Is Latin really all that and a bag of chips?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand this post. 5th and 6th graders at Latin take.... Latin. They can then decide if they want to pursue another language or continue with Latin. If you don't want your kid to learn Latin, fine. But you can't say that Latin doesn't give a hoot about language learning when kids are required to take an actual language class.

Anonymous wrote:Just not impressed that the Latins and BASIS don't give a hoot about 5th or 6th grade language learning - no language until 7th at the Latins and 8th at BASIS. The science says that kids learn languages best younger, once they've got a good grounding in their mother tongue by at 9 or 10, or are fully bilingual as pre-teens via immersion. Also not impressed that DCI essentially doesn't challenge advanced kids before high school, other than on the most advanced language tracks. DC public middle schools just aren't that great.

Right Latin required until 9th grade and then starting in 8th you can add an ADDITIONAL language (French, Chinese, Arabic)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:YES to all of this!

Anonymous wrote:Latin 2nd St family here from a JKLM- agree from what the above posters said-

1. We LOVE Latin. Scores be damned, I KNOW that my child is receiving a better education than at their DCPS elementary. Its night and day. The teachers are phenomenal, the strudent culture is super tight knit. They are learning more and more deeply. I like that, for example, the English teacher casts their writing up on the screen and has the full class critique each student. That is terrifying, but important. I love that they take geography and theatre in 5th. The public speaking. The baseline facts and memorization of countries, oceans, states -- I appreciate. The Academic Skills class is so critical. They learn how to study, take notes, stay organized. I had conferences with every teacher, and every teacher had incredibly thoughtful, thought provoking commentary on my child, what type of person they are, how they can improve as a student and human being. They KNOW your kid.

2. The actual care and detail of how they track students makes you feel very involved. Their schoology is updated every day, you can see every single grade for every single assignment, participation and more. We get an email every week from the AS teacher with EVERY assignment, upcoming quiz test and links to all study materials. As a busy parent, its amazing. And it seriously makes me question why my high-performing DCPS wasn't capable of the same.

3. Classical education just makes sense to me, personally. I like they are reading the great authors. I appreciate the idea of sitting around in Socratic circles going deep on topics. I think its really important that kids are held accountable for their behavior, presentation, and general demeanor to be good, kind human beings. Our DCPS was just so over the top DEI-y to the detriment of actual education. Latin is diverse by design, they have high expectations for everyone and lend the personalized support to get you there.

Downsides--as a WOTP family, we feel pretty removed from friends. There aren't a lot of parent events which is fine, but we find it challenging to get involved. But on the flip side, simply being asked for money once a year is a relief compared to the crazy PTA song and dance at our former DCPS elementary. That is our only down side, we adore it so far.

Can someone explain what this means and how does Latin teach this - "I think its really important that kids are held accountable for their behavior, presentation, and general demeanor to be good, kind human beings." Many Latin families say this as an advantage of the school. But I'm curious how this is taught in the classrooms and how kids are taught to be accountable and good kind human beings?

[Anonymous]

I'm a dad who went to Boston Latin. We took Latin, and Spanish from 6th grade if we wanted to, or Chinese, or German, or Italian or Japanese or Russian. The truth is that DC public is hopeless at teaching modern languages, other the Spanish. Right, you don't get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand this post. 5th and 6th graders at Latin take.... Latin. They can then decide if they want to pursue another language or continue with Latin. If you don't want your kid to learn Latin, fine. But you can't say that Latin doesn't give a hoot about language learning when kids are required to take an actual language class.

Anonymous wrote:Just not impressed that the Latins and BASIS don't give a hoot about 5th or 6th grade language learning - no language until 7th at the Latins and 8th at BASIS. The science says that kids learn languages best younger, once they've got a good grounding in their mother tongue by at 9 or 10, or are fully bilingual as pre-teens via immersion. Also not impressed that DCI essentially doesn't challenge advanced kids before high school, other than on the most advanced language tracks. DC public middle schools just aren't that great.

Right Latin required until 9th grade and then starting in 8th you can add an ADDITIONAL language (French, Chinese, Arabic)

Why is Spanish not offered? This makes no sense yet they offer Arabic for real?

[Anonymous]

Spanish is offered at Cooper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a middle schooler at Latin and yes, the test score numbers aren't fantastic. But you wouldn't be on the D.C. board if that's the only thing you care about, right?

Latin has been a wonderful fit for our kid. Material is interesting, teachers are engaged, classes are small, school is diverse (and celebrates it!), and she has become much more independent - both with her studies and in general. She is happy + challenged. Some might say she is thriving (not sure why some on here think that's a bad word).

To us, small classes, engaged teachers, and thought-provoking academics are more important than standardized testing.

Side note on math: I think the fact that there isn't differentiation until 7th isn't a negative. Maybe b/c our kid isn't a math savant, but the idea that she can use the next year to improve and still potentially qualify for an honors class is a nice option. I went to above average schools and there wasn't math differentiation in elementary school (which included 5th and 6th at the time). Kids turned out just fine!

Are you at 2nd Street or Latin? There isn't a regular and an honors section, I don't think. At Cooper, we were told that some kids will be able to do 8th grade math in 7th grade, but they will have somehow needed to cover the 7th grade material (by osmosis, with parents, at Mathnasium--but somehow). But things change year to year, just be sure you understand what's happening and plan accordingly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at Cooper. Overall, very happy with the school, but it's a good fit for my kid, specifically. Some downsides: temporary building is far from ideal (but my kid kind of takes pride in surviving it), no math differentiation until 7th grade and no support to improve chances of differentiating into the higher level math (so we're doing it on our own). Science education has been somewhat mediocre (but I'm not paying very close attention). Fifth grade geography and sixth grade civics have been AMAZING. Teachers have been mostly wonderful, kid is engaged, learning new things, good field trips even in this post-COVID era (some schools have not been able to do that).

Posters here are right, we're not Type A parents, and our kid isn't academically advanced.

Thoughts on the commute: Some kids are more energetic than others, a long commute can wear some down, others are full of energy. Think about how the school commute might fit into the after-school activities.

For those choosing between DCI and Latin, it's really about which school will fit your kid best. If your kid needs personal attention, see if you can get a spot at Latin. If your kid thrives at a larger school, which will have more people, more activities, etc., then it may work best for them.

We are tired of trekking our kid everywhere in elementary and the attractiveness of a comprehensive school like DCI which is similar to suburban schools is that kid can stay after school and do whatever spurt, club, extracurriculars he wants and with friends.

This in itself is a huge game changer for ours and our kids quality of life.

This is what I thought too. Bit I keep talking to DCI parents that say space is limited in clubs and getting into popular ones is like getting swim classes at dcpr. This is why I was hoping we can visit soon and those will experience at the schools will chime in.