Poolesville Humanities House

[Anonymous]

I don't hear much about this program on here. My student was invited to this program. Is this comparable to Blair CAP? How do the kids like it for those who have experience with the program? Anyone choose this over RM IB?

[Anonymous]

I asked my child, who attends phs and they said It’s considered the “irrelevant” magnet at smacs. Whatever that means!

[Anonymous]

OP don’t listen to the PP here.

My child is in Global but has friends in the Humanities program. It’s a writing intensive program and from what my child says it’s not gender balanced. I think there are about 40 females/ 20 males selected per year. I’ve also heard the kids can be dramatic but the ones in the program really seem to like it.

Can’t really speak to the difference between IB and Humanities but am providing the little I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP don’t listen to the PP here.

My child is in Global but has friends in the Humanities program. It’s a writing intensive program and from what my child says it’s not gender balanced. I think there are about 40 females/ 20 males selected per year. I’ve also heard the kids can be dramatic but the ones in the program really seem to like it.

Can’t really speak to the difference between IB and Humanities but am providing the little I know.

NP. Can you elaborate on the dramatic, please?

[Anonymous]

My child attends Humanities so I asked her for her response.

She's never heard people say Humanities is "irrelevant," but it is in-between SMCS and Global in terms of difficulty. Most kids in Humanities and Global think SMCS kids are a bit annoying, so I guess it's just a program differences thing.

9th grade Humanities consists of three courses -- English, AP Government, and Criticism in the Humanities (which is kind of like a tamer Art History with more writing). The kids "block" for those courses after lunch. They are divided into two classes and they stay with their class as they rotate between each of the three courses. The kids get along well, especially within each class (which are shuffled around a few times a year so the kids get to know each other better). This schedule works well because Humanities has interdisciplinary projects that benefit from the classes' malleability (spending Criticism working on an essay, for example). AP Gov is one of the better APs.


The program is very writing focused with a good amount of art too. The first big thing is Gallery Night, where the kids make their own art exhibits. After that they do NHD, which is a national essay competition (actually entering the competition is voluntary though). After that it goes back to smaller creative assignments. The program is a good fit for a student who's creative, a strong writer, and good at literary and art analysis. The teachers expect a lot of the students, so they need a good work ethic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP don’t listen to the PP here.

My child is in Global but has friends in the Humanities program. It’s a writing intensive program and from what my child says it’s not gender balanced. I think there are about 40 females/ 20 males selected per year. I’ve also heard the kids can be dramatic but the ones in the program really seem to like it.

Can’t really speak to the difference between IB and Humanities but am providing the little I know.

It's more imbalanced than that. There are 46 girls and 14 boys in the current 9th grade. The mixed-program classes are pretty even though. For what it's worth, I don't think the boys feel particularly isolated. A lot of them are friends with girls, and the rest stick together. I think the other programs have more boys so I don't think it's that bad.

[Anonymous]

It is not a good program socially for non-White girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is not a good program socially for non-White girls.

Can you expand on this? Most of the girls are not white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP don’t listen to the PP here.

My child is in Global but has friends in the Humanities program. It’s a writing intensive program and from what my child says it’s not gender balanced. I think there are about 40 females/ 20 males selected per year. I’ve also heard the kids can be dramatic but the ones in the program really seem to like it.

Can’t really speak to the difference between IB and Humanities but am providing the little I know.

NP. Can you elaborate on the dramatic, please?

Like theater type kids.

[Anonymous]

I thought the humanities house was the default magnet in the whole magnet school? So local kids were put there if they didn't apply to either SMAC or Global Ecology magnets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the humanities house was the default magnet in the whole magnet school? So local kids were put there if they didn't apply to either SMAC or Global Ecology magnets.

+1000. That’s what it seems like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the humanities house was the default magnet in the whole magnet school? So local kids were put there if they didn't apply to either SMAC or Global Ecology magnets.

That’s a silly statement you can say that for all the magnet houses, the ones that didn’t apply to humanities and GE and accepted were to the default house SMCs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP don’t listen to the PP here.

My child is in Global but has friends in the Humanities program. It’s a writing intensive program and from what my child says it’s not gender balanced. I think there are about 40 females/ 20 males selected per year. I’ve also heard the kids can be dramatic but the ones in the program really seem to like it.

Can’t really speak to the difference between IB and Humanities but am providing the little I know.

It's more imbalanced than that. There are 46 girls and 14 boys in the current 9th grade. The mixed-program classes are pretty even though. For what it's worth, I don't think the boys feel particularly isolated. A lot of them are friends with girls, and the rest stick together. I think the other programs have more boys so I don't think it's that bad.

What about SMACS program? Does it have a gende bias too like more boys and less girls

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the humanities house was the default magnet in the whole magnet school? So local kids were put there if they didn't apply to either SMAC or Global Ecology magnets.

Lol, no, Humanities is not the default for local kids. In terms of rigor, SMCS is #1, Humanities is #2, Global Ecology is #3, and default for local kids is ISP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP don’t listen to the PP here.

My child is in Global but has friends in the Humanities program. It’s a writing intensive program and from what my child says it’s not gender balanced. I think there are about 40 females/ 20 males selected per year. I’ve also heard the kids can be dramatic but the ones in the program really seem to like it.

Can’t really speak to the difference between IB and Humanities but am providing the little I know.

It's more imbalanced than that. There are 46 girls and 14 boys in the current 9th grade. The mixed-program classes are pretty even though. For what it's worth, I don't think the boys feel particularly isolated. A lot of them are friends with girls, and the rest stick together. I think the other programs have more boys so I don't think it's that bad.

What about SMACS program? Does it have a gende bias too like more boys and less girls

It’s not nearly as lopsided as Humanities.