Pyle or eastern Humanities/communication program?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s an odd setup to put the magnet kids into the general Eastern population. I’d hoped it would open my sheltered child’s eyes a little, but she finished with not one friend from the general population. From our experience the divide between the magnet and comprehensive kids is big.

We appreciate this aspect, but it's also a rough place. My child has been spat upon at lunch, pushed/shoved, has had their sweater torn in the hallways. There is only one bathroom, all the others are closed, so my child purposefully avoids needing to use the restroom while at school (yikes).

Just so we're all working with up-to-date information, I just asked my kid and they said most of the bathrooms were closed during the whole Devious Licks thing, but have been back open for "a couple of months." I think from talking to other parents that the same was true in other middle schools during the dumb Tik Tok Challenge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP whose child is also considering accepting the spot at Eastern. I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but I thought OP might be interested too — how’s the administration at Eastern (principal/assistant principal/magnet coordinator)?

Not a fan of the magnet coordinator, and I don't understand the parents who think he's great. There are issues with the program and he is totally uninterested in trying to solve them. People who are in the program know what these issues are.

I'm one of the Eastern parent PPs and I have no idea what you are talking about here. The magnet coordinator has been nothing but supportive to my child in their 2.5 years in the program, and the only parents I hear complaining about "issues" are folks whose kids are struggling for the first time in their academic careers. The program is hard, and anyone considering a spot for their child should know that it is rigorous and time consuming and the teachers have extremely high (and sometimes inflexible) standards. But those aren't "issues." They are features, not bugs, for the kids for whom the Humanities magnet is a good fit.

I could've written this exact thing myself.

Same poster posting again and again? Nice try.

No, I'm a different poster. I was thinking about a recent experience talking to another parent who didn't like one of the teachers, which in turn was souring their experience. Turns out the child wasn't doing well the class. My child's opinion is that teacher is fun but strict about deadlines and not an easy grader. The same teacher is my child's favorite this year. I just think how your child is doing academically in the program is going to color your overall experience.

This could have been me complaining in my child's first year at Eastern. There was one teacher that was extremely strict with deadlines, and it felt a little bit like hazing in the early months. You know what, though, my kid's now an 8th grader and hasn't missed a deadline since that first semester. He's also gained a skills that a lot of undergrads don't have in my experience as a college-level instructor - identifying if something is going to interfere with a deadline and flagging it early enough to talk to the teacher. They actually teach skills at Eastern like "How to write an email to your teacher." If I could, I'd send a bunch of my freshmen through that teacher just so the'd be in better shape when they came to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s an odd setup to put the magnet kids into the general Eastern population. I’d hoped it would open my sheltered child’s eyes a little, but she finished with not one friend from the general population. From our experience the divide between the magnet and comprehensive kids is big.

We appreciate this aspect, but it's also a rough place. My child has been spat upon at lunch, pushed/shoved, has had their sweater torn in the hallways. There is only one bathroom, all the others are closed, so my child purposefully avoids needing to use the restroom while at school (yikes).

Just so we're all working with up-to-date information, I just asked my kid and they said most of the bathrooms were closed during the whole Devious Licks thing, but have been back open for "a couple of months." I think from talking to other parents that the same was true in other middle schools during the dumb Tik Tok Challenge.

... or chronically out of paper (OP, send paper with your child), or trashed, or too far away to get to in the brief passing period... take your pick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child was accepted to the eastern humanities program. Would you select to go there over Pyle middle school?
Transportation won’t be an issue, more asking from an education and social standpoint. Pros and cons?

If it is any help to you, several of my DCs friends turned down Eastern for Pyle. Just would not even consider it due to the commute and perception that it only is marginally better than what is available in the advanced curriculum at Pyle.

I have heard many parents complain about the English classes at Pyle. It was very frustrating to them, especially given the peer group at Pyle.

If it’s any consolation, parents at Westland are extremely disappointed in the quality of instruction. Everyone I’ve talked to basically complains that the kids are barely being challenged at school. And that’s the just the academics. The social dynamics, as described to me, seem very disturbing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP whose child is also considering accepting the spot at Eastern. I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but I thought OP might be interested too — how’s the administration at Eastern (principal/assistant principal/magnet coordinator)?

Not a fan of the magnet coordinator, and I don't understand the parents who think he's great. There are issues with the program and he is totally uninterested in trying to solve them. People who are in the program know what these issues are.

I'm one of the Eastern parent PPs and I have no idea what you are talking about here. The magnet coordinator has been nothing but supportive to my child in their 2.5 years in the program, and the only parents I hear complaining about "issues" are folks whose kids are struggling for the first time in their academic careers. The program is hard, and anyone considering a spot for their child should know that it is rigorous and time consuming and the teachers have extremely high (and sometimes inflexible) standards. But those aren't "issues." They are features, not bugs, for the kids for whom the Humanities magnet is a good fit.

I could've written this exact thing myself.

Same poster posting again and again? Nice try.

No, I'm a different poster. I was thinking about a recent experience talking to another parent who didn't like one of the teachers, which in turn was souring their experience. Turns out the child wasn't doing well the class. My child's opinion is that teacher is fun but strict about deadlines and not an easy grader. The same teacher is my child's favorite this year. I just think how your child is doing academically in the program is going to color your overall experience.

