Whose happy with Jackson Reed this year. Considering new Macarthur school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIIW, DS graduated from Walls a few years ago, went to a selective SLAC and was completely unprepared his first semester. DCPS across the board does not prepare (most) kids for college very well. DS learned his lessons and did much better in subsequent semesters, now has a great (and meaningful) job he loves. So maybe it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

That problem is unique to your son. I know well over a dozen Walls graduates. Zero have reported being unprepared for the highly selective colleges they attend/ed.

Please. Kids coming from the DC publics, no matter if Walls or Wilson (now JR), don’t know how to write at all. They are completely unprepared to write at the college level. It’s truly pathetic. They may not admit they are struggling as compared to peers who went to hs that actually taught their students how to write a paper, but they are.

That’s a pretty sweeping statement. How do you know all these kids?

Don’t even bother. There are about three people on DCUM who make it their business to trash JR and Walls and all public schools, even on the public school list, promote the idea that Harvard and Yale are the only possible options for a successful child, strike down any conversations about student employment or life experiences as pushing your child, and in general make it their business to be nasty and try to make everyone feel inferior. Just ignore them, move on and know that the other 28000 people on this list are likely more sane, just not as vocal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIIW, DS graduated from Walls a few years ago, went to a selective SLAC and was completely unprepared his first semester. DCPS across the board does not prepare (most) kids for college very well. DS learned his lessons and did much better in subsequent semesters, now has a great (and meaningful) job he loves. So maybe it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

That problem is unique to your son. I know well over a dozen Walls graduates. Zero have reported being unprepared for the highly selective colleges they attend/ed.

Please. Kids coming from the DC publics, no matter if Walls or Wilson (now JR), don’t know how to write at all. They are completely unprepared to write at the college level. It’s truly pathetic. They may not admit they are struggling as compared to peers who went to hs that actually taught their students how to write a paper, but they are.

That’s a pretty sweeping statement. How do you know all these kids?

Don’t even bother. There are about three people on DCUM who make it their business to trash JR and Walls and all public schools, even on the public school list, promote the idea that Harvard and Yale are the only possible options for a successful child, strike down any conversations about student employment or life experiences as pushing your child, and in general make it their business to be nasty and try to make everyone feel inferior. Just ignore them, move on and know that the other 28000 people on this list are likely more sane, just not as vocal.

This should be at the top of every thread in this forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIIW, DS graduated from Walls a few years ago, went to a selective SLAC and was completely unprepared his first semester. DCPS across the board does not prepare (most) kids for college very well. DS learned his lessons and did much better in subsequent semesters, now has a great (and meaningful) job he loves. So maybe it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

That problem is unique to your son. I know well over a dozen Walls graduates. Zero have reported being unprepared for the highly selective colleges they attend/ed.

Please. Kids coming from the DC publics, no matter if Walls or Wilson (now JR), don’t know how to write at all. They are completely unprepared to write at the college level. It’s truly pathetic. They may not admit they are struggling as compared to peers who went to hs that actually taught their students how to write a paper, but they are.

That’s a pretty sweeping statement. How do you know all these kids?

Don’t even bother. There are about three people on DCUM who make it their business to trash JR and Walls and all public schools, even on the public school list, promote the idea that Harvard and Yale are the only possible options for a successful child, strike down any conversations about student employment or life experiences as pushing your child, and in general make it their business to be nasty and try to make everyone feel inferior. Just ignore them, move on and know that the other 28000 people on this list are likely more sane, just not as vocal.

The weird part about those people is that they are either:

(1) not sending their kids to JR (or Walls) - in which case, what kind of person spends that much time and effort trolling and trashing schools from afar?
(2) Sending their kids to JR (or Walls) - in which case I'm guessing they grew up in middle class privilege (not rich, but going to school with platinum spoon rich kids and think they are the same), can't afford Sidwell or GDS and somehow trashing their kids' school makes them feel better about their own superiority

In either case, WTF?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIIW, DS graduated from Walls a few years ago, went to a selective SLAC and was completely unprepared his first semester. DCPS across the board does not prepare (most) kids for college very well. DS learned his lessons and did much better in subsequent semesters, now has a great (and meaningful) job he loves. So maybe it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

That problem is unique to your son. I know well over a dozen Walls graduates. Zero have reported being unprepared for the highly selective colleges they attend/ed.

Please. Kids coming from the DC publics, no matter if Walls or Wilson (now JR), don’t know how to write at all. They are completely unprepared to write at the college level. It’s truly pathetic. They may not admit they are struggling as compared to peers who went to hs that actually taught their students how to write a paper, but they are.

