GDS HS English Classes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To bring some specifics to the table. Last year our 10th grader at GDS read the following in English:

Gospel According to Mark
Romeo and Juliet
Song of Solomon
The Great Gatsby
Giovanni’s Room
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein
Interpreter of Maladies

Sustained focus on Romantic poets include Keats, Wordsworth, Shelley, Blake.

Several other novels and contemporary poets I can’t recall at the moment.

That’s an excellent list. I wish my public high school kid’s class did those.

Kids at BASIS DC, a public charter, read many of those in 8th and 9th.

I am a professor of literature (with children at a Big-3), and it makes me crazy when I hear parents "bragging" about children reading texts at early ages.
I have PhD candidates who are writing dissertations on Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, and I assure you that with texts like these, the age at which someone engages in them tells me very little about their intellectual ability to analyze and contextualize what's on the page. Statements like yours tell me much more about a parents' understanding of literature (i.e., limited) than about the quality of the curriculum. High school is a perfect age to introduce the writings listed above, which grapple with complex issues of identity, fitting in, and acts of resistance against larger cultural/social/economic forces. There are very, very few 8th graders -and dare I say, even adults - who can understand the revolutionary nature of the Gospel of Mark, its relationship to the other Gospels, and historical-critical interpretations of Mark. Most 8th graders are not going to grasp in any profound way the works of Toni Morrison, much less have the understanding of US history required to appreciate her writing.

Sounds like you are the one bragging, "professor of literature (with children at a Big-3)."

Actually, I totally agree with you that 8th or 9th (or even 10th grades) are not going to get as much out of these works as a Ph.D. candidate or college professor and they are not going to "grasp in any profound way."

However, some kids are most advanced than others. And introducing some great works of literature to, say, 8th graders even if they fully don't understand them is a hardly a bad thing.

I tend to agree. Various works are used in younger grades for a variety of age- and intellect-appropriate reasons unrelated to how the same work would be studied by a PhD candidate.

[Anonymous]

Basis force feeds Shakespeare and Algebra 1 in 6th grade. However, their college acceptances (at least from the DC campus) are pretty miserable outside of a few URM. Which is striking given their advanced curriculum. Apparently colleges aren't buying this.
(2022 graduation video is online and gives the destination of every 2022 kid)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To bring some specifics to the table. Last year our 10th grader at GDS read the following in English:

Gospel According to Mark
Romeo and Juliet
Song of Solomon
The Great Gatsby
Giovanni’s Room
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein
Interpreter of Maladies

Sustained focus on Romantic poets include Keats, Wordsworth, Shelley, Blake.

Several other novels and contemporary poets I can’t recall at the moment.

That’s an excellent list. I wish my public high school kid’s class did those.

Kids at BASIS DC, a public charter, read many of those in 8th and 9th.

I am a professor of literature (with children at a Big-3), and it makes me crazy when I hear parents "bragging" about children reading texts at early ages.
I have PhD candidates who are writing dissertations on Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, and I assure you that with texts like these, the age at which someone engages in them tells me very little about their intellectual ability to analyze and contextualize what's on the page. Statements like yours tell me much more about a parents' understanding of literature (i.e., limited) than about the quality of the curriculum. High school is a perfect age to introduce the writings listed above, which grapple with complex issues of identity, fitting in, and acts of resistance against larger cultural/social/economic forces. There are very, very few 8th graders -and dare I say, even adults - who can understand the revolutionary nature of the Gospel of Mark, its relationship to the other Gospels, and historical-critical interpretations of Mark. Most 8th graders are not going to grasp in any profound way the works of Toni Morrison, much less have the understanding of US history required to appreciate her writing.

Exactly right. I taught at and tutored students at a BASIS school and had to help them through Julius Caesar in 6th grade and Macbeth in 7th grade.

It's ridiculous. No one that young remotely has the emotional maturity to grasp the grand emotional themes and issues in those works. BASIS just wanted to punch the ticket that they started kids on serious Shakespeare earlier than anyone else.

My own HS experience long ago being force-fed classics was basically getting turned off by the whole process. Only when I chose to go back and reread some of the works later in life did I start to appreciate them. Especially when I could digest them at my own pace, not "60 pages by tomorrow" learning.

