Basis is sucking the energy out of my child

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I posted the above and wrote nothing about “crowding out real learning of biological concepts.” Anyway, I’m 100% certain that my child is learning more science at Basis than at any other school available to us. Frankly, what she’s learning is impressive. But if you want to send your kid to our IB go for it!

My kid is only in 7th, but from what I've seen, 7th+8th grade bio covers everything that would be covered in a regular (not Honors and not AP) high school bio class. Likewise, 7th+8th chemistry and physics classes cover all of the material in a high school level class. While there are some bits of rote memorization, the course as a whole isn't based on that.

I've been pleased with the science. Most public middle school science courses are reading about science and memorizing things about science. They aren't actually doing science. BASIS has been much better.

[Anonymous]

PP here with the student in college. . . another thing that is good for some students about the high school experience is that, due to the APs, there isn't a lot of group work, which as many of you know, ends up with a few kids doing the work and the others along for the ride, which infuriates my type-A student.

Now I know that group work is a good skill set to have, but I think that it is more developmentally appropriate at the college level, where you are learning more about how to prepare for the working world. High schoolers don't gain that much from it - I honestly believe it is the easy way out for teachers = less papers/projects to grade.

[Anonymous]

I'm not the poster you're responding to but I disagree, too.

BASIS didn't do a good job when they cut out PE classes for 7th and 8th graders.

They didn't do a good job when they renovated the building without outdoor space. They could easily have built a basketball court on the roof.

They don't bother to help certain students they want gone. Teachers go through the motions to help, pay lip serving to helping, but certainly don't knock themselves out for the "wrong" students.

It's a mean-spirited place for the "wrong" students.

[Anonymous]

^^Someone else can give better figures, but I think renovating the roof is several hundred thousand dollars. At least I recall the prior principal once citing some astronomical figure. So asserting that Basis “could have easily renovated the roof” is a bit naive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not the poster you're responding to but I disagree, too.

BASIS didn't do a good job when they cut out PE classes for 7th and 8th graders.

They didn't do a good job when they renovated the building without outdoor space. They could easily have built a basketball court on the roof.

They don't bother to help certain students they want gone. Teachers go through the motions to help, pay lip serving to helping, but certainly don't knock themselves out for the "wrong" students.

It's a mean-spirited place for the "wrong" students.

Can't you take PE as an elective in 7th and 8th?

No charter can be everything for everyone. They simply don't have the budget. It's absurd to call it mean spirited or a depressing school because your child "needs" access to a basketball court during the day, but BASIS doesn't have one.

[Anonymous]

^^Yes, PE is offered as an elective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My middle schooler has a lot of rote work in subjects like biology—she can name muscles and bones I’ve never heard of! It’s pretty intense. But I’m hoping this gives her a strong foundation to grasp higher-level material as she gets older. She also now knows things like geography, which involves a lot of rote learning but frankly is helpful in life.

There are math problem sets almost every night. (They’re no big deal if your child excels in math; onerous though if math is not a natural strength.)

Practicing biologist and physician here:
Memorizing stuff is the bane of elementary and secondary science. Who cares about learning the names of bones and muscles? If that crowds out real learning of biological concepts that’s a reason not to go there.

I posted the above and wrote nothing about “crowding out real learning of biological concepts.” Anyway, I’m 100% certain that my child is learning more science at Basis than at any other school available to us. Frankly, what she’s learning is impressive. But if you want to send your kid to our IB go for it!

Plenty of memorization in intro bio and Chem and physics courses in high school too. It just comes earlier at Basis. My kid was at Basis for MS and left for Wilson bored as can be in science there, getting perfect scores, waiting to be allowed to take the AP sciences.

[Anonymous]

Basis’ building sucks. The network prioritized being at a central location near many transit options. It is pretty easy to get to Basis from anywhere in the city via bus or train. That is a big deal and students to come from all over.

The trade off is a building not designed to be a school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^Yes, PE is offered as an elective.

So, what's the problem, then? PE is there for those who want it and not forced upon those who don't. The PPs who are whining about the lack of PE or lack of physical activity seem like the types who don't want to "waste an elective slot" on PE, but instead want it forced upon everyone as part of the regular day. If you have the type of kid who needs a physical and mental break during the school day, then the obvious solution is to sign up for PE. My DD is thrilled that she isn't being forced to do PE.

A lot of the whiners are ridiculous. You can't go to a charter and expect it to serve up everything you could possibly want for your child as if the charter is a buffet. All of them have limited resources and will target a specific type of student so they can most effectively target their resources. It's not a state secret that charters work in this manner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^Someone else can give better figures, but I think renovating the roof is several hundred thousand dollars. At least I recall the prior principal once citing some astronomical figure. So asserting that Basis “could have easily renovated the roof” is a bit naive.

