Eastern Middle, trying to decide

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd make sure your kid is really interested and not just trying to make you happy. There are smart kids everywhere, all over mcps, and you will definitely find them at your home school too. Even more so now that it's lottery driven.

(I am an Eastern grad and disliked it - the program and the kids. It was a mistake - though it made me realize what I didn't like which is equally valuable. This was awhile ago, so maybe the cohort of kids are just nicer these days.)

My kid went to Eastern and did not like the cohort of kids either. She never found her people, although others say this (the cohort) made the program for them. She just found them overly competitive and intense, and always looking out for themselves.

+1
I have an older child who went to TPMS and a younger who went to Eastern. The classmates seem night and day different. The TPMS group was supportive and not really competitive. The Eastern experience was the opposite. I've noticed the personality differences with the parents too when we've seen them at meetings or open houses. It's not everyone but most of them seem unkind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd make sure your kid is really interested and not just trying to make you happy. There are smart kids everywhere, all over mcps, and you will definitely find them at your home school too. Even more so now that it's lottery driven.

(I am an Eastern grad and disliked it - the program and the kids. It was a mistake - though it made me realize what I didn't like which is equally valuable. This was awhile ago, so maybe the cohort of kids are just nicer these days.)

My kid went to Eastern and did not like the cohort of kids either. She never found her people, although others say this (the cohort) made the program for them. She just found them overly competitive and intense, and always looking out for themselves.

My kid who went to Eastern did great socially and found her quirky group. The workload was intense, and some teachers better than others, but overall enjoyed Eastern. She did not think the other kids were competitive for the most part. Some of them yes, but most were just kids who loved the humanities. She had a science teacher who she loved. PE was awful, but most of the other classes were good even outside the magnet.

Quirky is a good word. It's hard to describe. If they're your people, you'll love them. If they're not, well then it makes the experience worse. Unfortunately my kid was the latter. There are people on this board that say their kids are still in touch with friends from Eastern years later.
It's just a hard gamble if they already have good friends that they could continue in Middle School with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd make sure your kid is really interested and not just trying to make you happy. There are smart kids everywhere, all over mcps, and you will definitely find them at your home school too. Even more so now that it's lottery driven.

(I am an Eastern grad and disliked it - the program and the kids. It was a mistake - though it made me realize what I didn't like which is equally valuable. This was awhile ago, so maybe the cohort of kids are just nicer these days.)

My kid went to Eastern and did not like the cohort of kids either. She never found her people, although others say this (the cohort) made the program for them. She just found them overly competitive and intense, and always looking out for themselves.

My kid who went to Eastern did great socially and found her quirky group. The workload was intense, and some teachers better than others, but overall enjoyed Eastern. She did not think the other kids were competitive for the most part. Some of them yes, but most were just kids who loved the humanities. She had a science teacher who she loved. PE was awful, but most of the other classes were good even outside the magnet.

Quirky is a good word. It's hard to describe. If they're your people, you'll love them. If they're not, well then it makes the experience worse. Unfortunately my kid was the latter. There are people on this board that say their kids are still in touch with friends from Eastern years later.
It's just a hard gamble if they already have good friends that they could continue in Middle School with.

Honestly this feels fair to me. My Eastern kid is exactly the sort of purple haired, genderqueer, theater obsessed, artistic kid that you might expect when you hear the word quirky. Smart, gets great grades, respectful to adults, but also extremely political. Not all of the kids are like that, but a huge swath of the afab kids are and if that's not your scene, I can see it being a little bit challenging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd make sure your kid is really interested and not just trying to make you happy. There are smart kids everywhere, all over mcps, and you will definitely find them at your home school too. Even more so now that it's lottery driven.

(I am an Eastern grad and disliked it - the program and the kids. It was a mistake - though it made me realize what I didn't like which is equally valuable. This was awhile ago, so maybe the cohort of kids are just nicer these days.)