Every kid is different. I first read Shakespeare in elementary school and didn't get much out it. But I still love Shakespeare as an adult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To bring some specifics to the table. Last year our 10th grader at GDS read the following in English:

Gospel According to Mark
Romeo and Juliet
Song of Solomon
The Great Gatsby
Giovanni’s Room
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein
Interpreter of Maladies

Sustained focus on Romantic poets include Keats, Wordsworth, Shelley, Blake.

Several other novels and contemporary poets I can’t recall at the moment.

That’s an excellent list. I wish my public high school kid’s class did those.

Kids at BASIS DC, a public charter, read many of those in 8th and 9th.

I am a professor of literature (with children at a Big-3), and it makes me crazy when I hear parents "bragging" about children reading texts at early ages.
I have PhD candidates who are writing dissertations on Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, and I assure you that with texts like these, the age at which someone engages in them tells me very little about their intellectual ability to analyze and contextualize what's on the page. Statements like yours tell me much more about a parents' understanding of literature (i.e., limited) than about the quality of the curriculum. High school is a perfect age to introduce the writings listed above, which grapple with complex issues of identity, fitting in, and acts of resistance against larger cultural/social/economic forces. There are very, very few 8th graders -and dare I say, even adults - who can understand the revolutionary nature of the Gospel of Mark, its relationship to the other Gospels, and historical-critical interpretations of Mark. Most 8th graders are not going to grasp in any profound way the works of Toni Morrison, much less have the understanding of US history required to appreciate her writing.

Exactly right. I taught at and tutored students at a BASIS school and had to help them through Julius Caesar in 6th grade and Macbeth in 7th grade.

It's ridiculous. No one that young remotely has the emotional maturity to grasp the grand emotional themes and issues in those works. BASIS just wanted to punch the ticket that they started kids on serious Shakespeare earlier than anyone else.

My own HS experience long ago being force-fed classics was basically getting turned off by the whole process. Only when I chose to go back and reread some of the works later in life did I start to appreciate them. Especially when I could digest them at my own pace, not "60 pages by tomorrow" learning.

Enjoy your 200 mins ages a night at Big 3 schools.

Take a tour, upper school kids look half asleep ragged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basis force feeds Shakespeare and Algebra 1 in 6th grade. However, their college acceptances (at least from the DC campus) are pretty miserable outside of a few URM. Which is striking given their advanced curriculum. Apparently colleges aren't buying this.
(2022 graduation video is online and gives the destination of every 2022 kid)

You told a lie, an odious damned lie; Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie.

1. No English class at Basis reads Shakespeare in 6th grade. They do take Algebra and Geometry, though.

2. College acceptances are Basis DC have been remarkable for a school that has only been around in a decade. Last year, in a class of around 50 kids, they had kids (and not just URMs) accepted to every Ivy League school. Feel free to post a list of other open-admission public/charter schools that had a similar proportion of their graduation class accepted to Ivies. For example, the Basis DC Class of 2022 had 2 accepted to Yale this year, which is the same or better in overall numbers than B-CC, Blair, Montgomery, Whitman, Wootton, etc., all much bigger schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basis force feeds Shakespeare and Algebra 1 in 6th grade. However, their college acceptances (at least from the DC campus) are pretty miserable outside of a few URM. Which is striking given their advanced curriculum. Apparently colleges aren't buying this.
(2022 graduation video is online and gives the destination of every 2022 kid)

You told a lie, an odious damned lie; Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie.

1. No English class at Basis reads Shakespeare in 6th grade. They do take Algebra and Geometry, though.

2. College acceptances are Basis DC have been remarkable for a school that has only been around in a decade. Last year, in a class of around 50 kids, they had kids (and not just URMs) accepted to every Ivy League school. Feel free to post a list of other open-admission public/charter schools that had a similar proportion of their graduation class accepted to Ivies. For example, the Basis DC Class of 2022 had 2 accepted to Yale this year, which is the same or better in overall numbers than B-CC, Blair, Montgomery, Whitman, Wootton, etc., all much bigger schools.

They do at BASIS Independent McLean. I heard the curriculum was mostly the same at the BASIS charters, since they all sprang from the same roots. But fine if not.

