How was the meeting with the admin meeting last week at BASIS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To every Basis parent: read this article and let go of the thread, but think about the Dean

OP your story reminded me of a report from 1980 that someone posted on DCUM a while ago, Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work: http://cuip.uchicago.edu/~cac/nlu/fnd504/anyon.htm Read the section on "working class school". Apparently not a lot has changed since 1980.

Give me a break already. How do you propose the school deal with behavior issues which are greatly improved compared to the first 2 years? I know myself and many parents expressed huge concern about behaviors in the first 2 years and feel it has improved tremendously this year. Even then BASIS still provided my kid a great education and even better this year since disruptions are almost nil this year. I am also very glad to see the new tardy procedures even though my kid had to go to lunch with the Dean since I suspect that there were many wanderers in the past 2 years who would also vandalize school property and whatnot which does not seem to be the case this year. Punctuality is a virtue you know. Ms. P was also very helpful in giving us ideas on how to make sure our kid gets to class in time. It does help to reach out to school staff if your kid is having troubles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To every Basis parent: read this article and let go of the thread, but think about the Dean

OP your story reminded me of a report from 1980 that someone posted on DCUM a while ago, Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work: http://cuip.uchicago.edu/~cac/nlu/fnd504/anyon.htm Read the section on "working class school". Apparently not a lot has changed since 1980.

Give me a break already. How do you propose the school deal with behavior issues which are greatly improved compared to the first 2 years? I know myself and many parents expressed huge concern about behaviors in the first 2 years and feel it has improved tremendously this year. Even then BASIS still provided my kid a great education and even better this year since disruptions are almost nil this year. I am also very glad to see the new tardy procedures even though my kid had to go to lunch with the Dean since I suspect that there were many wanderers in the past 2 years who would also vandalize school property and whatnot which does not seem to be the case this year. Punctuality is a virtue you know. Ms. P was also very helpful in giving us ideas on how to make sure our kid gets to class in time. It does help to reach out to school staff if your kid is having troubles.

Why does a school administrator have to give you ideas to make sure your child gets to school on time? It is fairly easy - get up as early as necessary to get to school on time. If your child is having difficulty getting up early, do your job as a parent and make them to to bed earlier. What has happened to good old common sense?

[Anonymous]

A[b wrote:nonymous]

[/b wrote:Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People make mistakes. My husband yelled at his 4 year old son "I'm gonna kill you!" after said son threw 200 straws all over starbucks. People make mistakes. Perhaps the school needs to be more understanding/forgiving of student mistakes (sounds like it). But you need to be more understanding/forgiving of the Dean's mistake. My husband didn't do the greatest job apologizing to his son either. It isn't easy to admit to a mistake - the weird "messaging" email was someone's awkward attempt to admit a mistake.

It is fine to fight hard for a school culture that respects the children there (and it doesn't doesn't like basis has that now), but harping on this one egregious misstep is just, well, kinda gross. Be understanding and forgiving as you demand the same for your child.

And if only the BOOSTERS would have been willing to make the same admission, this thread would have been over long ago............. but they wanted to blame the kids, interpret the email, etc etc etc

No, you cannot counsel out parents. But you can SLAM them here for their lack of understanding, poor English, what have you. And you have done all that.

Unlike your dh, who had only had a son who could push his buttons for 4 years, the Dean they are claiming has a ton of DCPS experience. So he does not have that kind of excuse.

no, everyone makes mistakes, even people with tons of experience. Your self righteousness is preventing you from having any empathy or humanness. It is very ugly. Model for your child how you fight for the respect and kindness s/he deserves while not becoming a monster over others' mistakes.

Why doesn't someone just make him go in and apologize already? Parents have asked the HOS for both of them to do it - it takes a lot to admit that you were wrong, I get it, but the Dean was. Apologies go a long way when it is adults saying sorry to kids. A long way. That is modeling respect for students, because the way he behaved was disrespectful. Once the Dean apologizes, and Cameron Louis apologizes for not coming in sooner, no one can continue to criticize their conduct or continue to harp on this situation. It would end this nonsense and allow everyone to move along.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To every Basis parent: read this article and let go of the thread, but think about the Dean

OP your story reminded me of a report from 1980 that someone posted on DCUM a while ago, Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work: http://cuip.uchicago.edu/~cac/nlu/fnd504/anyon.htm Read the section on "working class school". Apparently not a lot has changed since 1980.

Give me a break already. How do you propose the school deal with behavior issues which are greatly improved compared to the first 2 years? I know myself and many parents expressed huge concern about behaviors in the first 2 years and feel it has improved tremendously this year. Even then BASIS still provided my kid a great education and even better this year since disruptions are almost nil this year. I am also very glad to see the new tardy procedures even though my kid had to go to lunch with the Dean since I suspect that there were many wanderers in the past 2 years who would also vandalize school property and whatnot which does not seem to be the case this year. Punctuality is a virtue you know. Ms. P was also very helpful in giving us ideas on how to make sure our kid gets to class in time. It does help to reach out to school staff if your kid is having troubles.