That’s a pretty sweeping statement. How do you know all these kids?

Don’t even bother. There are about three people on DCUM who make it their business to trash JR and Walls and all public schools, even on the public school list, promote the idea that Harvard and Yale are the only possible options for a successful child, strike down any conversations about student employment or life experiences as pushing your child, and in general make it their business to be nasty and try to make everyone feel inferior. Just ignore them, move on and know that the other 28000 people on this list are likely more sane, just not as vocal.

The weird part about those people is that they are either:

(1) not sending their kids to JR (or Walls) - in which case, what kind of person spends that much time and effort trolling and trashing schools from afar?
(2) Sending their kids to JR (or Walls) - in which case I'm guessing they grew up in middle class privilege (not rich, but going to school with platinum spoon rich kids and think they are the same), can't afford Sidwell or GDS and somehow trashing their kids' school makes them feel better about their own superiority

In either case, WTF?

Unfortunately, the prospects of JR students and those at the nearby private schools having string, positive relationships simply isn’t happening. In other area there seems to be much more cross pollination in teen activities with kids from both public and private schools participating together and applying friendships and social groups according to their interests across schools. I don’t think that this has been a priority, of parents at any other schools, or other schools, themselves, public and private, in this area. And, given both the facts, and the type of attention that these incidents attract, incidents like last weeks violence after a basketball game, and continuation of highly negative conduct, even after one would think tempers had settled, doesn’t help at all. So I think there is a Learing, from the DC government, not wanting to acknowledge failures, and becoming adversarial as part of that with independent schools, parents and other adults in the community, not prioritizing outreach and cross pollination among students at different schools, the general transient nature of the sea, and at times really bad contact by students (both at public and private schools) that would seem to result in adults and kids just thinking it’s easier to remain and separate, at times adversarial, communities. I think this is a real drawback for the students at all of these schools, but it was really highlighted last week between JR and Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIIW, DS graduated from Walls a few years ago, went to a selective SLAC and was completely unprepared his first semester. DCPS across the board does not prepare (most) kids for college very well. DS learned his lessons and did much better in subsequent semesters, now has a great (and meaningful) job he loves. So maybe it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

That problem is unique to your son. I know well over a dozen Walls graduates. Zero have reported being unprepared for the highly selective colleges they attend/ed.

Please. Kids coming from the DC publics, no matter if Walls or Wilson (now JR), don’t know how to write at all. They are completely unprepared to write at the college level. It’s truly pathetic. They may not admit they are struggling as compared to peers who went to hs that actually taught their students how to write a paper, but they are.

That’s a pretty sweeping statement. How do you know all these kids?

Don’t even bother. There are about three people on DCUM who make it their business to trash JR and Walls and all public schools, even on the public school list, promote the idea that Harvard and Yale are the only possible options for a successful child, strike down any conversations about student employment or life experiences as pushing your child, and in general make it their business to be nasty and try to make everyone feel inferior. Just ignore them, move on and know that the other 28000 people on this list are likely more sane, just not as vocal.

The weird part about those people is that they are either:

(1) not sending their kids to JR (or Walls) - in which case, what kind of person spends that much time and effort trolling and trashing schools from afar?
(2) Sending their kids to JR (or Walls) - in which case I'm guessing they grew up in middle class privilege (not rich, but going to school with platinum spoon rich kids and think they are the same), can't afford Sidwell or GDS and somehow trashing their kids' school makes them feel better about their own superiority

In either case, WTF?

There is a difference in realistic assessment and "trashing." Should people pretend that DCPS does a good job of teaching grammar, writing, language, etc., when it simply doesn't? You can be a believer in the institution of public school and still find DCPS is deficient at its core functions. Sorry if the truth hurts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIIW, DS graduated from Walls a few years ago, went to a selective SLAC and was completely unprepared his first semester. DCPS across the board does not prepare (most) kids for college very well. DS learned his lessons and did much better in subsequent semesters, now has a great (and meaningful) job he loves. So maybe it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

That problem is unique to your son. I know well over a dozen Walls graduates. Zero have reported being unprepared for the highly selective colleges they attend/ed.

Please. Kids coming from the DC publics, no matter if Walls or Wilson (now JR), don’t know how to write at all. They are completely unprepared to write at the college level. It’s truly pathetic. They may not admit they are struggling as compared to peers who went to hs that actually taught their students how to write a paper, but they are.

That’s a pretty sweeping statement. How do you know all these kids?

