Anyone else educated by FCPS and sees the decline?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s all about One Fairfax, which is a race to the bottom engineered by politicians like Jeff McKay and Karen Keys Gamarra.

Oh please. One Fairfax has been all talk. There has been no action at all as far as FCPS being treated as "one." Poor schools are literally poorer than they ever have been now reaching record concentrations of 60%+ FARMs. If you're unhappy with your wealthy pyramid, that's all on you.

[Anonymous]

But think of how much great material your children will have for their college application letters.
Just have them write about how they went to school with kids from all walks of life, even poor people and people with mental challenges, and through grit and determination they managed to rise above it, not they would like to attend ‘insert college here’ because they are a well rounded young adult and ‘insert college here’ can be instrumental in furthering their growth, compassion, and earning potential

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm shocked by how little my kids are learning. Also by all the distruptions caused by kids who probably aren't being well served by a general ed classroom. One kid wears headphones all day because he gets stressed by the noise and starts throwing a fit when he is stressed. Why would you put him in a classroom of 30+ kids? He can't hear what the teacher is saying at all.

Mainstreaming at its finest

[Anonymous]

One data point:

My child in Honors 9th grade English at Langley is reading an abridged version of the Odyssey. It’s about 1/3 the length of the original book and the language is simplified.

I read the full book when I was in 9th grade in FCPS and her older cousin also read the full book about 10 years ago in another FCPS high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One data point:

My child in Honors 9th grade English at Langley is reading an abridged version of the Odyssey. It’s about 1/3 the length of the original book and the language is simplified.

I read the full book when I was in 9th grade in FCPS and her older cousin also read the full book about 10 years ago in another FCPS high school.

Then have your child read the full book at home. Fairfax County has libraries.

[Anonymous]

I was educated in FCPS all the way through. I think some things are still good (I have two in HS) and some things are worse and I agree it’s probably because of a lot of trends that go well beyond FCPS. I think math and for the most part science at the HS level are really strong. Social studies has been by and large excellent. Reading/writing is where I think things aren’t great. My kids have had some very strong teachers that have tried (and my kids have been in AAP and then honors) but the trend towards PowerPoints and things like that for projects all the way through I don’t think is great.

There’s way too much screen time all the way through with use of computer learning games, YouTube videos etc. I think some of this is trying to meet the kids where they are and some us educational laziness. I do wish screens were much more limited in the classroom at least until middle/HS. I do wish there were still textbooks in each class.

[Anonymous]

What you call a library I call a Socialist Book Repository!

[Anonymous]

I care enough to compensate for the general decline in my kids education. This will result in a larger gap between them and their peers who relied on public education alone. Many folks were doing this anyway. The gap is just going to grow larger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I care enough to compensate for the general decline in my kids education. This will result in a larger gap between them and their peers who relied on public education alone. Many folks were doing this anyway. The gap is just going to grow larger.

How do you compensate? I feel like the biggest gap is writing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I care enough to compensate for the general decline in my kids education. This will result in a larger gap between them and their peers who relied on public education alone. Many folks were doing this anyway. The gap is just going to grow larger.

How do you compensate? I feel like the biggest gap is writing.

You don’t learn how to write until grad school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What you call a library I call a Socialist Book Repository!

Well said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s all about One Fairfax, which is a race to the bottom engineered by politicians like Jeff McKay and Karen Keys Gamarra.

Oh please. One Fairfax has been all talk. There has been no action at all as far as FCPS being treated as "one." Poor schools are literally poorer than they ever have been now reaching record concentrations of 60%+ FARMs. If you're unhappy with your wealthy pyramid, that's all on you.

There’s a difference between family incomes and county spending. County spending is disproportionately spent on poorer schools and poorer neighborhoods, and that keeps increasing, but I guess you expected the county to directly subsidize lower-income families in the name of equity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I care enough to compensate for the general decline in my kids education. This will result in a larger gap between them and their peers who relied on public education alone. Many folks were doing this anyway. The gap is just going to grow larger.

How do you compensate? I feel like the biggest gap is writing.

You don’t learn how to write until grad school.

I learned to write well in at a Catholic HS which isn’t an option for my kids. Does IB help kids learn how to write?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One data point:

My child in Honors 9th grade English at Langley is reading an abridged version of the Odyssey. It’s about 1/3 the length of the original book and the language is simplified.

I read the full book when I was in 9th grade in FCPS and her older cousin also read the full book about 10 years ago in another FCPS high school.

Then have your child read the full book at home. Fairfax County has libraries.

I hate this response. Yes, parents should do educational things at home. But the notion that we should be making up for big gaps in what the school is doing is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I care enough to compensate for the general decline in my kids education. This will result in a larger gap between them and their peers who relied on public education alone. Many folks were doing this anyway. The gap is just going to grow larger.

How do you compensate? I feel like the biggest gap is writing.

You don’t learn how to write until grad school.

Speak for yourself. I learned to write during high school. By the time I got to college, the expectation was that we knew how to write. As for grad school: no one at UChicago was going to teach PhD candidates how to write.