Why does a school administrator have to give you ideas to make sure your child gets to school on time? It is fairly easy - get up as early as necessary to get to school on time. If your child is having difficulty getting up early, do your job as a parent and make them to to bed earlier. What has happened to good old common sense?

It is really not good to assume. We have never been late for school. He had some difficulty getting to the next class a few times and we asked Ms. P for some suggestions. Problem solved.

I am all for the tardy policies since tardiness was rampant in the school as I wager it is in just about every DCPS school. I believe the tardy issues have improved dramatically at BASIS. I think all DCPS schools should have similar policies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again no mention of the make it or break administrator, still flying under the radar and acting as a mere teacher.

Since we have suffered SO much through this agonizing thread, please reward us with a clue as to whom you are referring to here?

Again this is a non-issue in my book. So what if a possible future or actual administrator is acting as a teacher? I think that is great if it is so since I think every administrator should go through teaching classes in the school ideally. It is much easier to make wiser decisions about the school when they have such experience IMHO.

Geesh Talk about trying to nitpick everything about the school.

Not nitpicking. Genuinely curious....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
All that happened is that a perhaps overzealous Dean (who, by the way, came from the DCPS system and who's used to how things are done there) tried to get some accountability for the theft, and his statement was IMMEDIATELY WITHDRAWN BY THE HEAD OF SCHOOL.

That's all that happened. End of story.

"Perhaps overzealous?" You sound like Cameron Louis.
"tried to get some accountability" by leaving the room and having the kids toss it,
and when they could not find the candy, said he would mess with their grades as a group
the withdrawal was ineffective. The egg was fertilized. Sorry, no dice.

"The egg was fertilized?" Sorry, no. Again, it was made clear many times and at every level that grades would NOT be affected. So, that means "the egg" was NOT "fertilized." What we have here is more like a false pregnancy - and EVERYONE knows it. And worse yet, a drama queen who's been going around carrying on and on and on about the false pregnancy for two weeks now, even though everyone else knows full well it's fraudulent. She keeps embarrassing herself with this stuff, it's the material of reality TV shows. Reminds me of a gambler who, when he's lost, keeps doubling down again and again, digging himself deeper and deeper in a hole, hoping that somehow it will all work out. Better off stopping and walking away rather than digging deeper and deeper into a hole of no return.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
All that happened is that a perhaps overzealous Dean (who, by the way, came from the DCPS system and who's used to how things are done there) tried to get some accountability for the theft, and his statement was IMMEDIATELY WITHDRAWN BY THE HEAD OF SCHOOL.

That's all that happened. End of story.

"Perhaps overzealous?" You sound like Cameron Louis.
"tried to get some accountability" by leaving the room and having the kids toss it,
and when they could not find the candy, said he would mess with their grades as a group
the withdrawal was ineffective. The egg was fertilized. Sorry, no dice.

"The egg was fertilized?" Sorry, no. Again, it was made clear many times and at every level that grades would NOT be affected. So, that means "the egg" was NOT "fertilized." What we have here is more like a false pregnancy - and EVERYONE knows it. And worse yet, a drama queen who's been going around carrying on and on and on about the false pregnancy for two weeks now, even though everyone else knows full well it's fraudulent. She keeps embarrassing herself with this stuff, it's the material of reality TV shows. Reminds me of a gambler who, when he's lost, keeps doubling down again and again, digging himself deeper and deeper in a hole, hoping that somehow it will all work out. Better off stopping and walking away rather than digging deeper and deeper into a hole of no return.

not the falsely pregnant woman but who made it clear, how many times, and at what level?

[Anonymous]

^ could also be that all of this is nothing but trolling from an anti-BASIS troll, who seized on to what they thought was a target of opportunity and who has been trying to milk it for two weeks now. That would totally not surprise me, it's happened before - and it would also make that person probably the biggest scumbag on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
All that happened is that a perhaps overzealous Dean (who, by the way, came from the DCPS system and who's used to how things are done there) tried to get some accountability for the theft, and his statement was IMMEDIATELY WITHDRAWN BY THE HEAD OF SCHOOL.

That's all that happened. End of story.

"Perhaps overzealous?" You sound like Cameron Louis.
"tried to get some accountability" by leaving the room and having the kids toss it,
and when they could not find the candy, said he would mess with their grades as a group
the withdrawal was ineffective. The egg was fertilized. Sorry, no dice.

