What’s Something About Your School You Would Have LOVED To Know Before Enrolling

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That the admins are not interested in improving the school culture and like the power of the status quo.

The students are mean.

Homophobia is rampant and uncheck as long as you say, “just kidding”

That the teachers are just as stressed as the students and afraid of the parents.

That the school will always believe the bully over the victim because it’s easier than solving the problem

That the rules don’t apply to everyone

Sounds like GDS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That the admins are not interested in improving the school culture and like the power of the status quo.

The students are mean.

Homophobia is rampant and uncheck as long as you say, “just kidding”

That the teachers are just as stressed as the students and afraid of the parents.

That the school will always believe the bully over the victim because it’s easier than solving the problem

That the rules don’t apply to everyone

Sounds like GDS.

Doubtful given the homophobia comment

[Anonymous]

Not doubtful, given the homophobia comment.

[Anonymous]

Would have liked to know that the school itself is pretty liberal and very inclusive, but the parents are not- and a lot of them turned out to be a mixed bag of racists, classists, and homophobes. It was surprising but now I realize like PP above that you can’t know a cohort unto you’re in it. And the administration is not going to say “parents in our school community are perpetually complaining about our social justice curriculum, diversity initiatives and the books in our library.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would have liked to know that the school itself is pretty liberal and very inclusive, but the parents are not- and a lot of them turned out to be a mixed bag of racists, classists, and homophobes. It was surprising but now I realize like PP above that you can’t know a cohort unto you’re in it. And the administration is not going to say “parents in our school community are perpetually complaining about our social justice curriculum, diversity initiatives and the books in our library.”

This has to be GDS right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not doubtful, given the homophobia comment.

Oh wow. I’m sorry to hear that. They definitely pulled the wool over my eyes…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Your school”. You mean the ones I attended? Or do you mean my kid’s school?

The way dcum invest so much of their own identity into their kid’s school is pathological.

Then get off the message boards, PP! Parents are paying plenty. They get to be invested

Is your name Jeff? If not, then zip it. No one appointed you board monitor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Your school”. You mean the ones I attended? Or do you mean my kid’s school?

The way dcum invest so much of their own identity into their kid’s school is pathological.

If you spend 50+ a year on tuition, it's normal to be invested

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Your school”. You mean the ones I attended? Or do you mean my kid’s school?

The way dcum invest so much of their own identity into their kid’s school is pathological.

Then get off the message boards, PP! Parents are paying plenty. They get to be invested

Is your name Jeff? If not, then zip it. No one appointed you board monitor.

Nobody appointed the pp who complains about a common usage as the board monitor, either, but that hasn’t stopped them from being a pedantic nut job, so here we are.

[Anonymous]

That the school doesn't tell parents their own child's standardized test scores unless the school thinks your child is academically at risk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That some of the really cool electives in the course catalogue aren't actually offered every year, or ever.

There's a secret menu of course options that you have to know to ask about because it isn't advertised anywhere (e.g. extra AP classes as independent study).

Just because the student handbook says there's always transportation provided for something, like having a bus for away games for a sports team or for practices that are off-campus, doesn't mean it actually is.

Which school is this?

Ireton

Can you talk more about the types of electives/courses that are actually not offered? And how do figure out the “secret APs.” We are looking at BI for next year!

Electives depend on student interest so if they don't have enough people sign up for something, it won't be offered. Guitar Ensemble comes to mind; there's actually one Guitar class with Guitar 1, 2, and Ensemble combined together. There was a Shakespeare Seminar listed in the catalogue for years that never happened and they finally took it out this year. The STEM and Art electives are usually popular enough, English and Social Studies not as much. The school won't be able to say for sure if something will be offered next year but you could ask what the roster size is for this year and what their minimum is; if there are 15 kids enrolled right now, there's a good chance it'll be offered again. If it's only 7, that could be one that's borderline.

By secret menu, I mean that the school is very accommodating to kids who want to challenge themselves. It sounds like a positive thing and it can be, absolutely! But for competitive kids who are trying to take the most rigorous course load offered by the school, it can feel like there's no ceiling on whether they're doing "enough". If a student goes in thinking they're bound by what the handbook says for AP pre-reqs or assumes they need to choose classes within the confines of an 8 course schedule, they come to learn that there are kids who have asked and received permission to take another AP as a 9th class via independent study, or to take Theology over the summer even if it's not for credit recovery so they can fit in another AP during the school year, or to take Honors Physics over the summer so they can move right into AP Physics. And pro tip, grades for summer classes don't count towards the GPA so it's a good way to get non-weighted classes like PE off the transcript so they don't weigh the GPA down. These are just some examples I've heard about from my child and other parents, I have no idea what else is possible because it feels sometimes like the sky is the limit. Which again, is a great thing and it's not AT ALL a dig against BI, we really love the school and it's fantastic they're willing to work with students that way to maximize their education. It's just hard to help my child manage the stress when it feels like we're constantly saying "Oh we didn't know they would allow someone to do that, that's good to know".

Also, I didn’t even realize that there were some summer classes offered

They're not on campus, the summer classes are all online via outside providers (officially it's Educere for Geometry and Web Design, Carone for PE, and Catholic Virtual for Theology) or you can request approval to take something at another school either virtually or in person.

Does anyone have feedback on these summer classes? How much time is required for something like Web Design over the summer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean one grade for each class? How else is it done?

I mean you get one year end grade. There are no semester grades.

I have a DD at Visi. There are semester grades, but they are averaged together for a year end grade. I'm not sure how else they would do it?

Yeah, this is how it works in order to create a GPA... this is universal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That the school doesn't tell parents their own child's standardized test scores unless the school thinks your child is academically at risk.

This is a weird one and I just ran into it at our school. They used to share ERB testing results, and now they’re not?! Don’t waste 4 days of testing 2x/year and not give me the results right away.

The rumor is that the comparison to other area independent schools was bad bad bad so they’re smothering the disappeared results under long winded policy emails saying things like “focusing on learning, not tests.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will go first. Would have loved to know that:

1) School does not allow students to take home their graded quizzes and exams. Student may only review them in class.

2) School does not allow students to view their grades at anytime. Grades are open and viewable for a couple of days per month and even viewable for less time for parents.

3). You get ONE grade for each class at the end of the year.

We would have still enrolled but these were interesting aspects that we were not aware of prior to enrollment. And, my DD loved it.

Wish I had known that there were so many vocal Trump supporting families and country club members.

+ 100 This and that they and their kids are polarizing, divisive, exclusive - ruin the cohesiveness of the school culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Wish I had known that there were so many vocal Trump supporting families and country club members.

Is this at Visi?

I have not seen this at Visi - how are families politically vocal at a HS anyway?

DP. Definitely know many Trump families at Visi. Some in past Trump admin and maybe in current.