optimistic about the quality of SH and have higher expectations about the extent to which a middle school should push kids academically.

Thanks for the polite but frank comments.

Just a warning, PP, from a parent with older kids on the Hill. The opportunities for learning outside of school are very different for elementary school students as opposed to middle and high school students. I felt the exact same way as you did when my kids were younger. As long as they were reading, messing around with science experiments in the kitchen, and involved with extracurricular activities and classes as CHAW, they were ok going to their not-so-challenging elementary school. Now that they’re older, their extracurricular activities are based at school. Classes at CHAW and the Hill Center are geared toward younger students. My older kids do spend lots of time on Khan Academy, as well as trying to take part in as many cultural opportunities (Smithsonian Museums, theater, etc) on the weekends. However, school is where they spend the bulk of their time and where I need them to be pushed academically. I’m just not going to be able to teach them physics or calculus or world history in any systematic way after the school day.

They're at BASIS.

Good points. Where did your kids end up in school?

[Anonymous]

The summers can also be a good time for enrichment. Space camp (available year-round), CTY, that sort of thing. Yes they're expensive but so are property taxes in Moco.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks. I'm the 4th grade parent. I fully expect that a substantial amount of learning will occur outside of school, and I'm comfortable with that. That would be true at any school, but moreso at SH. With a curious kid, that hopefully will happen mostly naturally, with extracurricular reading, Smithsonian visits, etc., but I also expect it to include online learning, parental tutoring, and things like CHAW and Hill center classes. It sounds like you're both less optimistic about the quality of SH and have higher expectations about the extent to which a middle school should push kids academically.

Thanks for the polite but frank comments.

Just a warning, PP, from a parent with older kids on the Hill. The opportunities for learning outside of school are very different for elementary school students as opposed to middle and high school students. I felt the exact same way as you did when my kids were younger. As long as they were reading, messing around with science experiments in the kitchen, and involved with extracurricular activities and classes as CHAW, they were ok going to their not-so-challenging elementary school. Now that they’re older, their extracurricular activities are based at school. Classes at CHAW and the Hill Center are geared toward younger students. My older kids do spend lots of time on Khan Academy, as well as trying to take part in as many cultural opportunities (Smithsonian Museums, theater, etc) on the weekends. However, school is where they spend the bulk of their time and where I need them to be pushed academically. I’m just not going to be able to teach them physics or calculus or world history in any systematic way after the school day.

Good point. I'm actually keeping an open mind about Stuart Hobson, but that's because I think it COULD provide a good enough in-class education for my child. It doesn't really do anyone any favors if you view your kid's education as happening during after-school museum visits. I believe in curriculum; that's where we should all focus! (I actually feel the same way about my kid's K class.) School is for school; out-of-school is for other things, like cooking, music, sports, friends, family, chores, fun, hobbies ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To each her own.

I don't see my kids as being challenged academically in K in a peer group that's overwhelmingly high SES. I don't really mind at this age because she's a shy introvert who's getting strong support for much needed social/emotional development. But I'm having a great deal of trouble imagining her being challenged, let alone pushed, much further down the line after many, if not most of her high SES peers have peeled off from DCPS. This is a city without formal GT programming in public elementary and middle schools. Boosters will tell you that their kids are consistently challenged at SH, on track to gain admission to Walls and Banneker. But when I see tutors trooping in and out of the homes of neighbors with kids at SH, and the kids being shuttled off to academic summer camps, I doubt that we'll still be on board by middle school. Also, I'm with the PPs who don't like the rowdy behavior of some of the SH students we see around the neighborhood. Comportment just isn't the school's strong suit.

Just so you know, my friends with kids in AAP in Fairfax also have tutors trooping in an out of their homes and also send their kids to academic summer camps. That's just what is done these days if you want your kids to be truly competitive in Ivy League/equivalent schools. My father is a professor in an Ivy and he sees it every year -- competition in college is so fierce these days that kids who aren't truly prepared for it melt down.