Just Trolling Around
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Anonymous
+100 |
Anonymous
I'm not sure what you or your "+100" friend mean, but it's very easy to find out at our Center middle school -- many teachers have multiple sections and the sections are openly referred to as "AAP" "Honors" and/or "GE." It's not a mystery nor a secret, and the teachers quite openly discuss the differences between the classes. |
Anonymous
Eyerolling back at you. Glad you're feeling so positive about your very smart honors kid. I'm sure they're doing great & will do great. May or may not be the same as AAP section, regardless of the nice pat on the back from this one teacher. |
The fact that you believe these kids are vastly different is seriously delusional. My child, a very smart Gen Ed student while in elementary school, takes all honors classes in middle school. The Honors English teacher sent an email to the parents a couple of weeks ago, saying she had rarely taught such motivated, intelligent, interesting kids in prior Honors classes. And she has taught all over the county, including in two "center" schools. The kids who choose to take honors classes in middle school, and AP classes in high school, are exactly that: motivated, intelligent, and interesting. Regardless of some silly label given to them while in elementary school.
Anonymous
This is the type of remark that explains so well why many AAP kids have such a sense of superiority and entitlement. If their parents feel that the peer groups are different, and openly express this to their kids, no wonder those same kids look down on GE students. 
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Anonymous
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OP here. You all are truly a mess! I started "Just Trolling Around" as a joke to get all of you obsessed "got a have AAP in elementary and middle school people" charged up because you all had gotten rather boring. The truth is AAP exist as it is today because of the kids who can not function, with a normal curriculum, in a normal classroom, with normal peers, not because they are "smarter" or more "advanced" than others. I think what gets parents so fired up is the labeling of the AAP center as "Advanced" and the AAP parents who really think it is advanced, who tell their children it is and that they are, then tell their friends how smart they are and how smart their kids are, then ditch their friends, then ditch their children's friends and truly believe their child is superior and their child truly believes they are superior. Honey there aren't that many geniuses in the world and many of your AAP children aren't going to be able to function in the "real world" classrooms of middle and high school. You all should be fighting for Alternative learning classes not Advanced learning classes.
Fairfax county needs to adjust the amount of kids going into the AAP center and maybe create an ALC (Alternative learning center/classes) to meet these special needs children in the correct learning environment. "Advanced" in the broad sense that it exists right now is the wrong solution. |
Anonymous
Well, I have to say... I completely agree with you. Though I don't think AAP as it exists today is fulfilling its original intent of educating those kids who absolutely can't learn in a "normal" environment. Instead, I agree that the program has taken far too many "normal" kids from Gen Ed; kids who don't need a special learning environment in any way. In some grades, close to 50% of the students (and sometimes more) are now in AAP. That's what I and so many other parents find unbelievable; that FCPS is actually taking a huge percentage of their students and labeling them exceptional. In reality, that percentage should be tiny. The whole system has become radically lopsided; thankfully, it evens out in middle and high school. Elementary AAP has become an out-of-control monster. Too bad no one from FCPS has paid enough attention to rectify the situation by now. |
Anonymous
I don't think you quite understand what a "joke" is. Sounds like you actually stated your true opinion, tired and small minded as it may be, and waited for a reaction. Now you are chiming in again, restating the same opinion. Where's the joke? That people disagree with you and you got them to say it? Hilarious!!!! And BTW, this last post reveals more of the same personal issues you raised in your original post -- inferiority complex? Sorry you've been ditched, maybe it's not because your kids didn't get into AAP, maybe it's because you're just annoying . . . |
Anonymous
Whooo...hit a nerve!! 
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Anonymous
I am really not seeing much disagreement here. You seem to "get" what I am saying in a "personal" experience kind of way. Sorry to crush your dreams a second time around! |
Anonymous
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All I see in terms of difference is that the aap kids get to learn through projects -- more or less interesting and fun -- while the ge kids mostly cram from their "study guides". Uneven learning is expected and managed in AAP, while the GE program drills for SOL perfection across all skills, before moving on to the next topic. So AAP seems to be just a way to dispense a better quality instruction -- of the same kind that many private schools rely on, without the AAP labels, but with the hefty tuition. Add the subjective admission process (largely based on GBRS, for most kids in the program), and you get a 2-tier education system, with the district using the program to invest in quality education only for a few.
Math is a moving a bit faster, and with more interesting problems, while in GE, kids spend most of their time reviewing last year's info. The proportion of new vs review is just different, allowing AAP kids to move forward faster. This works well for some kids in AAP, and poorly for some -- just like the fast pace may actually work better for some of the kids n GE but not so well for others. It has little to do with AAP, and a whole lot to do with learning style. An advanced ability in language arts is so common n FCPS, that it does not even count as a factor towards AAP -- even though it goes a long way towards supporting the kind of learning AAP is all about. All in all -- AAP is simply a way for schools to decide who they focus resources on. Many kids in GE would do wonderfully with the AAP structure. Many kids in both AAP and GE would do better with an advanced program that simply caters more to the quiet types -- usually kids with lower GBRS. But they would be harder to work with -- so many just stay in the GE program, twiddling their thumbs through one more review. It's all a congeniality contest, sadly-- the price being access to a decent education. What really matters is the individual teacher, and their ability to inspire and motivate the kids. A GE teacher who regularly expects their kid to turn in notes about additional facts they learned, a science resource teacher offering interesting experiments for all, leaving room for open-ended discussions, the well-stoked library with a helpful and informed librarian, the teacher who is not afraid of math -- all doable from either one of these programs. Just expected in AAP and exceptional in GE... |
Anonymous
+ You hit the nail right on the head. AAP is really just reverse busing benefitting kids who would do fine at their base school. Parents don't complain about because it though because it benefits their kids. One wonders when FCPS will do something to counter this ridiculousness and inequity. |
Anonymous
| Ok- so what about kids like mine- all 4s etc.- always pulled out for advanced math and english since 1st grade- our second grade teacher told us during pt conference (unprompted on the whole subject) that if DC did not make the AAP pool she would refer DC and went on to why DC should be in AAP - she was unaware that DC's scores for NNAT was 155. |
Anonymous
Ok- so what is your point? |
Anonymous
+1 I've wondered for a long time why Gen Ed kids aren't allowed to be bused to a base school of their choice, within their pyramid, if they prefer not to attend a center. My child's base school is a center and we'd like to switch to a "regular" school, but that's not allowed. If AAP kids and families are allowed (and encouraged!) to choose the center school, and receive busing to go there, then Gen Ed kids should be allowed to be bused out if they so choose. Talk about inequity. |
Anonymous
Opportunity to brag about child's intelligence apparently. Kind of pointless since so many on here could do the same but don't feel the need. Point is there are enough of these kids in several base schools that they would do fine and have peers if left there. |