Poolesville Humanities House

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP don’t listen to the PP here.

My child is in Global but has friends in the Humanities program. It’s a writing intensive program and from what my child says it’s not gender balanced. I think there are about 40 females/ 20 males selected per year. I’ve also heard the kids can be dramatic but the ones in the program really seem to like it.

Can’t really speak to the difference between IB and Humanities but am providing the little I know.

It's more imbalanced than that. There are 46 girls and 14 boys in the current 9th grade. The mixed-program classes are pretty even though. For what it's worth, I don't think the boys feel particularly isolated. A lot of them are friends with girls, and the rest stick together. I think the other programs have more boys so I don't think it's that bad.

What about SMACS program? Does it have a gende bias too like more boys and less girls

Freshman smacs it’s around 42 boys to 18 girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the humanities house was the default magnet in the whole magnet school? So local kids were put there if they didn't apply to either SMAC or Global Ecology magnets.

Lol, no, Humanities is not the default for local kids. In terms of rigor, SMCS is #1, Humanities is #2, Global Ecology is #3, and default for local kids is ISP.

I’m not sure that’s true for Freshman anymore. I would definitely agree that Humanities was more rigorous before they put Seminar into their Freshman requirements for GE. My older one was required to take CS Principles but they substituted Seminar a year or two later. Freshman GE classes are (Seminar,, World History and Biology).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child attends Humanities so I asked her for her response.

She's never heard people say Humanities is "irrelevant," but it is in-between SMCS and Global in terms of difficulty. Most kids in Humanities and Global think SMCS kids are a bit annoying, so I guess it's just a program differences thing.

9th grade Humanities consists of three courses -- English, AP Government, and Criticism in the Humanities (which is kind of like a tamer Art History with more writing). The kids "block" for those courses after lunch. They are divided into two classes and they stay with their class as they rotate between each of the three courses. The kids get along well, especially within each class (which are shuffled around a few times a year so the kids get to know each other better). This schedule works well because Humanities has interdisciplinary projects that benefit from the classes' malleability (spending Criticism working on an essay, for example). AP Gov is one of the better APs.


The program is very writing focused with a good amount of art too. The first big thing is Gallery Night, where the kids make their own art exhibits. After that they do NHD, which is a national essay competition (actually entering the competition is voluntary though). After that it goes back to smaller creative assignments. The program is a good fit for a student who's creative, a strong writer, and good at literary and art analysis. The teachers expect a lot of the students, so they need a good work ethic.

Lol! My SMACS kid says the same thing about Global. She calls it Kindergarten in HS. The kids in SMACS do not take them seriously. However, the SMACS kids are TOO serious and VERY weird, including my own child. They are bizarre kids and attend horror movies to take their heart rates at different parts of the movie and graph the changes in their heart rates. They are a nerdy bunch for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP don’t listen to the PP here.

My child is in Global but has friends in the Humanities program. It’s a writing intensive program and from what my child says it’s not gender balanced. I think there are about 40 females/ 20 males selected per year. I’ve also heard the kids can be dramatic but the ones in the program really seem to like it.

Can’t really speak to the difference between IB and Humanities but am providing the little I know.

It's more imbalanced than that. There are 46 girls and 14 boys in the current 9th grade. The mixed-program classes are pretty even though. For what it's worth, I don't think the boys feel particularly isolated. A lot of them are friends with girls, and the rest stick together. I think the other programs have more boys so I don't think it's that bad.

What about SMACS program? Does it have a gende bias too like more boys and less girls

Freshman smacs it’s around 42 boys to 18 girls.

I feel like my Soph SMACS kid has too many boys in her program. She has definitely had to assert herself and prove her worth with those boys and sometimes takeover and delegate. But, that is good practice for the field of engineering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child attends Humanities so I asked her for her response.

She's never heard people say Humanities is "irrelevant," but it is in-between SMCS and Global in terms of difficulty. Most kids in Humanities and Global think SMCS kids are a bit annoying, so I guess it's just a program differences thing.

9th grade Humanities consists of three courses -- English, AP Government, and Criticism in the Humanities (which is kind of like a tamer Art History with more writing). The kids "block" for those courses after lunch. They are divided into two classes and they stay with their class as they rotate between each of the three courses. The kids get along well, especially within each class (which are shuffled around a few times a year so the kids get to know each other better). This schedule works well because Humanities has interdisciplinary projects that benefit from the classes' malleability (spending Criticism working on an essay, for example). AP Gov is one of the better APs.