Don’t even bother. There are about three people on DCUM who make it their business to trash JR and Walls and all public schools, even on the public school list, promote the idea that Harvard and Yale are the only possible options for a successful child, strike down any conversations about student employment or life experiences as pushing your child, and in general make it their business to be nasty and try to make everyone feel inferior. Just ignore them, move on and know that the other 28000 people on this list are likely more sane, just not as vocal.

The weird part about those people is that they are either:

(1) not sending their kids to JR (or Walls) - in which case, what kind of person spends that much time and effort trolling and trashing schools from afar?
(2) Sending their kids to JR (or Walls) - in which case I'm guessing they grew up in middle class privilege (not rich, but going to school with platinum spoon rich kids and think they are the same), can't afford Sidwell or GDS and somehow trashing their kids' school makes them feel better about their own superiority

In either case, WTF?

Unfortunately, the prospects of JR students and those at the nearby private schools having string, positive relationships simply isn’t happening. In other area there seems to be much more cross pollination in teen activities with kids from both public and private schools participating together and applying friendships and social groups according to their interests across schools. I don’t think that this has been a priority, of parents at any other schools, or other schools, themselves, public and private, in this area. And, given both the facts, and the type of attention that these incidents attract, incidents like last weeks violence after a basketball game, and continuation of highly negative conduct, even after one would think tempers had settled, doesn’t help at all. So I think there is a Learing, from the DC government, not wanting to acknowledge failures, and becoming adversarial as part of that with independent schools, parents and other adults in the community, not prioritizing outreach and cross pollination among students at different schools, the general transient nature of the sea, and at times really bad contact by students (both at public and private schools) that would seem to result in adults and kids just thinking it’s easier to remain and separate, at times adversarial, communities. I think this is a real drawback for the students at all of these schools, but it was really highlighted last week between JR and Sidwell.

Pretty hard to believe the author of this post lives in NWDC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIIW, DS graduated from Walls a few years ago, went to a selective SLAC and was completely unprepared his first semester. DCPS across the board does not prepare (most) kids for college very well. DS learned his lessons and did much better in subsequent semesters, now has a great (and meaningful) job he loves. So maybe it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

That problem is unique to your son. I know well over a dozen Walls graduates. Zero have reported being unprepared for the highly selective colleges they attend/ed.

Please. Kids coming from the DC publics, no matter if Walls or Wilson (now JR), don’t know how to write at all. They are completely unprepared to write at the college level. It’s truly pathetic. They may not admit they are struggling as compared to peers who went to hs that actually taught their students how to write a paper, but they are.

That’s a pretty sweeping statement. How do you know all these kids?

Don’t even bother. There are about three people on DCUM who make it their business to trash JR and Walls and all public schools, even on the public school list, promote the idea that Harvard and Yale are the only possible options for a successful child, strike down any conversations about student employment or life experiences as pushing your child, and in general make it their business to be nasty and try to make everyone feel inferior. Just ignore them, move on and know that the other 28000 people on this list are likely more sane, just not as vocal.

OK. Would help if you would describe the type of research writing assignments your kid got at JR?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIIW, DS graduated from Walls a few years ago, went to a selective SLAC and was completely unprepared his first semester. DCPS across the board does not prepare (most) kids for college very well. DS learned his lessons and did much better in subsequent semesters, now has a great (and meaningful) job he loves. So maybe it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

That problem is unique to your son. I know well over a dozen Walls graduates. Zero have reported being unprepared for the highly selective colleges they attend/ed.

Please. Kids coming from the DC publics, no matter if Walls or Wilson (now JR), don’t know how to write at all. They are completely unprepared to write at the college level. It’s truly pathetic. They may not admit they are struggling as compared to peers who went to hs that actually taught their students how to write a paper, but they are.

That’s a pretty sweeping statement. How do you know all these kids?

Don’t even bother. There are about three people on DCUM who make it their business to trash JR and Walls and all public schools, even on the public school list, promote the idea that Harvard and Yale are the only possible options for a successful child, strike down any conversations about student employment or life experiences as pushing your child, and in general make it their business to be nasty and try to make everyone feel inferior. Just ignore them, move on and know that the other 28000 people on this list are likely more sane, just not as vocal.

The weird part about those people is that they are either:

(1) not sending their kids to JR (or Walls) - in which case, what kind of person spends that much time and effort trolling and trashing schools from afar?
(2) Sending their kids to JR (or Walls) - in which case I'm guessing they grew up in middle class privilege (not rich, but going to school with platinum spoon rich kids and think they are the same), can't afford Sidwell or GDS and somehow trashing their kids' school makes them feel better about their own superiority

In either case, WTF?

