Gds is crazy unstructured

[Anonymous]

Definitely a troll, but lots of bites. Good job troll.

[Anonymous]

I have found the responses informative. In fact, aside from the negative title of this thread, every response discussing GDS appears to be generally positive. If indeed the troll meant to generate negative content it seems to have backfired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they get great college results

OK I'll bite- even though I am sure the OP is a Troll.
I am a GDS parent and here is why the school has good college acceptance results:
A. It is super hard to get into GDS in the first place- especially in middle school and the high school, the kids have really high test scores. It is also
CRAZY challenging academically. As an outsider you may think it is unstructured because they dress casually and call teachers by their first names but you are incorrect in terms
of the academic demands on the kids.
B. The kids are interesting, self-motivated, diverse and mostly nice, good people.

But all that aside to the OP: I don't understand why people on this board continue to denigrate schools they know nothing about with provocative subject lines on this forum. From your choice of words "How do THEY get great college results?" your child clearly doesn't go to GDS, so why do you care???

Coming late to this chain, but as the parent of a 9th grader who is new to the school this year, I have to second everything said by the other GDS parents in this chain. We marvel at how the school has crazily intense academics and expectations, but also has such a supportive, warm, and fun environment. Our DC absolutely loves everything about the school, even with intense academic demands. It all works!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GDS is not at all unstructured.

I have one child at GDS, and one who attended another top three prep school and their experiences have been very similar; rigorous courses - though my student at GDS takes more challenging and advanced math and science classes - a rich selection of electives, an athletic program that welcomes and encourages participation by all students, academic teams that compete and achieve locally and nationally, an outstanding visual arts and theater program, a strong music program grounded in a classic jazz education, a commitment to society, and extracurricular clubs and choices to meet every interest and need.

I think that some people confuse a more relaxed and independent student ethos for an unstructured one. GDS students are relaxed, and generally happy, because the school fosters the message - and the students know - that there is more than one path to the same outcome (e.g., the great universities), or even to separate goals (e.g., acting in Chicago).

This is not a one-path-fits-all school, and GDS students are encouraged to pursue their own individual and very diverse talents, ways of thinking, interests, strengths, abilities, and goals. As a result, the students feel less that they are competing against one another, and more that they all share in the high school experience together.

The school does, however, expect its students to work to the best of their abilities, to commit themselves fully to their endeavors, and to act responsibly. GDS hopes that its students accomplish these things independently, with a little guidance, but the teachers will step in when students need more help.

A few examples of the structure I have observed in my student's years at the Upper School:

(1) GDS has a meaningful public service requirement that it takes very seriously. My student wanted to pursue a public service option that had not been done before, but which better used their talents. They approached the GDS public service coordinator with their idea in order to have it pre-approved. You cannot just do anything you want. Additionally they have to be able to substantiate their service hours.

(2) A student who has to miss an athletic practice or event must communicate that, and generally the reason for doing so, to the coach. When DC sustained a stress injury the coach followed up, asked about the medical recommendation, and helped structure individual practices in the workout room to keep DC active as part of the team, even if not competing.

GDS athletes know that you cannot just drop or walk away from a sport during the season, and that if you do so you will not be allowed to compete on any of the following season's (fall, winter, or spring) athletic teams.

(3) GDS takes academic counseling and course selection very seriously. Each winter in January and February the students meet with their academic advisers, teachers, or college counselors to discuss their proposed course selections for the next year. Often they discuss the reasons for those choices, the goals they hope to achieve with those selections, or frankly, just what class do you really want to take (even if you think that you shouldn't).

After the students have led the selection, in consultation with their advisers, the parents are asked to review and sign off on those decisions. As a parent who has at least once pushed my child to take a different course, or a full 8-period course load, it has been important for me to hear the adviser's perspective on why my student's independent decisions are in fact the better choice. And thus I have not once overruled those choices.

(4) GDS takes a student's obligations and responsibility very seriously, and the teachers will approach students with an issue. (Here is where I "out" my student.)

GDS occasionally devotes a non-class day or half-day to seminars led by students, faculty, and administrators. Sometimes they might delve into STEM topics, and other times they may address issues of social importance. On one such day my student decided that no classes meant no school. And thinking that this was akin to a Senior Day we let them stay home.

Within an hour of the start of the school day their adviser had called both me and my spouse, until he reached one of us, and informed us that that days activities were as important to a student's GDS education as any class. When our student finally arrived at school, their teacher met with them to ask where they had been and what they had been doing (our student of course admitted to skipping school). The teacher explained to them how they had let down not only their teacher, but also their entire seminar group.

This lesson came from one of my student's favorite teachers (and an important one in their area of study), and it was a real wake up call to know that they had really angered them. Students may call their teachers by their first names, but make no mistake about it, the teachers are not their peers and will step in to hold students to the expectations they have for them, to help students when they struggle, and to intervene when they see a student issue.

