New Elementary School Opening near the National Cathedral

[Anonymous]

Also obviously not familiar with the shark tank that is DCUM ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also obviously not familiar with the shark tank that is DCUM ...

Or DC in general - the proposed location of the school is like putting a Hebrew Academy in the heart of Tehran.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In your mission statement, it says that children will learn to value "political, economic, and religious freedom." This feels like a euphemism for something -- what exactly does it mean? Are you religiously or politically affiliated with something?

I was thrown by this as well. It sounds like an agenda. How do you teach kids in lower elementary to value economic freedom?

I was also thrown by the statement that they don't take kids with SN who need any kind of accommodation. There is no school that I'm aware of that says this. Even the big 3 will support kids with mild learning differences who need minor accommodations like extra time. Of course every school has its limits, and those limits will vary from school to school. But to say nope, not at all? I look at that, statements of preparing children for their "heroic journey" to create "profound change" and "value political, economic and religious freedom" and it sounds like they are trying to create ubermen.

I noticed that too... nice (not).

Why? At least they are honest up front.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:'Serious" is their slight of hand. Read the whole thing. The question is do they serve kids with SN and the answer starts with "unfortunately" and says we can't do any accommodations for kids with "serious" issues. But kids with serious issues do not go to mainstream schools. if you asked Sidwell if they can serve kids with SN they will tell you they can provide minor accommodations for kids with mild learning differences. I have a child with minor SN (who is an excellent student at a top 3 school) and I read this as "we don't want your child."

Acton Academies were founded by Jeff Sandefer who is a wealthy Texas conservative -- board of the National Review, big donor to Rick Perry. So when he talks about liberty, he's thinking a particular kind of liberty. I'm assuming the couple starting the DC school are also conservatives. if thats what you want, fine. Just making what wasn't clear, clear.

To me this means, if your child has untreated ADD or something more serious, they get the boot.

[Anonymous]

I thought this might be a hoax, but it seems real - and right across the street from STA: http://www.actondc.org/location/

A new feeder?

[Anonymous]

Totally intriguing.

I love that parents have to do a book report as part of the application.

For a "school" that seems to use Khan academy (free) it seems to cost a hell of a lot. Twice as much as the Austin school. Must be rental costs? What facility are they in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought this might be a hoax, but it seems real - and right across the street from STA: http://www.actondc.org/location/

A new feeder?

Highly doubtful. I don't think you can go from quests and guides to STA. I also like how students and parents can organize their own after school clubs. This is what 20k buys?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In your mission statement, it says that children will learn to value "political, economic, and religious freedom." This feels like a euphemism for something -- what exactly does it mean? Are you religiously or politically affiliated with something?

I was thrown by this as well. It sounds like an agenda. How do you teach kids in lower elementary to value economic freedom?

I was also thrown by the statement that they don't take kids with SN who need any kind of accommodation. There is no school that I'm aware of that says this. Even the big 3 will support kids with mild learning differences who need minor accommodations like extra time. Of course every school has its limits, and those limits will vary from school to school. But to say nope, not at all? I look at that, statements of preparing children for their "heroic journey" to create "profound change" and "value political, economic and religious freedom" and it sounds like they are trying to create ubermen.

"Political, economic and religious freedom" plus "heroic journey" sounds like Ayn Rand to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:'Serious" is their slight of hand. Read the whole thing. The question is do they serve kids with SN and the answer starts with "unfortunately" and says we can't do any accommodations for kids with "serious" issues. But kids with serious issues do not go to mainstream schools. if you asked Sidwell if they can serve kids with SN they will tell you they can provide minor accommodations for kids with mild learning differences. I have a child with minor SN (who is an excellent student at a top 3 school) and I read this as "we don't want your child."

Acton Academies were founded by Jeff Sandefer who is a wealthy Texas conservative -- board of the National Review, big donor to Rick Perry. So when he talks about liberty, he's thinking a particular kind of liberty. I'm assuming the couple starting the DC school are also conservatives. if thats what you want, fine. Just making what wasn't clear, clear.

To me this means, if your child has untreated ADD or something more serious, they get the boot.

And to me it means they don't want a "treated" child with ADHD who needs extra time or other minor accommodations. The point is that this was not written by educators, and it doesn't make a lot of sense if you are a parent looking forinformation. I doubt they even know what they mean. But I read it as a categorical no.

[Anonymous]

Of course the founders are new parents.

I don't really get it but maybe because I have 4 kids who would love to be on quests all day but couldn't lead their own schooling even if I bribed them. I am sure a few people will love this school and be willing to plunk down a lot of cash for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Totally intriguing.

I love that parents have to do a book report as part of the application.

For a "school" that seems to use Khan academy (free) it seems to cost a hell of a lot. Twice as much as the Austin school. Must be rental costs? What facility are they in?

I missed the listing of the price -- where is that? Is it in the initial post or the website?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course the founders are new parents.

I don't really get it but maybe because I have 4 kids who would love to be on quests all day but couldn't lead their own schooling even if I bribed them. I am sure a few people will love this school and be willing to plunk down a lot of cash for it.

Thanks for making me chuckle.

This sounds like a mix of Conservative-Libertarian/Montessori/online learning to me. And there might be kids for whom it works great -- I would find it interesting to observe, I think. The idea of the socratic method for secondary school students, at least, isn't really new -- it sounds like the "Harkness method" with a different name.

Will be interested to hear how this works out. With the high expenses of schooling, maybe the blend of bricks and mortar and online will catch on. Good luck to them.

[Anonymous]

I love the idea of no homework. I hate the idea of kids spending so much time on the computer with Google as their primary teacher (with an assist from Kahn). The Randian stuff makes it seem like there would be no effort at service, giving, values education. Their values education is the rugged individualist -- the hero -- who helps no one.

New schools in DC take off when they fill a previously unfilled niche and I'm trying to figure out what niche this fills. The competitive Randians will want the competitive private schools. The crunchy unschoolers are too communitarian for the hero's journey stuff. Conservatives who don't like the liberal leaning of most DC privates will want more God and structure. This leaves the kids who don't fit in anywhere else but often those kids have issues and they aren't wanted on the hero's journey.

So, I dunno. Curious to see what happens here.

[Anonymous]

It's a school that is going to follow a progressive approach. Not exactly like they are reinventing the wheel though they might like you to think they are.

As far as no homework,no benefit in elementary really in terms of learning but my guess is they will cave on that pretty quickly and have to give into parent demands.

[Anonymous]

I find it intriguing that they want teachers who will "evaluate and define" the "existing curriculum." As a teacher, I'd run like hell from a description like this. To me it seems like code for "We will control you 99%, but if things don't go right, it's your fault for implementing our curriculum poorly."

http://www.actondc.org/jobs/