Too much student choice in our public school

[Anonymous]

OP, I would check out Catholics and privates. Our public had alot of the same issues and so many parents were supplementing outside of school that the test scores for the overall school looked good, so I didn’t expect anything to change by me complaining.

We left for a Catholic school and it’s been night and day. Very structured, textbooks, minimal screen time. The pace of learning is so much faster and my kids are leaning so much more.

[Anonymous]

This was a very minor but contributing reason why we switched to private. Whole class novels, worksheets and homework from the math workbooks, grammar sheets from the grammar workbook. There's some choice, but there's also a core curriculum everyone learns together.

[Anonymous]

We are in public and our principal makes a conscious choice to minimize screen time k-2. It's only for testing and very few other activities. Not every day for sure. Kids don't take their Chromebook's home until late 2nd grade.
Math homework in workbooks, spelling tests etc.

[Anonymous]

That sounds more like babysitting / after-school care than teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was a very minor but contributing reason why we switched to private. Whole class novels, worksheets and homework from the math workbooks, grammar sheets from the grammar workbook. There's some choice, but there's also a core curriculum everyone learns together.

What were the big reasons?

[Anonymous]

This has really not been our experience with FCPS. They do have some time to do lexia (awesome) and ST math (terrible) but most of their time is teacher led lessons and activities.

I would absolutely discuss with principal (not to blame the teacher but to ask about how this is in other grades) and then the school board. That honestly seems nuts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To each his own, but my kid has responded very well to having 1-2 choices after completing the classroom lesson materials. Keeps him busy and engaged instead of bored and potentially disruptive.

People who are referring to private religious schools - remember they are not required to accept kids with learning disabilities, and they often don’t. It’s fine if you want to avoid disabled kids, but just be honest about that.

Religious school absolutely DO take kids with learning differences. Look into it

My kid’s Catholic school has a whole program for kids with pretty severe intellectual disabilities. The other kids work with them as aides. It’s pretty remarkable.

That’s really rare. I have a sibling that works these schools, and they are very clear that they only accept what they can handle with existing resources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was a very minor but contributing reason why we switched to private. Whole class novels, worksheets and homework from the math workbooks, grammar sheets from the grammar workbook. There's some choice, but there's also a core curriculum everyone learns together.

What were the big reasons?

A kid who needed a different peer group - and 100% found it in our private. Getting away from heavy tech usage in school. Actual interesting content subject instruction in elementary (I do still believe that the advanced course offerings in big public high schools surpass what many small privates, including ours, can offer, but publics are terrible for social studies and science in the lower grades). Grammar instruction. Spelling instruction. Having kids at a K-12 so they always start and end school together making parent schedules easier for working parents.