10 reasons I am fine with my child NOT being an AAP kid
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
If your kid is not going to be served well by going to AAP, do NOT push AAP on your kid. It's not about bragging rights, it's about the child.
If your kid is better served by being in a regular class....there are many good reasons. Please post them here. But don't post falsehoods about AAP kids to make your point. The kids aren't overloaded with projects or homework. They aren't pushing us to go to TJ or join a math or chess club, the kids do have time for afterschool activities, the kids DO play and have fun and are silly. |
Anonymous
Yes, please post the benefits of NOT being in an AAP program, especially for kids who are close or borderline. (We know there are plenty of threads with people either being hysterical about getting into the program or people bashing others for trying to get their child in.) And to the poster I quoted, I just had a conversation this week with a woman whose child was staying up late trying to get two projects done for 3rd grade AAP and the mom wanted to go to bed. The child also got an "N" for the first time when s/he was used to getting "Os." This was not an appeal admittance (if that's what you're thinking). The mom was wondering what they had gotten themselves into. So, these are not falsehoods. These are real life examples of the downside of AAP. |
Anonymous
My AAP child has received Bs and Cs for the first time in his life. We are thrilled. Finally someone besides my husband and I are helping our kid learn that to achieve in school you need to put forth real effort and pay attention to details. If he can learn this in elementary school then we consider the program a success. |
Anonymous
Good PP, maybe the system should be the other way around. AAP should be for the all kids, and only provide extra/special help to those who need it. I know a couple of kids that didn't make it to AAP and they are A students. It is not fair for them to have a mediocre education. |
Anonymous
PP here. This kid has always been an A student in regular classes, but achieved those As with minimal effort. I would say that in most classes (not all) his working at 50-70% effort put him consistently at the top of his class, even with differentiated instruction. That is not a positive learning environment and we worried what would happen in middle/high school when the work became demanding and he had never been expected to work to his abilities. A solid example of this issue would be the year that his teacher gave homework in a weekly packet. The packet was supposed to average 20-30 minutes per night, he would complete the entire packet, unassisted, in about 20-30 minutes in one sitting. Many other parents in the class were concerned about the volume of the homework and the amount of time most of the kids were spending on it, so the teacher had to cut back a bit. That is not a good learning experience to work at so little effort in my opinion. In the AAP class, this same 50-70% effort results in Bs with a few Cs because the bar is set much higher. When he gives closer to 85-90% effort or more, he gets As. His progress report alternates with assignment scores between solid As vs. Bs and one or two Cs, with overall subject grades split between solid As and a few Bs. When he compares the grades to the assignments, he will say that he was daydreaming, or rushing, or not paying attention to assignments with lower scores. The teacher expects him to work to his level, and because the peer group is at the same/similar/above level the expectations for the entire class reflect that. He is developing study skills, organization and realistic expectations as to what is true effort. I guess the best way I can explain the difference is that in his previous years of school, he was mostly "given" his As, where in the AAP class he is actually having to "earn" his As. This is in relation to him, how he compares to his peer group and the speed/proficiency at which the class is expected to work. I would rather all my kids be in a learning environment where they have to earn their grades by working to their full potential, be it an advanced, traditional or remedial class. That is a much better life lesson than coasting. |
Anonymous
Getting an N wouldn't be particularly shocking if the child was just used to be on top of the world and finds himself/herself with kids who are his peers or in some cases far more advanced. Also, struggling with assignments and projects could be due to terrible organizational skills, a habit of procrastinating, slow processing speeds or other factors that are independent of cognitive skills. While the child did well on the tests and received high GBRS in an environment that didn't challenge him/her much, he could actually be struggling when faced with tasks that require effort. Finally, not being an appeal admittance is meaningless. Some kids are coached to death to get high scores on the CoGAT/NNAT (we used to live in another state where the nature of the GT test is a closely guarded secret for this