Can someone tell me about the Eastern Magnet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

If you don’t know who Mrs. Goldstein is, you aren’t a current parent.

Um... I'm a current parent and I guess I'll have to go to the school website or Google her. Maybe it's just me, but as a parent of a 6th grader in DL, our family doesn't feel very connected to the school. My kid has a handful of friends from elementary school there and we keep in touch, but otherwise, there hasn't been a ton of contact besides classes. That may be our fault - it's been a very busy year for parents trying to support kids in this unusual environment.

Don't worry, I'm the parent of an 8th grader in the program, and I had to look up Mrs. Goldstein. I vaguely remember dropping off some sort of paperwork with her office at some point before 6th grade started? I'm not sure I even saw her then, and I certainly didn't remember her name when it was mentioned here. Mr Kerwin has always been the point of contact for anything relating to the Humanities program for us.

But honestly, everything I've heard and seen suggests that by middle school, as long as things are going smoothly parents generally don't have a lot of contact with their kid's school. Everyone just kind of gets on with things, unless there's a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard the Eastern humanities kids are close-knit and very supportive of each other, so I was surprised by the PP.

DC and 4 friends from EMS ended up going back to home high school. They are besties for life. Plus DC has run into other EMS alums in college - it’s an instant bond. At EMS they find their peeps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard the Eastern humanities kids are close-knit and very supportive of each other, so I was surprised by the PP.

DC and 4 friends from EMS ended up going back to home high school. They are besties for life. Plus DC has run into other EMS alums in college - it’s an instant bond. At EMS they find their peeps.

This is true for my EMS alum as well - he didn't go back to home hs - went on to CAP - but two of his EMS best buds went to Blair non-magnet, and he's as close with them as he ever was. He also still hangs with other kids from EMS that went back to neighborhood school that he sees through other activities. It's a close-knit group and they just seem to get each other.

[Anonymous]

Bumping this thread to see if the OP has an update about their child who accepted last year, but wasn't sure if it would be a good fit? How's it going?

My 5th grader sounds similar, and we're heading into selection/lottery time...

[Anonymous]

Not OP but my child is finding many of the kids are very aggressive like always wanting their way on a project and muscling out others, or they are very passive and shy. Less of the kids in between. For boys there are already groups of friends of kids who are a bit quirky, and many boys who hang out mostly with girls and always have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard the Eastern humanities kids are close-knit and very supportive of each other, so I was surprised by the PP.

DC and 4 friends from EMS ended up going back to home high school. They are besties for life. Plus DC has run into other EMS alums in college - it’s an instant bond. At EMS they find their peeps.

Maybe some do. Mine did not. Social gatherings are so much harder because they are spread out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard the Eastern humanities kids are close-knit and very supportive of each other, so I was surprised by the PP.

DC and 4 friends from EMS ended up going back to home high school. They are besties for life. Plus DC has run into other EMS alums in college - it’s an instant bond. At EMS they find their peeps.

Maybe some do. Mine did not. Social gatherings are so much harder because they are spread out.

Do you have a boy? Having similar experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard the Eastern humanities kids are close-knit and very supportive of each other, so I was surprised by the PP.

DC and 4 friends from EMS ended up going back to home high school. They are besties for life. Plus DC has run into other EMS alums in college - it’s an instant bond. At EMS they find their peeps.

Maybe some do. Mine did not. Social gatherings are so much harder because they are spread out.

Do you have a boy? Having similar experience.

No, girl.
I read here often that kids find their people at Eastern. Maybe they just weren’t her people. I don’t know. They were often competitive and talked too much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard the Eastern humanities kids are close-knit and very supportive of each other, so I was surprised by the PP.

DC and 4 friends from EMS ended up going back to home high school. They are besties for life. Plus DC has run into other EMS alums in college - it’s an instant bond. At EMS they find their peeps.

Maybe some do. Mine did not. Social gatherings are so much harder because they are spread out.

Do you have a boy? Having similar experience.

No, girl.
I read here often that kids find their people at Eastern. Maybe they just weren’t her people. I don’t know. They were often competitive and talked too much.

The geography is definitely part of what makes the magnet system hard.

[Anonymous]

I will say that my kid is in a CES and during distance learning I was so amused by the quirky weirdness of the kids. Hoping kiddo gets into Eastern as I think it will be the best fit for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will say that my kid is in a CES and during distance learning I was so amused by the quirky weirdness of the kids. Hoping kiddo gets into Eastern as I think it will be the best fit for them.

I homestly don’t live the whole gifted kids are quirky and weird trope.

IME, the kids in the gifted program are interested in things, and they are interested enough to self-study and pursue those interests. The truly lively thing about the CES and EMS is that the kids in the program accepted and supported each other no matter what those interests were. It was truly different from the regular school atmosphere where kids were constantly policing what was cool and not cool. The magnet is really a great atmosphere, especially in middle school when kids worry about fitting in.

[Anonymous]

For our kid the Eastern Magnet was both wonderful and stressful. Wonderful because they did find many people who they connected with. They did better socially at Eastern than they had in elementary and felt accepted. It was stressful because the work, especially in 7th grade, was demanding for someone who has difficulty prioritizing and organizing. They are high achieving/high scoring, but not the best self management skills. Overall, it was a good experience, but much more work than the general middle school experience, and more homework/outside of school work than TPMS magnet - except for 8th grade which was much more manageable than 6th or 7th. They loved their social studies classes the most (global studies, US history, etc,, which surprised me because they were always much more literature/English focused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard the Eastern humanities kids are close-knit and very supportive of each other, so I was surprised by the PP.

DC and 4 friends from EMS ended up going back to home high school. They are besties for life. Plus DC has run into other EMS alums in college - it’s an instant bond. At EMS they find their peeps.

Maybe some do. Mine did not. Social gatherings are so much harder because they are spread out.

Do you have a boy? Having similar experience.

No, girl.
I read here often that kids find their people at Eastern. Maybe they just weren’t her people. I don’t know. They were often competitive and talked too much.

This is DC's feeling as well. Glad it's not just DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard the Eastern humanities kids are close-knit and very supportive of each other, so I was surprised by the PP.

DC and 4 friends from EMS ended up going back to home high school. They are besties for life. Plus DC has run into other EMS alums in college - it’s an instant bond. At EMS they find their peeps.

Maybe some do. Mine did not. Social gatherings are so much harder because they are spread out.

Do you have a boy? Having similar experience.

No, girl.
I read here often that kids find their people at Eastern. Maybe they just weren’t her people. I don’t know. They were often competitive and talked too much.

This is DC's feeling as well. Glad it's not just DC.

Ditto for my kid. Some of those kids are just obnoxious and don't know when to shut up. Their parents should have invested in a social skills class.

[Anonymous]

I can't imagine how much earlier my kid would need to wake up to catch the bus at 6. That is so early. But I guess that's the same like going to those early swim lessons for the serious kids (or should i say parents).