I heard exactly what the PP said from a parent who put their kids through Wilson in the past decade and then they struggled w writing in their SLAC. It’s not made up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIIW, DS graduated from Walls a few years ago, went to a selective SLAC and was completely unprepared his first semester. DCPS across the board does not prepare (most) kids for college very well. DS learned his lessons and did much better in subsequent semesters, now has a great (and meaningful) job he loves. So maybe it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

That problem is unique to your son. I know well over a dozen Walls graduates. Zero have reported being unprepared for the highly selective colleges they attend/ed.

Please. Kids coming from the DC publics, no matter if Walls or Wilson (now JR), don’t know how to write at all. They are completely unprepared to write at the college level. It’s truly pathetic. They may not admit they are struggling as compared to peers who went to hs that actually taught their students how to write a paper, but they are.

That’s a pretty sweeping statement. How do you know all these kids?

Don’t even bother. There are about three people on DCUM who make it their business to trash JR and Walls and all public schools, even on the public school list, promote the idea that Harvard and Yale are the only possible options for a successful child, strike down any conversations about student employment or life experiences as pushing your child, and in general make it their business to be nasty and try to make everyone feel inferior. Just ignore them, move on and know that the other 28000 people on this list are likely more sane, just not as vocal.

The weird part about those people is that they are either:

(1) not sending their kids to JR (or Walls) - in which case, what kind of person spends that much time and effort trolling and trashing schools from afar?
(2) Sending their kids to JR (or Walls) - in which case I'm guessing they grew up in middle class privilege (not rich, but going to school with platinum spoon rich kids and think they are the same), can't afford Sidwell or GDS and somehow trashing their kids' school makes them feel better about their own superiority

In either case, WTF?

Unfortunately, the prospects of JR students and those at the nearby private schools having string, positive relationships simply isn’t happening. In other area there seems to be much more cross pollination in teen activities with kids from both public and private schools participating together and applying friendships and social groups according to their interests across schools. I don’t think that this has been a priority, of parents at any other schools, or other schools, themselves, public and private, in this area. And, given both the facts, and the type of attention that these incidents attract, incidents like last weeks violence after a basketball game, and continuation of highly negative conduct, even after one would think tempers had settled, doesn’t help at all. So I think there is a Learing, from the DC government, not wanting to acknowledge failures, and becoming adversarial as part of that with independent schools, parents and other adults in the community, not prioritizing outreach and cross pollination among students at different schools, the general transient nature of the sea, and at times really bad contact by students (both at public and private schools) that would seem to result in adults and kids just thinking it’s easier to remain and separate, at times adversarial, communities. I think this is a real drawback for the students at all of these schools, but it was really highlighted last week between JR and Sidwell.

Pretty hard to believe the author of this post lives in NWDC.

right? my DCPS kid failing to “cross polinate” with private school kids is somewhere around number 800,000,000,000 on my list of concerns about JR.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIIW, DS graduated from Walls a few years ago, went to a selective SLAC and was completely unprepared his first semester. DCPS across the board does not prepare (most) kids for college very well. DS learned his lessons and did much better in subsequent semesters, now has a great (and meaningful) job he loves. So maybe it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

That problem is unique to your son. I know well over a dozen Walls graduates. Zero have reported being unprepared for the highly selective colleges they attend/ed.

Please. Kids coming from the DC publics, no matter if Walls or Wilson (now JR), don’t know how to write at all. They are completely unprepared to write at the college level. It’s truly pathetic. They may not admit they are struggling as compared to peers who went to hs that actually taught their students how to write a paper, but they are.

That’s a pretty sweeping statement. How do you know all these kids?

Don’t even bother. There are about three people on DCUM who make it their business to trash JR and Walls and all public schools, even on the public school list, promote the idea that Harvard and Yale are the only possible options for a successful child, strike down any conversations about student employment or life experiences as pushing your child, and in general make it their business to be nasty and try to make everyone feel inferior. Just ignore them, move on and know that the other 28000 people on this list are likely more sane, just not as vocal.

The weird part about those people is that they are either:

(1) not sending their kids to JR (or Walls) - in which case, what kind of person spends that much time and effort trolling and trashing schools from afar?
(2) Sending their kids to JR (or Walls) - in which case I'm guessing they grew up in middle class privilege (not rich, but going to school with platinum spoon rich kids and think they are the same), can't afford Sidwell or GDS and somehow trashing their kids' school makes them feel better about their own superiority

In either case, WTF?

I heard exactly what the PP said from a parent who put their kids through Wilson in the past decade and then they struggled w writing in their SLAC. It’s not made up.