I know they do at BIM and have since it started.

[Anonymous]

My guess is they are teaching the English reading/writing/analysis skill through the lense of these relevant social justice topics that is important for students to be educated about. I mean its woke GDS, this is what you signed up for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent here. Have been mostly happy w GDS HS english and related faculty.

This fall, one of the HS grades as started out by studying the following topics:

Queer Studies, CRT, Marxist Theory, Intersectionality, Structuralism Theory

Serious old person question - why are these taught in ENGLISH rather than in a special elective class? Isn't english for the study of literature. I get it - literature is a window into humanity....but really? I also get it - it's GDS but this is a core class all students must take.

And there was even an op-ed in student paper last week from a student very unhappy with the single-minded bias faculty show and the lack of oxygen they provide for dissenting views.

This has to be a troll. Critical race theory is legal scholarship, no way they’d be teaching it in HS English, unless the person teaching it doesn’t understand what it is. Sounds like a Maga trump fan making fun of GDS’ wokism.

I'm not OP but can vouch that this Not a Troll post - go to GDS Open House and they happily list the English books per grade. It's really different from any other school.

Ugh. Open house for prospective families, bc we missed hearing examples like this or the academics. Or Open House for second month of school parents?

When’s the next open house for middle school prospectives?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basis force feeds Shakespeare and Algebra 1 in 6th grade. However, their college acceptances (at least from the DC campus) are pretty miserable outside of a few URM. Which is striking given their advanced curriculum. Apparently colleges aren't buying this.
(2022 graduation video is online and gives the destination of every 2022 kid)

You told a lie, an odious damned lie; Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie.

1. No English class at Basis reads Shakespeare in 6th grade. They do take Algebra and Geometry, though.

2. College acceptances are Basis DC have been remarkable for a school that has only been around in a decade. Last year, in a class of around 50 kids, they had kids (and not just URMs) accepted to every Ivy League school. Feel free to post a list of other open-admission public/charter schools that had a similar proportion of their graduation class accepted to Ivies. For example, the Basis DC Class of 2022 had 2 accepted to Yale this year, which is the same or better in overall numbers than B-CC, Blair, Montgomery, Whitman, Wootton, etc., all much bigger schools.

Ok, you are outright lying, Basis parent with your "every Ivy is represented. There are 2 Ivies represented.
Here are the destinations for the class of 2022. 4 Ivy acceptances, 3 are African American. https://vimeo.com/713007094
Most of the rest of the decent schools are also URM.

Here are the rest:
University of Chicago
University of Maryland
Sarah Lawrence
Barnard
Temple (5)
Georgia State University
Xavier Louisiana
Indiana University
Syracuse
Beloit College
Yale (2- one is URM)
Fordham
Howard
U of Mass Amherst
Drexel (2)
Haverford
Michigan State 2
UVA
Bangor University
Penn State Behrend satellite campus
Morehouse
Worchester Tech
Oberlin
Brown (2—both URM)
Penn State (3)
Perdue (2)
Mary Baldwin
William and Mary (2)
Georgia Tech
UDC
Macalester
St. Johns College
Vermont (2)
North Carolina Wilmington
Virginia Tech 2
Northwestern (salutatorian)
Radford
George Mason
Duke (valedictorian0
Clemson

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To bring some specifics to the table. Last year our 10th grader at GDS read the following in English:

Gospel According to Mark
Romeo and Juliet
Song of Solomon
The Great Gatsby
Giovanni’s Room
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein
Interpreter of Maladies

Sustained focus on Romantic poets include Keats, Wordsworth, Shelley, Blake.

Several other novels and contemporary poets I can’t recall at the moment.

That’s an excellent list. I wish my public high school kid’s class did those.

Kids at BASIS DC, a public charter, read many of those in 8th and 9th.

I am a professor of literature (with children at a Big-3), and it makes me crazy when I hear parents "bragging" about children reading texts at early ages.
I have PhD candidates who are writing dissertations on Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, and I assure you that with texts like these, the age at which someone engages in them tells me very little about their intellectual ability to analyze and contextualize what's on the page. Statements like yours tell me much more about a parents' understanding of literature (i.e., limited) than about the quality of the curriculum. High school is a perfect age to introduce the writings listed above, which grapple with complex issues of identity, fitting in, and acts of resistance against larger cultural/social/economic forces. There are very, very few 8th graders -and dare I say, even adults - who can understand the revolutionary nature of the Gospel of Mark, its relationship to the other Gospels, and historical-critical interpretations of Mark. Most 8th graders are not going to grasp in any profound way the works of Toni Morrison, much less have the understanding of US history required to appreciate her writing.