No naivete involved. We once hired a contractor, to build us an addition, who worked on HVAC for the BASIS building. He told us that the building could have been designed with HVAC intake units one one side of the roof and open space on the other at no greater cost than spreading in the units around the roof (which was done).

With open space, a basketball court could have been built on the roof at a later time, if funds became available.

It was a bad design.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^Yes, PE is offered as an elective.

So, what's the problem, then? PE is there for those who want it and not forced upon those who don't. The PPs who are whining about the lack of PE or lack of physical activity seem like the types who don't want to "waste an elective slot" on PE, but instead want it forced upon everyone as part of the regular day. If you have the type of kid who needs a physical and mental break during the school day, then the obvious solution is to sign up for PE. My DD is thrilled that she isn't being forced to do PE.

A lot of the whiners are ridiculous. You can't go to a charter and expect it to serve up everything you could possibly want for your child as if the charter is a buffet. All of them have limited resources and will target a specific type of student so they can most effectively target their resources. It's not a state secret that charters work in this manner.

The kids often do PE on the Navy memorial circle. My kid once came home with nasty gashes on his knees that required medical attention after slipping on the stone surface during a Tai-kwan do class. Sucks is too tame a word for the BASIS facilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^Yes, PE is offered as an elective.

So, what's the problem, then? PE is there for those who want it and not forced upon those who don't. The PPs who are whining about the lack of PE or lack of physical activity seem like the types who don't want to "waste an elective slot" on PE, but instead want it forced upon everyone as part of the regular day. If you have the type of kid who needs a physical and mental break during the school day, then the obvious solution is to sign up for PE. My DD is thrilled that she isn't being forced to do PE.

A lot of the whiners are ridiculous. You can't go to a charter and expect it to serve up everything you could possibly want for your child as if the charter is a buffet. All of them have limited resources and will target a specific type of student so they can most effectively target their resources. It's not a state secret that charters work in this manner.

Totally agree. Some of the best athletes don't need PE because they're playing travel sports or dancing 2-3 hours/day afterschool. Some of the worst athletes hate PE and consider its absence a huge plus. The lack of mandatory PE is just not something I can get worked up about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^Yes, PE is offered as an elective.

So, what's the problem, then? PE is there for those who want it and not forced upon those who don't. The PPs who are whining about the lack of PE or lack of physical activity seem like the types who don't want to "waste an elective slot" on PE, but instead want it forced upon everyone as part of the regular day. If you have the type of kid who needs a physical and mental break during the school day, then the obvious solution is to sign up for PE. My DD is thrilled that she isn't being forced to do PE.

A lot of the whiners are ridiculous. You can't go to a charter and expect it to serve up everything you could possibly want for your child as if the charter is a buffet. All of them have limited resources and will target a specific type of student so they can most effectively target their resources. It's not a state secret that charters work in this manner.

Totally agree. Some of the best athletes don't need PE because they're playing travel sports or dancing 2-3 hours/day afterschool. Some of the worst athletes hate PE and consider its absence a huge plus. The lack of mandatory PE is just not something I can get worked up about.

The full story is that BASIS ditched any kind of PE for 7th and 8th graders a few years back, then reinstated it as an elective after many parents complained. Many kids can't work PE into their schedule, and the offerings are so paltry that there's little appeal anyway.

[Anonymous]

Well, one of the reasons we ranked Basis over Latin in our lottery application is that my kid hates team sports. Happy to have PE back as an elective for kids who want it, but very glad my child can opt out!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My middle schooler has a lot of rote work in subjects like biology—she can name muscles and bones I’ve never heard of! It’s pretty intense. But I’m hoping this gives her a strong foundation to grasp higher-level material as she gets older. She also now knows things like geography, which involves a lot of rote learning but frankly is helpful in life.

There are math problem sets almost every night. (They’re no big deal if your child excels in math; onerous though if math is not a natural strength.)

Practicing biologist and physician here:
Memorizing stuff is the bane of elementary and secondary science. Who cares about learning the names of bones and muscles? If that crowds out real learning of biological concepts that’s a reason not to go there.

I posted the above and wrote nothing about “crowding out real learning of biological concepts.” Anyway, I’m 100% certain that my child is learning more science at Basis than at any other school available to us. Frankly, what she’s learning is impressive. But if you want to send your kid to our IB go for it!

My daughter is in 10th grade taking AP Biology. We were just talking about how she felt about her upcoming AP tests (she’ll be taking 5 or 6 of them) and she said she thinks Biology will be totally fine because she’s been learning it since 6th grade. For her, the basis model absolutely works and she loves school.