This could have been me complaining in my child's first year at Eastern. There was one teacher that was extremely strict with deadlines, and it felt a little bit like hazing in the early months. You know what, though, my kid's now an 8th grader and hasn't missed a deadline since that first semester. He's also gained a skills that a lot of undergrads don't have in my experience as a college-level instructor - identifying if something is going to interfere with a deadline and flagging it early enough to talk to the teacher. They actually teach skills at Eastern like "How to write an email to your teacher." If I could, I'd send a bunch of my freshmen through that teacher just so the'd be in better shape when they came to me.

Good grief this is not about strict deadlines.

[Anonymous]

It's just common sense - how your child does academically in the program is going to color your overall experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP whose child is also considering accepting the spot at Eastern. I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but I thought OP might be interested too — how’s the administration at Eastern (principal/assistant principal/magnet coordinator)?

Not a fan of the magnet coordinator, and I don't understand the parents who think he's great. There are issues with the program and he is totally uninterested in trying to solve them. People who are in the program know what these issues are.

I'm one of the Eastern parent PPs and I have no idea what you are talking about here. The magnet coordinator has been nothing but supportive to my child in their 2.5 years in the program, and the only parents I hear complaining about "issues" are folks whose kids are struggling for the first time in their academic careers. The program is hard, and anyone considering a spot for their child should know that it is rigorous and time consuming and the teachers have extremely high (and sometimes inflexible) standards. But those aren't "issues." They are features, not bugs, for the kids for whom the Humanities magnet is a good fit.

I’m not sure if it’s the same parents responding about how rigorous and hard the curriculum is, but I don’t agree with that. That’s what they’re trying to sell you. None of the students I talked to thought it was overly difficult.
And you’re sticking your head in the sand if you think the only issues are raised by struggling students. It’s not a perfect program.

NP. What issues are you referring to then? Serious question. My kid finished eighth last year and I am not sure what you are referring to. Who are these students that you talked to?

My child would have been in the same year group as yours. Surprise, surprise, different people have different opinions.
I can’t honestly believe you had no issues with virtual learning and thought it was great, but more power to you.

I had issues with virtual learning, but that obviously affected the whole county. So, this was nothing unique to Eastern. Was it disappointing the New York trip was cancelled? Yes, but again, out of Eastern's control. Is it perfect? No, of course not. No school is perfect. Yet, some of the complaints people state on the board have been a positive for our child. She made friends with kids outside the Humanities program. She got stuck doing some of the group projects by herself. These two factors alone are great life skills to have. As a parent, I also loved the sixth grade English teacher, who develop my child's critical thinking skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s an odd setup to put the magnet kids into the general Eastern population. I’d hoped it would open my sheltered child’s eyes a little, but she finished with not one friend from the general population. From our experience the divide between the magnet and comprehensive kids is big.

I'm genuinely not trying to be snarky, but maybe the bolded is the issue? If a child is trying to navigate racial/ethnic and class differences for the very first time in 6th grade, it's going to be harder than if they had been in a more integrated environment all along.

My Eastern Humanities kid has plenty of non-magnet friends, because it's not just magnet kids in creative writing club, or student government, or orchestra, or cross country, or whatever. There are plenty of comprehensive kids who have the same hobbies as the magnet kids.

My child only did theatre. I will say there seemed to be very little interaction between magnet and non-magnet kids there. Even the non-magnet classes had very little interaction with the non-magnet kids. The one class she did have a lot of non-magnet students was PE. They were not even able to organize a game because the lack of English speaking. So I don’t think she could have done anything more to “navigate” the relationship with non-magnet kids. She was told to “f off” several times in the lunch room when approaching kids tables that were non-magnet students.

Maybe sports teams have more interaction? I can only speak to our experience. I found it had very much an “us” versus “them” and usually the hostility was from the non-magnet kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It's just common sense - how your child does academically in the program is going to color your overall experience.

Ah, we've moved from anecdata to "common sense." Now we're on firmer ground. I see that in your world academics is everything (nothing else could possibly color a child's experience), yet you also don't have a very good sense of what exactly academics means.

So takeaway here is that Eastern will be great for the children of those who think they're getting a top-notch education because they lack the critical thinking skills to tell otherwise. Now I'm beginning to understand all the rah-rah going on here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s an odd setup to put the magnet kids into the general Eastern population. I’d hoped it would open my sheltered child’s eyes a little, but she finished with not one friend from the general population. From our experience the divide between the magnet and comprehensive kids is big.

We appreciate this aspect, but it's also a rough place. My child has been spat upon at lunch, pushed/shoved, has had their sweater torn in the hallways. There is only one bathroom, all the others are closed, so my child purposefully avoids needing to use the restroom while at school (yikes).

Yes. It’s absolutely a rough place and my child experienced similar events that did not occur at our zoned high school with older siblings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It's just common sense - how your child does academically in the program is going to color your overall experience.