Whatever dude. Save your lectures for your boring college classes. I bet GDS wouldn’t even hire you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basis force feeds Shakespeare and Algebra 1 in 6th grade. However, their college acceptances (at least from the DC campus) are pretty miserable outside of a few URM. Which is striking given their advanced curriculum. Apparently colleges aren't buying this.
(2022 graduation video is online and gives the destination of every 2022 kid)

You told a lie, an odious damned lie; Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie.

1. No English class at Basis reads Shakespeare in 6th grade. They do take Algebra and Geometry, though.

2. College acceptances are Basis DC have been remarkable for a school that has only been around in a decade. Last year, in a class of around 50 kids, they had kids (and not just URMs) accepted to every Ivy League school. Feel free to post a list of other open-admission public/charter schools that had a similar proportion of their graduation class accepted to Ivies. For example, the Basis DC Class of 2022 had 2 accepted to Yale this year, which is the same or better in overall numbers than B-CC, Blair, Montgomery, Whitman, Wootton, etc., all much bigger schools.

Ok, you are outright lying, Basis parent with your "every Ivy is represented. There are 2 Ivies represented.
Here are the destinations for the class of 2022. 4 Ivy acceptances, 3 are African American. https://vimeo.com/713007094
Most of the rest of the decent schools are also URM.

Here are the rest:
University of Chicago
University of Maryland
Sarah Lawrence
Barnard
Temple (5)
Georgia State University
Xavier Louisiana
Indiana University
Syracuse
Beloit College
Yale (2- one is URM)
Fordham
Howard
U of Mass Amherst
Drexel (2)
Haverford
Michigan State 2
UVA
Bangor University
Penn State Behrend satellite campus
Morehouse
Worchester Tech
Oberlin
Brown (2—both URM)
Penn State (3)
Perdue (2)
Mary Baldwin
William and Mary (2)
Georgia Tech
UDC
Macalester
St. Johns College
Vermont (2)
North Carolina Wilmington
Virginia Tech 2
Northwestern (salutatorian)
Radford
George Mason
Duke (valedictorian0
Clemson

Do you not understand the difference between acceptances and matriculations?

You seem a bit dense, internet stalker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basis force feeds Shakespeare and Algebra 1 in 6th grade. However, their college acceptances (at least from the DC campus) are pretty miserable outside of a few URM. Which is striking given their advanced curriculum. Apparently colleges aren't buying this.
(2022 graduation video is online and gives the destination of every 2022 kid)

You told a lie, an odious damned lie; Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie.

1. No English class at Basis reads Shakespeare in 6th grade. They do take Algebra and Geometry, though.

2. College acceptances are Basis DC have been remarkable for a school that has only been around in a decade. Last year, in a class of around 50 kids, they had kids (and not just URMs) accepted to every Ivy League school. Feel free to post a list of other open-admission public/charter schools that had a similar proportion of their graduation class accepted to Ivies. For example, the Basis DC Class of 2022 had 2 accepted to Yale this year, which is the same or better in overall numbers than B-CC, Blair, Montgomery, Whitman, Wootton, etc., all much bigger schools.

Ok, you are outright lying, Basis parent with your "every Ivy is represented. There are 2 Ivies represented.
Here are the destinations for the class of 2022. 4 Ivy acceptances, 3 are African American. https://vimeo.com/713007094
Most of the rest of the decent schools are also URM.

Here are the rest:
University of Chicago
University of Maryland
Sarah Lawrence
Barnard
Temple (5)
Georgia State University
Xavier Louisiana
Indiana University
Syracuse
Beloit College
Yale (2- one is URM)
Fordham
Howard
U of Mass Amherst
Drexel (2)
Haverford
Michigan State 2
UVA
Bangor University
Penn State Behrend satellite campus
Morehouse
Worchester Tech
Oberlin
Brown (2—both URM)
Penn State (3)
Perdue (2)
Mary Baldwin
William and Mary (2)
Georgia Tech
UDC
Macalester
St. Johns College
Vermont (2)
North Carolina Wilmington
Virginia Tech 2
Northwestern (salutatorian)
Radford
George Mason
Duke (valedictorian0
Clemson

The fact that someone who bother to do this...is...a...bit...disturbing.