The program is very writing focused with a good amount of art too. The first big thing is Gallery Night, where the kids make their own art exhibits. After that they do NHD, which is a national essay competition (actually entering the competition is voluntary though). After that it goes back to smaller creative assignments. The program is a good fit for a student who's creative, a strong writer, and good at literary and art analysis. The teachers expect a lot of the students, so they need a good work ethic.

Lol! My SMACS kid says the same thing about Global. She calls it Kindergarten in HS. The kids in SMACS do not take them seriously. However, the SMACS kids are TOO serious and VERY weird, including my own child. They are bizarre kids and attend horror movies to take their heart rates at different parts of the movie and graph the changes in their heart rates. They are a nerdy bunch for sure.

I hope you tell your kid that’s inappropriate to call Global Kindergarten in HS. My son is struggling with a SMCs kid this year who tells him all time how much more difficult his program is but is weirdly competitive with him, he wants to make sure that he does better on his English assignments/tests than my son- but he usually doesn’t. He said on one particular test the kid got up and looked over my sons answers. He doesn’t think he was trying to cheat but told my son he was stupid because he chose a different answer for a particular question. I have no idea where the teacher was when this happened. My son ended up getting the question right FWIW.

[Anonymous]

Global ecology is no joke! but it is very balanced in rigor and practical learning. SMACs kids envy them and tell over and over they would have preferred a balanced program like that if it weren't for their helicopter parents pushing them to take SMAC! A lot of smart kids who got into both programs (SMAC and GE) choose GE since if they were admitted to SMACs as well then they get to take all the harder math and CS courses that is offered to SMACs but still skip out on the extra 8th period and all the torture subjects that require the SMACs kids to not have a life ! GE kids are the cool group and they actually have a life and enjoy high school in addition to doing a rigorous program. My kid is very very happy at her GE group and feels sad for SMACs folks. Humanities has good rigor too according to my DD but she thinks humanities kids are weird. So basically each house has things to say about the other house and how only their house is the best! Oh also no one cares about the ISP kids...
but the school itself is very non-toxic and very accepting of students from all walks of life... The inter house rivalry is just fun and banter, my kid has 2 humanities kids in her group of 'best' friends...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Global ecology is no joke! but it is very balanced in rigor and practical learning. SMACs kids envy them and tell over and over they would have preferred a balanced program like that if it weren't for their helicopter parents pushing them to take SMAC! A lot of smart kids who got into both programs (SMAC and GE) choose GE since if they were admitted to SMACs as well then they get to take all the harder math and CS courses that is offered to SMACs but still skip out on the extra 8th period and all the torture subjects that require the SMACs kids to not have a life ! GE kids are the cool group and they actually have a life and enjoy high school in addition to doing a rigorous program. My kid is very very happy at her GE group and feels sad for SMACs folks. Humanities has good rigor too according to my DD but she thinks humanities kids are weird. So basically each house has things to say about the other house and how only their house is the best! Oh also no one cares about the ISP kids...
but the school itself is very non-toxic and very accepting of students from all walks of life... The inter house rivalry is just fun and banter, my kid has 2 humanities kids in her group of 'best' friends...

Oh, but you are so very poisonous.
I’m glad your child is happy and found her match at GE. I hope you can both learn how to be happy without feeding on stereotypes and the imagined misery of others.

[Anonymous]

Double Global parent again… There are bright kids in ALL houses including ISP, though ISP isn’t available to those out of boundary. There is nothing wrong with a kid saying, I want more control over my schedule and forgoing all the magnets. Or I want a balanced HS career with lots of sports and the magnets are too much work based on family values. Maybe they are a very hard worker but doesn’t test well.

If you have the opportunity to go to PHS, embrace the opportunities to meet kids in all houses. You might find your best friend is in ISP. Two of my current Global students closest friends are part of ISP. My older one had several very sweet and motivated ISP friends as well.

[Anonymous]

PP with the daughter that called GE Kindergarten. Yeah, it is mostly banter. But, I am sorry about the son who is being bothered by the competitive SMACS kid. That sucks. Like I said, they are a weird bunch for sure. Yes, the GE kids are the coolest and like to party and get to join sports. My SMACS kid is volleying for an archery team so she can have something she likes to do. She has no time for team sports but does other things like tutor, volunteer and attends internships, etc.for her field of interest. Actually, a lot of ISP kids do take GE, H and SMACS courses. They are seen as the dumb, ignorant hicks but that is not always the case. My DD has friends from all houses and they all get along well. I love the school!