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Preschool and Daycare Discussion
trouble at the DC JCC again?
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Anonymous
Hey, great, I love your idea of "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." What a great way for parents to find information about a school! The truth of the matter is that the JCC is not a preschool, it's a daycare and parents need to know the diference before they decide to send their children to this "school." It's not our job to come up with solutions or problem solving, it's Sarah's job and the administration above her. As they have failed to come up with those solutions, failed to make any changes and the parents left...and that's a fact. |
Anonymous
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you should either:
take out a full page ad in the washington post or spend that money on lots of therapy for anger, which you clearly have a problem with. |
Anonymous
If your child was taught NOTHING in two years, you'd be angry as well. I don't believe that previous poster is a parent, I know all the parents, very, very few are happy. |
Anonymous
| Interesting conversation in here. . . What do you want the kid to do algebra? NOTHING in two years. Children at this age learn mostly from social interaction and watching adults. If you feel your child has learned nothing, then maybe there is something beyond simply where the child goes to Pre-School, and for that matter even a daycare. I never had a problem with any of the teachers or what they were teaching my child. |
Anonymous
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I apologize if I expect the alphabet and basic numbers to be taught even for a few moments during the day in a system that calls itself a preschool. If you are happy paying over $1,100 a month to have your child play all day, then good for you. I was not, and I expect I got what I paid for...a daycare.
I am not the only parent to feel this way and I seriously believe the posters above stating that their children have been learning at the JCC are not actual parents, but staff. I only left in August and I did not encounter one happy parent. I am finished with this argument, what I will leave you with is a note to potential parents: please look very closely and speak to other parents before you send your child to the JCC, unless you are strictly looking for childcare alone. There are much better preschools out there. And to the PP, if you actually are a JCC parent, I am sorry that you believe he/she is learning anything other than bad habits past the age of 4. You child is playing all day, every day, 5 days a week with little or no organization or structure. |
Anonymous
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I am not a parent but am aware that JCC follows the emelio Reggio (spelling) method - which is play based and observation - do you think it is a misunderstanding of the parents/teachers on how the method works?
My child is at another play-based school and although she is not formally taught the alphabet and numbers she learns them as well as social skills and conflict resolution skills less formally and I am quite pleased with the programs results. |
Anonymous
| I also feel the same as many of the posters here. Yes Reggio is a play based theory, where the children lead the way. But in order for it to have the desired outcome, it must be carefully planned and executed. My daughter spent over 1.5 years playing at the JCC, with teachers on their cell phones, no structure, and no creativity. The teachers seem to have no idea how to help children negoitiate with each other, and while I never expected formal teaching of the alphabet and numbers, it was NEVER integrated into activities, in fact there never were ANY interesting activities. I agree with the previous posters, it is a daycare, not a preschool. When my daughters changed to another program, she said "JCC is not for learning, but xxxx is" |
Anonymous
| To the former teacher who left, I would say that you were the exception, not the rule in how the reggio program was implemented. I dont think you can accurately claim that most teachers had any understanding of the reggio approach other than a couple hours of training. While your class undertook "themed" projects, this was rarely done in the other classes and if it was, it was not relayed to the parents. Parents constantly complained about the lack of any activities other than music once a week and art which seemed to stop for most of the summer when it was most needed because of the lack of outdoor options. I dont think parents are or were asking for algebra. I do think that parents talk to other parents and hear about the varied opportunities for learning and growth and have expressed interest in having those same opportunities for their kids. Prior to the new director, those comments were ignored in my opinion. Additionally, because a large number of the teachers were in their first teaching job, there were many that did not possess the necessary skills to manage the classes and the children. By the way, a registrar is someone who handles student records. He may not be doing the payroll, but he certainly does not seem qualified to be in charge of the entire school when the director is away for the day. Things may be improving immensely over the course of the new year -- the new crop of teachers seem much more attentive and eager to learn how to instill a reggio curriculum and the daily emails have been fabulous, but the past year was not DCJCC's proudest moment. It is going to take some time before the current parents are for the most part going to feel confident that the upward trend will continue. And there are a lot of angry dissapointed parents who left the school over the past year. Hopefully, there will be a lot of nice things the current parents will be able to say this spring when the next crop of parents are looking for a preschool. |
Anonymous
I am the parent of 2 who recently left the JCC because of a move. One of my children attended for 3 years and the other for 1. The JCC is a wonderful place w/ enthusiastic teachers who really care about your children. Two things to always keep in mind...the most important things are to make sure your child is safe and happy...and I felt as though mine always were. Teachers were really open to new ideas and suggestions that I had.
and
As I recall these were some of the interesting and fun projects for the kids last year: An election Project where they learned about our Democratic Process and even ran a mock campaign (Pre-K), a Music Project where they performed for parents at the end after school one night (Pre-K), an Art Gallery Project where the classroom was turned into an Art Gallery (4s), a Restaurant Project where they learned table manners, ordering food at a restaurant and taking orders at one (younger 3s), a Story or Book Project where they learned how books and stories are created, spoke to authors, and wrote a class story and where each child was individually "published"...which lasted from after winter break until the end of the year (younger 3s), an Animal Project where they created a book on animals (older 3s), a Garage Project where they learned about cars and ramps (2s), a Compost Project where they learned about recycling and compost (2s), and a slew of others. Just because a parent is not interested in learning about something in particular does not mean that the children didn't enjoy learning them. Maybe we should step back and enjoy what our kids are learning and participate with them instead of criticize. If a class is working on a project why not give input to teachers on ideas you may have on what else can be done with a particular project. Take an active part in your child's education instead of bickering. Get to know your child's teachers and their ideas on where a project can go and collaborate. If you ever read the "Today We" you would have known what projects each class did. Also you could have talked to teachers in other classes and gone into other classrooms to see for yourself what they were working on. I use to love reading the Stories the 3 yo class wrote that were posted a few times a week in the summer on the bulletin board outside the classroom by Sarah's office. I never just quickly dropped off or picked up my kids and rushed to work, I took the time to find out what was going on.