Please seek help, PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basis force feeds Shakespeare and Algebra 1 in 6th grade. However, their college acceptances (at least from the DC campus) are pretty miserable outside of a few URM. Which is striking given their advanced curriculum. Apparently colleges aren't buying this.
(2022 graduation video is online and gives the destination of every 2022 kid)

You told a lie, an odious damned lie; Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie.

1. No English class at Basis reads Shakespeare in 6th grade. They do take Algebra and Geometry, though.

2. College acceptances are Basis DC have been remarkable for a school that has only been around in a decade. Last year, in a class of around 50 kids, they had kids (and not just URMs) accepted to every Ivy League school. Feel free to post a list of other open-admission public/charter schools that had a similar proportion of their graduation class accepted to Ivies. For example, the Basis DC Class of 2022 had 2 accepted to Yale this year, which is the same or better in overall numbers than B-CC, Blair, Montgomery, Whitman, Wootton, etc., all much bigger schools.

Ok, you are outright lying, Basis parent with your "every Ivy is represented. There are 2 Ivies represented.
Here are the destinations for the class of 2022. 4 Ivy acceptances, 3 are African American. https://vimeo.com/713007094
Most of the rest of the decent schools are also URM.

Here are the rest:
University of Chicago
University of Maryland
Sarah Lawrence
Barnard
Temple (5)
Georgia State University
Xavier Louisiana
Indiana University
Syracuse
Beloit College
Yale (2- one is URM)
Fordham
Howard
U of Mass Amherst
Drexel (2)
Haverford
Michigan State 2
UVA
Bangor University
Penn State Behrend satellite campus
Morehouse
Worchester Tech
Oberlin
Brown (2—both URM)
Penn State (3)
Perdue (2)
Mary Baldwin
William and Mary (2)
Georgia Tech
UDC
Macalester
St. Johns College
Vermont (2)
North Carolina Wilmington
Virginia Tech 2
Northwestern (salutatorian)
Radford
George Mason
Duke (valedictorian0
Clemson

Do you not understand the difference between acceptances and matriculations?

You seem a bit dense, internet stalker.

So the same 4 kids were accepted to multiple Ivies? Why is that a bragging point for the Basis parent?

[Anonymous]

Why do any of you care? Why do you need to tear down other children to feel better about yourself?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To bring some specifics to the table. Last year our 10th grader at GDS read the following in English:

Gospel According to Mark
Romeo and Juliet
Song of Solomon
The Great Gatsby
Giovanni’s Room
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein
Interpreter of Maladies

Sustained focus on Romantic poets include Keats, Wordsworth, Shelley, Blake.

Several other novels and contemporary poets I can’t recall at the moment.

That’s an excellent list. I wish my public high school kid’s class did those.

Kids at BASIS DC, a public charter, read many of those in 8th and 9th.

I am a professor of literature (with children at a Big-3), and it makes me crazy when I hear parents "bragging" about children reading texts at early ages.
I have PhD candidates who are writing dissertations on Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, and I assure you that with texts like these, the age at which someone engages in them tells me very little about their intellectual ability to analyze and contextualize what's on the page. Statements like yours tell me much more about a parents' understanding of literature (i.e., limited) than about the quality of the curriculum. High school is a perfect age to introduce the writings listed above, which grapple with complex issues of identity, fitting in, and acts of resistance against larger cultural/social/economic forces. There are very, very few 8th graders -and dare I say, even adults - who can understand the revolutionary nature of the Gospel of Mark, its relationship to the other Gospels, and historical-critical interpretations of Mark. Most 8th graders are not going to grasp in any profound way the works of Toni Morrison, much less have the understanding of US history required to appreciate her writing.

Whatever dude. Save your lectures for your boring college classes. I bet GDS wouldn’t even hire you.

What a rude response.