I think writing instruction is weak at very large public high schools. I hear similar complaints from friends with kids in Moco. Teaching writing is very labor intensive and time consuming on the part of the teacher, and nearly impossible with 100 students per teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIIW, DS graduated from Walls a few years ago, went to a selective SLAC and was completely unprepared his first semester. DCPS across the board does not prepare (most) kids for college very well. DS learned his lessons and did much better in subsequent semesters, now has a great (and meaningful) job he loves. So maybe it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

That problem is unique to your son. I know well over a dozen Walls graduates. Zero have reported being unprepared for the highly selective colleges they attend/ed.

Please. Kids coming from the DC publics, no matter if Walls or Wilson (now JR), don’t know how to write at all. They are completely unprepared to write at the college level. It’s truly pathetic. They may not admit they are struggling as compared to peers who went to hs that actually taught their students how to write a paper, but they are.

Once again, speak only for yourself/your son. That is not the experience of the Walls graduates that I know personally.

Stop trying to make your son’s struggle universal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIIW, DS graduated from Walls a few years ago, went to a selective SLAC and was completely unprepared his first semester. DCPS across the board does not prepare (most) kids for college very well. DS learned his lessons and did much better in subsequent semesters, now has a great (and meaningful) job he loves. So maybe it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

That problem is unique to your son. I know well over a dozen Walls graduates. Zero have reported being unprepared for the highly selective colleges they attend/ed.

Please. Kids coming from the DC publics, no matter if Walls or Wilson (now JR), don’t know how to write at all. They are completely unprepared to write at the college level. It’s truly pathetic. They may not admit they are struggling as compared to peers who went to hs that actually taught their students how to write a paper, but they are.

Once again, speak only for yourself/your son. That is not the experience of the Walls graduates that I know personally.

Stop trying to make your son’s struggle universal.

Can you share some about writing instruction at Walls? Do they write research papers? How long are their biggest assignments? How many papers do they typically write in a year? Having some more facts would be useful to this conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIIW, DS graduated from Walls a few years ago, went to a selective SLAC and was completely unprepared his first semester. DCPS across the board does not prepare (most) kids for college very well. DS learned his lessons and did much better in subsequent semesters, now has a great (and meaningful) job he loves. So maybe it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

That problem is unique to your son. I know well over a dozen Walls graduates. Zero have reported being unprepared for the highly selective colleges they attend/ed.

Please. Kids coming from the DC publics, no matter if Walls or Wilson (now JR), don’t know how to write at all. They are completely unprepared to write at the college level. It’s truly pathetic. They may not admit they are struggling as compared to peers who went to hs that actually taught their students how to write a paper, but they are.

Once again, speak only for yourself/your son. That is not the experience of the Walls graduates that I know personally.

Stop trying to make your son’s struggle universal.

Can you share some about writing instruction at Walls? Do they write research papers? How long are their biggest assignments? How many papers do they typically write in a year? Having some more facts would be useful to this conversation.

yes. and how much feedback do they get?

[Anonymous]

I am a Wilson grad. I did MUCH better than the kids from Big 3 I knew at Ivy where I went to college. I know because I was Phi Beta Kappa and Summa. And they had no honors or distinction. And won writing awards. And now professional writer. Others I know from HS are doing just fine. They mostly now make more money than me. Connections, chosen professions, etc. So depends on what your criteria for life is.

Those parents who want to bemoan how public schools - esp JR - ruin children seem to have so much cognitive dissonance that they need to constantly argue and justify a world view where paying big bucks for Big 3s or 5s or whatever is worth it? Tinged with racism???

Basically look at the kids’ advantages and parents’ backgrounds (not income or at least not just income) for kids at any of the schools. Sociology 101. Admittedly a gut class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a Wilson grad. I did MUCH better than the kids from Big 3 I knew at Ivy where I went to college. I know because I was Phi Beta Kappa and Summa. And they had no honors or distinction. And won writing awards. And now professional writer. Others I know from HS are doing just fine. They mostly now make more money than me. Connections, chosen professions, etc. So depends on what your criteria for life is.

Those parents who want to bemoan how public schools - esp JR - ruin children seem to have so much cognitive dissonance that they need to constantly argue and justify a world view where paying big bucks for Big 3s or 5s or whatever is worth it? Tinged with racism???

Basically look at the kids’ advantages and parents’ backgrounds (not income or at least not just income) for kids at any of the schools. Sociology 101. Admittedly a gut class.

BTW - noting I knew the kids at the privates before attending college from growing up in area and activities. As my kids have a mix of public and private friends now.