Yes GDS students display a hardworking, but independent and often more relaxed spirit. But so to do Californians and that ethos has brought us - among other things - Berkeley, Caltech, Pomona, Stanford, UCLA, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Getty Museum, Walt Disney Hall, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, the Aerospace giants, the Internet, Steve Jobs, the vanguard of the fight for Immigrant and Human rights, and the Environmental movement. If GDS students can similarly aspire to such innovation, creativity, and regard for our fellow woman and man, then what more could you ask for in an education.

Why do students at GDS call teachers by their first names? I've never understood the point of this.

[Anonymous]

Why does it matter? Perhaps it is to engage the students, to make students feel more relaxed or less nervous, to encourage and empower students to speak up to their teachers in class and challenge their ideas. Who knows? All I know is that it works at and for GDS.

[Anonymous]

From an earlier thread (2010) where the first name question was discussed:

My introduction to this practice was a GDS open house in which Kevin Barr talked about what it was like the first time he heard a kid respond to him by prefacing his remarks with "Well Kevin, I think you're wrong." He said he realized that his approach and answer took a different form than it might have had the sentence begun "Mr. Barr, I disagree." Basically, these are arguments (in this case over some text in an English class) that will and should be won based on persuasion rather than pulling rank. And that's the kind of teacher he wanted to be.

I understood where he was coming from and basically agreed. I found it really unnerving when I first started teaching college and kids just wrote down everything I said. You want them to think, to question, to argue. Not just to write it down, memorize it, and reproduce it on command. And as a teacher, I've always felt I got more respect when I had to earn it than when it was automatic. If kids don't challenge and probe, they're just deferring to institutional authority rather than understanding and respecting your position and the reasoning/work/knowledge that underlies it.

In that sense, I don't think teachers are like bosses. High school can be more complicated than college in that regard, but I grew up with parents who were certainly willing and able to explicitly distinguish between situations where best argument wins regardless of who makes it and those where rank could/should be pulled. And the fact that they would acknowledge this distinction made me respect them more -- not less. Mom's always right is obvious BS. Mom's in charge and this is a command decision is a much more reasonable position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does it matter? Perhaps it is to engage the students, to make students feel more relaxed or less nervous, to encourage and empower students to speak up to their teachers in class and challenge their ideas. Who knows? All I know is that it works at and for GDS.

It started out as a way to correct the way in which blacks and whites greeted each other in our segregated country. Black people always had to refer to whites with Mr. or Miss or Mrs.--this was true even if you had a black adult addressing a white child. Using the first name, without titles, was an important symbolic gesture--with psychological implications--for equality between the races in the Jim Crow era. The tradition of referring to each other by first names continues to this day.

BTW, Quakers traditionally have eschewed formal titles, and referred to each other without honorifics; they used the term "Friend" to greet each other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do they get great college results

As someone who never went there and who is generally against private schools, I think this bs.

[Anonymous]

so unstructured that GDS seniors do better in the Ivys than basically every other area independent school. If this is 'unstructured,' then GDS has certainly figured it out....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:so unstructured that GDS seniors do better in the Ivys than basically every other area independent school. If this is 'unstructured,' then GDS has certainly figured it out....

Before everybody gets riled up, this is the weird GDS "CAT" (College Acceptance Troll). They've been trolling for years and delighting in everyone lobbing brickbats at GDS everytime they make one of the phony Ivy League dominance claims.

[Anonymous]

It seems to work.

[pbraverman]

Anonymous wrote:Why do students at GDS call teachers by their first names? I've never understood the point of this.

There is a good piece on the topic here:

https://odestojoyatgreenacres.wordpress.com/2015/10/15/partners-in-learning-why-our-students-call-us-by-our-first-names/

The broader point is not what's "right," but whether the approach is well thought-out. Reasonable people can disagree and still get good results. While I have a preference for first names, my primary motivation in posting this is to provide an answer to the question asked.

Peter
_____________________

Disclaimer: The anonymity here makes me uncomfortable; it's easy to be uninformed, personal, or simply mean-spirited if people don't identify themselves. For that reason, I have an account so you know whose words you're reading. I have more than 20 years' experience as a teacher and administrator in independent schools, and I have counseled hundreds of students in finding their next schools. I hope I can be helpful to some folks. If you don't like something I've said, you're in good company — there's a long line of past students and parents ahead of you. If you want to chat further, please feel free to contact me offline: peter <at> arcpd <dot> com

[pbraverman]

Regarding "structure" — I think we routinely confuse "structure" and "order." I was a division head at a school that was very high on the "structure" scale and much lower on the "order" scale, and that was intentional.

I wrote post on this topic a couple of years ago. If you're interested, you can find it here:

http://www.arcpd.com/arcblog/2015/12/10/the-purpose-of-classroom-management

Peter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems to work.

Troll or not, it is based on a kernel of truth,the obnoxious GDS attitude about Ivy success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do they get great college results

You simply have no f. idea. They school is great. Unstructured? Puff.... que pereza.