My kid went to Eastern and did not like the cohort of kids either. She never found her people, although others say this (the cohort) made the program for them. She just found them overly competitive and intense, and always looking out for themselves.

+1
I have an older child who went to TPMS and a younger who went to Eastern. The classmates seem night and day different. The TPMS group was supportive and not really competitive. The Eastern experience was the opposite. I've noticed the personality differences with the parents too when we've seen them at meetings or open houses. It's not everyone but most of them seem unkind.

I don't know how to explain it, but with our experience with Eastern (and this was before the lottery) there were just a lot of kids who were smart and *knew* they were very smart. The arrogance was palpable. I observed some weird dynamics in group projects. That may be there in any magnet (TPMS, Clemente, MLK) but we only have experience with Eastern so I can't speak to that.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think it is like this anymore at Eastern since the switch to a lottery. The workload is about the same and there is some great quality work and still some super smart kids, but overall the atmosphere is just different now. Not sure about TPMS, but the difference has been evident at Eastern from what we saw pre lottery to what we are experiencing now.

[Anonymous]

The sixth grade English curriculum and teacher are superb. Otherwise, I do not think the switch from one’s home school is worth it, especially considering it is is lottery now.

[Anonymous]

I have one kid currently in eastern magnet and one in high school who did the eastern magnet. Phenomenal program. Best I’ve seen in the county to be honest. An opportunity I haven’t seen elsewhere. I wouldn’t pass it up lightly.

[Anonymous]

My hot take is middle school is hard enough, so if your kid has friends and is within walking distance to your home middle school, that sounds like the better option.

[Anonymous]

My son went to the Eastern magnet, but this is a couple of years ago. He's not a theatre kid or exceptionally political, just a regular kid and he loved the program. I'm sorry to hear Mr. Johnson is no longer there because he was such a great principal. I don't know anything about the new principal. My son really liked his cohort and made great lifelong friends. He read books in 7th grade that are HS curriculum. It was challenging in a good way and all the teachers I knew were excellent. Math and science teachers were also good BTW. Go to the open house and see what you think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd make sure your kid is really interested and not just trying to make you happy. There are smart kids everywhere, all over mcps, and you will definitely find them at your home school too. Even more so now that it's lottery driven.

(I am an Eastern grad and disliked it - the program and the kids. It was a mistake - though it made me realize what I didn't like which is equally valuable. This was awhile ago, so maybe the cohort of kids are just nicer these days.)

My kid went to Eastern and did not like the cohort of kids either. She never found her people, although others say this (the cohort) made the program for them. She just found them overly competitive and intense, and always looking out for themselves.

+1
I have an older child who went to TPMS and a younger who went to Eastern. The classmates seem night and day different. The TPMS group was supportive and not really competitive. The Eastern experience was the opposite. I've noticed the personality differences with the parents too when we've seen them at meetings or open houses. It's not everyone but most of them seem unkind.

Opposite experience for my 2 kids who went to TPMS and Eastern, TPMS kids are competitive and mean, no issue with Eastern. I think the experience depend on the kid also.

[Anonymous]

It's strange that there are so many positive posts within minutes of each other. They are also not based on reality. The teacher mentioned is hated by almost all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's strange that there are so many positive posts within minutes of each other. They are also not based on reality. The teacher mentioned is hated by almost all.

Possibly ghost-written by that teacher?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's strange that there are so many positive posts within minutes of each other. They are also not based on reality. The teacher mentioned is hated by almost all.

Possibly ghost-written by that teacher?

I wrote a positive post and it was based on MY reality. Feel free to have your own opinion. What teacher was mentioned in this thread?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's strange that there are so many positive posts within minutes of each other. They are also not based on reality. The teacher mentioned is hated by almost all.

Possibly ghost-written by that teacher?

I wrote a positive post and it was based on MY reality. Feel free to have your own opinion. What teacher was mentioned in this thread?

I'm not sure but my child really likes the new science teacher at Eastern.

[Anonymous]

How much homework do Eastern kids have to do? What type of homework? Thanks.