My kid did fine - grades were great but at times I absolutely didn’t think she deserved them. And I still say it’s not worth it over our local middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child was accepted to the eastern humanities program. Would you select to go there over Pyle middle school?
Transportation won’t be an issue, more asking from an education and social standpoint. Pros and cons?

The standard advice is to always accept placement in a magnet. If it turns out to not be a good fit, you can always return to your home school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP whose child is also considering accepting the spot at Eastern. I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but I thought OP might be interested too — how’s the administration at Eastern (principal/assistant principal/magnet coordinator)?

Not a fan of the magnet coordinator, and I don't understand the parents who think he's great. There are issues with the program and he is totally uninterested in trying to solve them. People who are in the program know what these issues are.

I'm one of the Eastern parent PPs and I have no idea what you are talking about here. The magnet coordinator has been nothing but supportive to my child in their 2.5 years in the program, and the only parents I hear complaining about "issues" are folks whose kids are struggling for the first time in their academic careers. The program is hard, and anyone considering a spot for their child should know that it is rigorous and time consuming and the teachers have extremely high (and sometimes inflexible) standards. But those aren't "issues." They are features, not bugs, for the kids for whom the Humanities magnet is a good fit.

I’m not sure if it’s the same parents responding about how rigorous and hard the curriculum is, but I don’t agree with that. That’s what they’re trying to sell you. None of the students I talked to thought it was overly difficult.
And you’re sticking your head in the sand if you think the only issues are raised by struggling students. It’s not a perfect program.

NP. What issues are you referring to then? Serious question. My kid finished eighth last year and I am not sure what you are referring to. Who are these students that you talked to?

My child would have been in the same year group as yours. Surprise, surprise, different people have different opinions.
I can’t honestly believe you had no issues with virtual learning and thought it was great, but more power to you.

I had issues with virtual learning, but that obviously affected the whole county. So, this was nothing unique to Eastern. Was it disappointing the New York trip was cancelled? Yes, but again, out of Eastern's control. Is it perfect? No, of course not. No school is perfect. Yet, some of the complaints people state on the board have been a positive for our child. She made friends with kids outside the Humanities program. She got stuck doing some of the group projects by herself. These two factors alone are great life skills to have. As a parent, I also loved the sixth grade English teacher, who develop my child's critical thinking skills.

I had another child at another middle school and Eastern’s virtual learning was really bad comparatively the first few months after we went virtual. They did nothing. The communication from the school was repeated requests to help with donations to their underserved community. No learning happened for my child for the second half of 19-20. So, I disagree it was a county wide issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child was accepted to the eastern humanities program. Would you select to go there over Pyle middle school?
Transportation won’t be an issue, more asking from an education and social standpoint. Pros and cons?

The standard advice is to always accept placement in a magnet. If it turns out to not be a good fit, you can always return to your home school.

“Standard” said who?
It’s super disruptive to switch a child at the beginning of middle school, which is already a big change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP whose child is also considering accepting the spot at Eastern. I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but I thought OP might be interested too — how’s the administration at Eastern (principal/assistant principal/magnet coordinator)?

Not a fan of the magnet coordinator, and I don't understand the parents who think he's great. There are issues with the program and he is totally uninterested in trying to solve them. People who are in the program know what these issues are.

I'm one of the Eastern parent PPs and I have no idea what you are talking about here. The magnet coordinator has been nothing but supportive to my child in their 2.5 years in the program, and the only parents I hear complaining about "issues" are folks whose kids are struggling for the first time in their academic careers. The program is hard, and anyone considering a spot for their child should know that it is rigorous and time consuming and the teachers have extremely high (and sometimes inflexible) standards. But those aren't "issues." They are features, not bugs, for the kids for whom the Humanities magnet is a good fit.

I’m not sure if it’s the same parents responding about how rigorous and hard the curriculum is, but I don’t agree with that. That’s what they’re trying to sell you. None of the students I talked to thought it was overly difficult.
And you’re sticking your head in the sand if you think the only issues are raised by struggling students. It’s not a perfect program.

NP. What issues are you referring to then? Serious question. My kid finished eighth last year and I am not sure what you are referring to. Who are these students that you talked to?

My child would have been in the same year group as yours. Surprise, surprise, different people have different opinions.
I can’t honestly believe you had no issues with virtual learning and thought it was great, but more power to you.

I had issues with virtual learning, but that obviously affected the whole county. So, this was nothing unique to Eastern. Was it disappointing the New York trip was cancelled? Yes, but again, out of Eastern's control. Is it perfect? No, of course not. No school is perfect. Yet, some of the complaints people state on the board have been a positive for our child. She made friends with kids outside the Humanities program. She got stuck doing some of the group projects by herself. These two factors alone are great life skills to have. As a parent, I also loved the sixth grade English teacher, who develop my child's critical thinking skills.

I had another child at another middle school and Eastern’s virtual learning was really bad comparatively the first few months after we went virtual. They did nothing. The communication from the school was repeated requests to help with donations to their underserved community. No learning happened for my child for the second half of 19-20. So, I disagree it was a county wide issue.

Yes, virtual at Eastern was a trainwreck. I also have children at other schools, and this was not the case there, just the usual challenges of virtual.