Deal, BASIS or Latin for a engineering-minded boy who also loves humanities
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Anonymous
I agree that Ms Jackson is terrific but by 'bare bones' I meant the resources, facilities and school-wide commitment to the arts. |
Anonymous
I'm not sure what you mean by that - and I came from a wealthy suburban school district myself - however it was about equivalent to Basis where it comes to arts. True to say that they aren't an "arts" school - but I think what they offer is probably at least comparable to what you'd find in most good middle schools of similar size in DC. |
Anonymous
You aren't going to solve a quadratic simply through critical thinking in the time given during an exam. Beyond a certain point, it's all about tools and technique to get to the answer. The critical thinking piece is important, yes - in understanding the question and understanding which technique was used, but after that, it's all just "plug and chug". Having spent 20 years in the engineering field, most of what one ends up doing may involve a lot of sometimes complex math, but is ultimately just deconstructing problems and "plug and chug". That said, one wonders how the particular problems your child were set up? Perhaps they were particular types or formats of word problems which the other school in question had spent some time on going over? Or, it could be any number of other things. But I doubt that it was ultimately anything totally alien, which your child had never been exposed to. I don't think it's valid to generalize and extrapolate just from the fact that one kid didn't understand some problems, a lot more information is needed to make any kinds of judgement. |
Anonymous
| My daughter is a 5th grader at BASIS. She definitely works hard but it has been manageable and she still has time for multiple extracurricular activities and art club at BASIS. I have been amazed to watch her self confidence blossom as she realizes that she can do the tougher work. Though math and science can be difficult, I have seen no evidence that she isn't learning how to learn and reason. Her homework last night on balancing chemical equations was truly extraordinary for a 5th grader and required deep understanding and logic. Her English and Latin classes have been superb and she can dissect a sentence in a way that I didn't learn till high school. Art is superb (second the praise for Ms Jackson) and Classics has been fun and interesting (they mummified a chicken!). For an engineering-minded boy, he would have a blast at BASIS. It is a place where it is cool to be smart, but then again smart and motivated kids can do well almost anywhere. I would recommend that he do shadow days at BASIS and Latin and see what feels right for him. You are very lucky to have Deal as a back-up! |
Anonymous
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BASIS parent here...
I feel the English instruction is very poor in the 5th grade at BASIS. All they have done is diagram sentences and have not written one paragragh, let alone essay, in English. They are now reading Peter Pan as their 1st book and it is almost February. They also have not done any vocabulary. I had to use the music assignment to reinforce paragraph and essay structure. I am very happy with the science and but may agree with the previous poster that indicated that doing the Saxon math at a fast pace is NOT the best idea for indepth thinking. Think I would prefer fast paced Singapore but that is being picky. Check out Latin's website, they have the homework from the beginning of the year to date and you don't need to be a parent to access. I will be downloading the English homework and trying to teach my child English and vocabulary this summer in addition to utilizing a writing camp. A little disappointed because I did not want to have to do an academic camp and the at-home grind after all the hard work my child is doing this year. Thought we would live it up. If Martha Cutts appeared to be a little more interested in the progress of AA males, I would have been willing to give Latin a try. Maybe it's her NCS background or maybe she just overgeneralizes -- too be kind. Most of my friends who have AA males attend have had bad experiences there. Nothing like sapping their spirit before they even get off the ground. The BASIS environment does not do that - a HUGE plus in its favor. If you have an AA male and your chiild doesn't have to come into contact with Cutts at Latin you may be okay as they have a principal for each grade. Unless the 6th grade English is radically different at BASIS, I am going to have to evaluate Deal although I really like the environment at BASIS. Deal is a little big for me but my child needs to learn and practice writing and could use a little vocab or Wordly Wise. Don't want St. Anselm's -- too small -- highly dependent on the class dynamic. |
Anonymous