There were 4 teachers who went to a reggio conference in NJ for 3 days where presenters from Reggio Italy were present. Also throughout the year other teachers attended local reggio conferences/schools and had speakers come in throughout the year for more training. The head teacher (who attended lots of reggio conference through the years) also helped the other teachers with their projects. You would know this if you took the time to get to know the teachers.
The registrar was never "in charge of the entire school when the director is away for the day." It was always the Head Teacher, The Art Teacher, or a Senior Staff member who had been there for several years.
Think about how difficult the year was for you as a parent with the transition of the director last year...now consider how much harder the teachers had to work to keep everything together with little support from upper admin at the JCC. They busted their butts to make it work, to make people as happy as they could and to be the glue that kept it all together. If it was not for the wonderful teachers at the JCC I would have been pissed last year also, but the teachers made it an amazing experience for not only me but my children. With a few exceptions I think the teachers were all amazing and really cared about our children. |
Anonymous
| WOW, that's quite a defense. Do you work there or used to work there? It's very impressive how you went through the various quotes and responded to each one. A lot of skilled cutting and pasting. |
Anonymous
Neither did I, and we never witnessed these type of activities going on in any class other that Gary's
Untrue. I received today we emails from Sarah where she refers to "Eddy" being in charge while she was out of the office, and she was out of the office a lot.
Were you in the classroom where the teacher snapped at the child who was politely trying to get her attention because she was interrupting her gossip session? Were you in the classroom where I watched the laziest "teacher" imaginable sit in a corner with her very young students while reading a book to them in an emotionless voice. I witnessed one of the children in her care get up, walk over to the bathroom, go inside and begin crying. After about a minute or so (no less) the irritated teacher got up and went into the bathroom only to find this very young child had her finger trapped in the door. When she brought her out, the child was hysterical. She held her, again, no emotion and then annouced to another teacher "she does this all the time." Well then why don't you look after her and make sure she does not enter the bathroom on her own??????? When I left the classroom the poor child was still hysterical and begging for her mother. Thinking about it, I should have reported that situation. Face it, there were two or three really good teachers, one of which stayed on. If you get her, your in good hands, anyone else, good luck. |
Anonymous
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I have to say that I have observed the JCC as a close-by neighbor for the last 6 years. Under the previous director's regime, it was a pretty disorganized place to be and I was pretty surprised at what the teachers would do. Most of my observations/experience were at the local playground. Teachers were constantly on their cell phones or texting. Eating junk food in front of the kids, sitting on benches gossiping while kids fell, cried, fought, etc. Leaving the playground trashed was common. I only ever saw one teacher ( a male teacher) actually engage with the kids. This was not just last year during the 'transition" btw.
If indeed Sarah has changed the place, and I knew her through the classes we took at the JCC, that is great. I hope she pays close attention to policies that require teachers to pay exclusive attention to the kids during their working hours and leave all those other things for break. |
Anonymous
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Anyone who says they are happy with their experience at the J in Washington has not yet been exposed to the venomous fangs of the administration. The only concern I've seen is for money and its collection. If you believe negative or "non-existent" administration does not adversely affect your children, you are kidding yourself. I see it as a connected string of events. Teachers and staff are treated as disposable so they are unhappy and the extraneous position in which they find themselves is always obvious. In the mornings, I've found classes to be disorganized and chaotic. I've observed afternoons as well and have found it to be similarly chaotic. In comparison to last year's programs, I didn't see anything substantial going on with the classes this year. Meanwhile, I’ve not been able to receive an informative answer to any of my concerns from administration. In my opinion the whole program has gone downhill since the placement of the new director. I could never reach her by phone or by email and became really frustrated with the whole thing. I should have known to look out for this when I had problems confirming whether or not my children were on the waiting list. They had no problems collecting the $50.00 fee and later corrected their mistake. The insult to this injury is the extravagant amount of money they charge for their services. The school really resembles a daycare and as I understand it, they are not accredited. Then there was the mass migration of teachers at the end of the last school year.
I've since pulled my children out and advise you all to do the same. My children weren't exactly thrilled with the J themselves. Run for the hills before they overcharge your tuition and take their time to credit your account. I hear the previous director is running a finely tuned program at Temple Emanuel. I've quoted an anonymous post from earlier... "I just read the archives about the DCJCC and Madeline Lowitz-Gold (who is the director at Temple Emanuel). I am a current Temple Emanuel parent and I have not experienced these problems. Madeline has tons of administrative support at Temple Emanuel (all billing etc., is through the front office), and the teachers are all extremely qualified, much more so than any other school I've looked at or had kids enrolled in. I do find that it's better to seek out the teachers than to seek out Madeline- they are the ones that are with the children all day. I actually have little need for contact with her, but the contact I've had has been fine. She is always friendly and listens to our concerns, even if she doesn't always agree with me or my husband. It's going to be like that everywhere, I think. We used to be at a school where the director gave into everything the parents wanted and it was total chaos because there was no consistency. The place is spacious, bright, clean, with caring and experienced teachers. Not sure what Madeline's interactions were like with parents at the DCJCC, but I honestly haven't seen any problems so far (two and a half months in to the school year). " |
Anonymous
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To the director and staff who may be posting here...
If you are not honest with us in person, why should we believe anything you post here? Honestly speaking, this is a forum for parents to vent and discuss their issues. This is not a forum for you to build a defense against all of the issues parents have with the way administration and yourself run the preschool. |
Anonymous
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