"The egg was fertilized?" Sorry, no. Again, it was made clear many times and at every level that grades would NOT be affected. So, that means "the egg" was NOT "fertilized." What we have here is more like a false pregnancy - and EVERYONE knows it. And worse yet, a drama queen who's been going around carrying on and on and on about the false pregnancy for two weeks now, even though everyone else knows full well it's fraudulent. She keeps embarrassing herself with this stuff, it's the material of reality TV shows. Reminds me of a gambler who, when he's lost, keeps doubling down again and again, digging himself deeper and deeper in a hole, hoping that somehow it will all work out. Better off stopping and walking away rather than digging deeper and deeper into a hole of no return.

not the falsely pregnant woman but who made it clear, how many times, and at what level?

It's been communicated by the Head of School and the teacher, it's been communicated at every level that matters. Is there some magic number of times you had in mind? How many times do you think it needs to be said?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I worked in a an EOTP school that was like what you described. What stands out to me, OP, in your initial description of the school is that the principal is not setting the tone that children should be treated with respect. That is just unacceptable.

At my old school, teachers and aides (not all, but many) constantly yelled at the children, doled out really harsh punishments for the slightest infractions, and simply ignored some disruptive children who just wandered the halls during the day because I think it was easier for them to not have them in class. It was so bad that I quit without another job because I couldn't stand listening to the teachers scream at the kids. After witnessing a particularly egregious incident that I considered both verbal and physical abuse, I reported it to the principal the following day. He shrugged it off and told me that he had already heard about the incident from the teacher and it wasn't as I had described and told me that the child -- a six year old -- was threatening the adult so the adult's reaction was warranted. I quit the next day. Should I have stayed and tried to help the school become a better place? Maybe. I really felt bad about leaving the kids I worked with, but my very low salary was not worth the terrible working conditions I had to put up with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ could also be that all of this is nothing but trolling from an anti-BASIS troll, who seized on to what they thought was a target of opportunity and who has been trying to milk it for two weeks now. That would totally not surprise me, it's happened before - and it would also make that person probably the biggest scumbag on DCUM.

I think you stay on Basis threads. There are far bigger scumbags. Believe it. Example: if you cannot get your child to a decent school, and said child is complaining about teachers yelling at her, why did you have them in the first place?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ could also be that all of this is nothing but trolling from an anti-BASIS troll, who seized on to what they thought was a target of opportunity and who has been trying to milk it for two weeks now. That would totally not surprise me, it's happened before - and it would also make that person probably the biggest scumbag on DCUM.

I think you stay on Basis threads. There are far bigger scumbags. Believe it. Example: if you cannot get your child to a decent school, and said child is complaining about teachers yelling at her, why did you have them in the first place?

True, there are some pretty mean-hearted scumbags on DCUM. But the trolling and pretending definitely happens as well...

[Anonymous]

.

not the falsely pregnant woman but who made it clear, how many times, and at what level?

It's been communicated by the Head of School and the teacher, it's been communicated at every level that matters. Is there some magic number of times you had in mind? How many times do you think it needs to be said?

The incident, according to one outside observer, was egregious, the non-apology email was sent to parents, an attempt to mask inexperience, jargon laden, awkward, a double negative, any number of people who appear outsiders have described, and some of the kids did not believe the Chemistry teacher

I'm sorry, but the only level that matters is the kids, who can then go home and tell their parents.

[Anonymous]

Clearly some of them believe Dean trumps Chemistry teacher. She called him. And he threatened their grades, which she is supposed to be in charge of.

Oh. I forgot the many levels numerous times mean they are all STUPID and not worth a minute of their time.

Why can't the principal just go in and tell them is not true? Why can't the principal just have Dean apoligize to the studens he threatened? Not retract the posible mis messaging but just say "I am sorry."
How many minutes would it take?

Do you think it would have been worth either or both of their time to take a minute, do right thing, and avoid these crazy rants? I do. I so do. FWIW, my vote..... is yes they do this now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clearly some of them believe Dean trumps Chemistry teacher. She called him. And he threatened their grades, which she is supposed to be in charge of.

Oh. I forgot the many levels numerous times mean they are all STUPID and not worth a minute of their time.

Why can't the principal just go in and tell them is not true? Why can't the principal just have Dean apoligize to the studens he threatened? Not retract the posible mis messaging but just say "I am sorry."
How many minutes would it take?

Do you think it would have been worth either or both of their time to take a minute, do right thing, and avoid these crazy rants? I do. I so do. FWIW, my vote..... is yes they do this now.

Both the Chemistry teacher and the Principal have already said it isn't true and nobody has any reason to believe otherwise. And surely nobody believes the Dean trumps the Principal. I'd ask WHAT kids don't believe them? What kids think the Chemistry teacher and Head of School are lying to them? Surely it can't be the kids of any poster here, nor any kids you know, since you all have known full well for two weeks now that grades will not be affected, and surely you should all know better than to let incorrect information and rumor go unchecked, as opposed to feeding into it.