| If you're in-bounds for Deal, send your child there and leave the space at BASIS and Latin for those of us without good middle school options. |
Anonymous
| Why didn't you apply when I did? There were open spaces left for this 5th grade class. |
Anonymous
NP. Thanks for the link. DCI opens in fall 2014. We are at a DCI feeder but St Anselm's is tempting for us too. Would love Latin and Arabic for DS who is very good in language and math. Also, St Anselm's location is much more convenient and closer to our home than DCI. Something to keep in mind while seeing how DCI pans out. Our third choice would be Latin. |
Anonymous
So BASIS is too slow in English and too fast in math. I guess you can't please everyone. |
Anonymous
| . . .all i know is that BASIS is leaps and bounds ahead (in both) than the instruction in my non-Deal IB school. |
Anonymous
Interesting, this is the first post I have seen on DCUM, or anywhere that has stated this. Are there others out there who have had similar experiences. I ask because my list for my AA son includes Latin, along with DCI, St Anslems and HU. TIA |
Anonymous
| Not that it means anything, but it is the commonly accepted knowledge about Latin and AA. |
Anonymous
As a 3rd-generation math major, and 5th-generation stem major, with 20 years of collegiate teaching experience (haven't done it in a couple of years, though), I both agree and disagree with this. Saxon does indeed short-change on theory. Normally, a good teacher recognizes this and makes up for it in class, though. BASIS requires teachers to have relevant degrees, instead of general education degrees. So, my concern would not be quite as strong as you have expressed. Under different circumstances, I would agree wholeheartedly with your concerns regarding Saxon. Many teachers are not equipped to plug the conceptual gaps. In the colleges I taught at (UT, Texas A&M), a number of Saxon kids WHO HAD PASSED CALC AP-BC had to go back and take Precalculus because they couldn't pass the placement exams. It depends, of course, on your career path. Not all STEM fields require a theoretical understanding of math, and Saxon is quite good at application. As to the "teach differently" concept, I think this is precisely where we have gone astray. There is a reason that the most highly regarded mathematics texts follow similar approaches. That's because it is the most logical, structured, and proven approach that leads to quality understanding. Many kids have not learned how to use a math text, and that is where we should be looking. Instead, we throw technology and "shortcuts" at the problem, and try to compensate for our lack of teaching qualifications. Those shortcuts and tricks invariably have to be untaught at some point in a student's mathematical career, or else the student will hit a ceiling and cease to progress in mathematics. (To be fair, the use of a shortcut by a student with full understanding of the theory, is perfectly ok, because they can explain WHY the shortcut works). Instead, the best student doesn't just do the minimum problem set, or just the odds -- they do all of the problems in the book, because the problems in the best texts are carefully chosen to help the student progress (see Martin-Gay's book -- it is exceptional in this regard, and she has solutions to most of her problems posted in videos online). You might be surprised by how many students I have privately tutored that couldn't do basic math because of all the shortcuts and technology that was thrown their way, but became strong students when I made them use a quality, old-fashioned textbook, and refused to let them use calculators for anything. You should see the surprise on kids' faces when they realize how capable they really are! Here, I think BASIS has the best model. It hires the most qualified teachers available. Other schools have some fantastic teachers, but it's normally a crapshoot as to whether you are lucky enough to get one. At BASIS, the odds are reversed -- the majority are quite good. With the right teacher, the choice of curriculum is secondary, provided it isn't fundamentally wrong. I have my DS in BASIS, and I couldn't be happier with the choice. |
Anonymous
PP (Math prof) here -- I wanted to reply separately. DS falls into this category, as well. Because we used the MCT language arts curriculum, we have found BASIS English to be very remedial. With AP exams expected in 8th grade, we would prefer proper essay writing to hold greater priority. But, to be fair, this is DC. Many kids need remedial grammar in 5th, and there is a method to BASIS' madness. MCT followed a similar approach, and it is a good one. First, focus on the parts of speech, and understand how the sentence is properly constructed. Once you do that, you can move on to proper paragraph formation. Only then are you ready for essay construction. Otherwise, the kids' essays would tend to look like a lot our posts on DCUM. 
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Anonymous
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