reason), and some kids receive high GBRS for being quiet, pleasant, compliant etc. It's not in anyway a foolproof method of screening. I'm the PP with the two kids, one in AAP and one not. I can tell you that my child who's not in AAP was "borderline" if you like to call it that way (high test scores but low GBRS, and he has executive functionining issues). It takes him easily three times as long as his sibling to do the same task. In contrast, the one in AAP is easily three to four years ahead of grade level, so while AAP helps, it's not exactly super challenging--the point being that there is huge variation within that program as well. It takes him very little time to do his homework. If your friend is worried about her child not being able to handle it, she can switch back to the regular program. |
Anonymous
I'm that poster you quoted. It didn't cross my mind that your friends child was an appeal admittance. What did cross my mind is that perhaps your friend needs to work on the time management part of aap. The monthly projects we get are given at the beginning at the month and aren't that hard. If you budget 15 minutes a night to work on it, you'll easily be done at the end of the month when projects are due. We purposefully did not overload our child with too much afterschool stuff so she would have playtime and homework time. Our 30 minutes of homework a night is 10 minutes of math, then 20 minutes of weekly or monthly project work....longer if dd is on a roll and it's not too late. I don't know anyone in my school who is having a problem with staying up late doing work, unless they had too much other stuff going on and couldn't get to it. DD also had an adjustment to the aap curriculum the first month. One she realized that she would have ato work for that o, she responded to the challenged, got it together and is back to getting her g+'s and O's. |
Anonymous
|
14:39 I'm ITA. Same story for our son.
Thank goodness he's now having to "work" for top marks. DD on the other hand is also AAP and always makes As - she's also is a dancer which has instilled a tremendous work effort and attention to detail that has paid off with her school work. |
Anonymous
|
Ok, well what you explained may be true and AAP may be a great fit for your child, I'm actually looking for reasons why NOT being in AAP might be a positive and beneficial option for someone who either didn't quite make the scores or did make the scores but the parents chose not to take it.
We hear over and over and over again how great AAP is and how we should be trying to get our kids out of the "terrible" base schools. I want to hear more reasons why I might not want my child to be in AAP. |
Anonymous
Because your child may no longer be attending the neighborhood school. Because your child may also not be attending the middle school that the neighborhood kids attend. Because your child may have to return to the base high school and have few (if any) friends from elementary and middle schools, due to the AAP centers feeding into a different high school. Because your child may have to take the bus to the AAP school, and the bus ride may be long and tiring. Because your child prefers a peer group that is not academically similar. |
Anonymous
Okay. My oldest's AAP center school is huge. The building is big but the playground is small. It feels more like a middle school than an elementary school. My other child's home school is cozy, bright and warm. You walk into the building and everyone is friendly and smiley, and it just feels like a place where a kid will be nutured and where they will know every student's name. Everyone in the neighborhood walks to school together. We just moved to the area, and I have already found a couple people at the home school who I would feel comfortable asking to help me in a pinch, just from waiting around at pick up. It is truly a neighborhood elementary school, and it just feels right. |
Anonymous
| These are good reasons to keep your kid in your base school.... keep them coming! |
Anonymous
| Our base school IS a center school. |
Anonymous
I think that for the most part, people who say that have a bad case of keeping up with the Jones for absolutely the wrong reasons. By and large, the quality of your school is going to depend on the socio-economics of the neighborhood. Politically incorrect, but true. There is one and only one valid reason to have your child in one program or the other, and that is the fit with the child's cognitive and academic abilities. That said, it doesn't mean that if your child was "borderline" and was denied admission and you feel he/she truly should be in AAP, that you shouldn't try again to seek admission. The selection system is by no means foolproof. On the other hand, someone who has been coaching their kid for years to get into AAP and then finds that it's stressing the kid to death should not feel too surprised. Children learn at their own pace. Remember the tortoise of the fable did end up winning the race. |
Anonymous
|
17:20 --- thanks for adding to the list.
18:20 -- you are one of the lucky ones! |