PAWS Class in middle school
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Anonymous
| Do all middle schools have this class? It sounds like a complete waste of time. My kid who loves learning detests it and says it actually counts for a grade. They have three times a week for 30 minutes. |
Anonymous
| What is it? |
Anonymous
| Our has it 3x per week. I think in theory they are supposed to teach organizational and study skills, along with SEL—but in practice it is just a waste of time, and takes away from the substantive classes, which are all shorter on days there is PAWS. |
Anonymous
|
Is this the SEL class that each school usually names after their school mascot? My kids hated it in 2020-2022 when MCPS tried it out.
Our high school made the decision to can it after last year and no one misses it. |
Anonymous
| No way they are getting an achievement grade for this. What MCPS course code is shown in Synergy for the class? I bet it’s advisory and they just get those weak citizenship type grades. |
Anonymous
Our school has this but it is called something else. It is a HUGE waste of time. The SEL is nonsense and it takes away from actual useful classes. But I am almost positive that our kids do not get grades for the class. |
Anonymous
| It seems another way to push MCPS’s woks agenda rather than spending time in English or Math. |
Anonymous
Yes it is advisory - I don't think there is any grade. It's just a huge waste of time. Last year our school only had it once a week, thankfully. Now it's three times a week and takes away from classes where you actually learn something. |
Anonymous
+1 there is no grade. Our school increased to 3 days this year from one last year, as well. One day is supposed to be for academic support (but my kid said they didn’t pass out the chromebooks so he couldn’t do any hw), one day for social-emotional lessons, and one day for social justice/inclusivity lessons. I think there is a way that these could be positive or impactful, but for whatever reason they seem to have the opposite impact (lesson on all the slurs and why you shouldn’t use them increased the use of kids calling each other or themselves these slurs). |
Anonymous
Our MS does Advisory five days a week. Similar to the PP - they vary between SEL lessons and social justice lessons. They have all been pretty bad and the kids know it’s a waste of time. The SEL lessons are ridiculous. What MS kid wants to share their ‘thoughts and concerns’ with a random group of other MS kids. DD said even the teacher would sometimes just be nice and skip the SEL lesson and let the kids play games on their phones or bring card games. The social justice lessons involved a few weeks where they read Stamped (by Kendi) and discussed it. Another few weeks were spent discussing the values of the BLM movement. |
Anonymous
| I would not mind if it was once or twice a month, but three times a week is ridiculous. It messes up their whole weekly schedule. |
Anonymous
| Honestly, I think my kids would get much more out of a 30 minute outdoor recess than the SEL or socio-political lessons. |
Anonymous
Absolutely. No idea why MCPS feels the need to force any particular political agenda on our kids. I wouldn’t be happy about their being pro-life lessons taught during Advisory and I am also not happy about pro-BLM lessons being taught during Advisory. With recent test scores being so low in Algebra, maybe they could use the time to provide extra support for our kids in Math. |
Anonymous
Are you at Silver Creek? We are and my kid hates it too, although I think the one day that they spend on executive function/course catch-up/check grades & assignments is useful. |
Anonymous
Yes. My kid detests it and said they had no work to make-up the one day they didn’t have it. The school is pushing its LBGTQ agenda and the kids hate it. They must stay silent or have it pushed even more. |