This is why I moved my kid from public to private school

[Anonymous]

Not to be ruse to the OP but if you have seen many of the other public school systems in this country you know that MCPS is FAR ahead of MOSt of them. There is always room for improvement at any school- even your private school, I am sure. I am a MCPS grad and current teacher so I think highlyofMCPS --but I have lived and taught in a few other states and know that this is the only place I would educate my children. Diverse, high achieving and fair...there are always a few situations that are impossible - no matter what school you attend!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your DC rocks!

She does, LOL! Actually, the only reason I even heard about this playground episode was that she needed to verify her facts. It was 2004 and apparently she was paying more attention to the news than I realized, but we hadn't really talked about same-sex marriage. So when the other kids doubted her, she asked for confirmation. I think that this was the same year that she made us stop flipping channels once and backtrack. We thought we were headed toward some cartoon but, in fact, she wanted to hear the rest of what Kucinich was saying about health care! At which point she grilled us about why we preferred Dean.

Which is one of the reasons my kid is in private school -- I wanted her to be in an environment where it wasn't considered inappropriate to care about things she cared about/was interested in.

So funny, our DC is the same -- intensely interested in politics from a young age, and very intense and detail-oriented about other interests. Just wanted to say that private school isn't necessary to serve these interests, IMO. DC is at one of the gifted centers, and is very interested in attending Eastern Middle School Humanities program or one of the IB schools. DC"s peers at her school don't tease about it, although DC did have more of a problem in a former DCPS.

I think it's more about making sure that the school -- public or private -- really respects and encourages kids to have deep interests even if unconventional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So funny, our DC is the same -- intensely interested in politics from a young age, and very intense and detail-oriented about other interests. Just wanted to say that private school isn't necessary to serve these interests, IMO. DC is at one of the gifted centers, and is very interested in attending Eastern Middle School Humanities program or one of the IB schools. DC"s peers at her school don't tease about it, although DC did have more of a problem in a former DCPS.

I think it's more about making sure that the school -- public or private -- really respects and encourages kids to have deep interests even if unconventional.

I agree -- what I should have said is that's part of the reason why DC's at the private school she's at rather than our local public school. Most privates wouldn't have given us what we're looking for, and, in some places, I'm willing to believe that we'd have been better off with public than private. It was a contextual decision for us rather than an ideological one.

[Anonymous]

To the pp who assumes MoCo magnet programs are lottery based: They require testing to enter and they are generally quite competitive. The Blair and TPMS science and math magnets are very difficult to get into. So they differ from the immersion programs in method of entry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the pp who assumes MoCo magnet programs are lottery based: They require testing to enter and they are generally quite competitive. The Blair and TPMS science and math magnets are very difficult to get into. So they differ from the immersion programs in method of entry.

How about the gifted centers for grades 4-5?

[Anonymous]

Same deal. Testing and application. I'm always amazed at people who move to the down county and just assume their kids will get into these programs down the road. There are many many more kids who test and are qualified than there are slots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would look at long term data. There is nothing to show that gifted children are harmed by putting them in the same room as kids with academic difficulties in elementary school.

Except that those gifted kids tend towards becoming behavior issues or dumbing themselves down to fit the other kids in the class. Or having a kid who hates school. [/quote

Are you a parent?!?! Are you seriously using the term "dumbing down" in reference to a child's classmates?!?! It's no wonder so many children lack tolerance and acceptance of others!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not to be ruse to the OP but if you have seen many of the other public school systems in this country you know that MCPS is FAR ahead of MOSt of them. There is always room for improvement at any school- even your private school, I am sure. I am a MCPS grad and current teacher so I think highlyofMCPS --but I have lived and taught in a few other states and know that this is the only place I would educate my children. Diverse, high achieving and fair...there are always a few situations that are impossible - no matter what school you attend!

How many public school systems have you seen in this country? I've seen several, mostly in the Northeast (Massachusetts/Connecticut) and I gotta say, MCPS is all about its image. It's a fine school system, but it's not the "best" as it claims to be. It's just ... fine.

I have never heard as much bragging about a school system as I have here in MCounty. It makes me scratch my head.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not to be ruse to the OP but if you have seen many of the other public school systems in this country you know that MCPS is FAR ahead of MOSt of them. There is always room for improvement at any school- even your private school, I am sure. I am a MCPS grad and current teacher so I think highlyofMCPS --but I have lived and taught in a few other states and know that this is the only place I would educate my children. Diverse, high achieving and fair...there are always a few situations that are impossible - no matter what school you attend!

Sorry to be rude, but you must be...old...(old-er, old-ish, old-est...). MCPS is good, but there are HUGE differences between the "red" and "green" zones. That's the dirty little secret, isn't it? That the vast majority of MoCo is coasting on Rockthesda's laurels? Yikes! Just being from "MCPS" isn't necessarily any kind of guarantee of quality any more!

[Anonymous]

Except that some of the best magnets -- TPMS math and science, Blair CAP and math and science -- are located downcounty.

[Anonymous]

22:04 - It's useless to try to tell people "from" here that their school system (or name it) isn't (arbitrarily, based on an annual periodical's ranking) "the best". Let them think so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

22:04 - It's useless to try to tell people "from" here that their school system (or name it) isn't (arbitrarily, based on an annual periodical's ranking) "the best". Let them think so.

22:04 here. My theory is that Marylanders, who live in a Southern state, thinks MCPS is the cat's pajamas because they are comparing it with school systems in other Southern states (e.g. Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia). Indeed, compared to those, it is probably one of the "best." Compared to school systems in states with better schools, though, it's just ok - nothing to write home about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

22:04 - It's useless to try to tell people "from" here that their school system (or name it) isn't (arbitrarily, based on an annual periodical's ranking) "the best". Let them think so.

22:04 here. My theory is that Marylanders, who live in a Southern state, thinks MCPS is the cat's pajamas because they are comparing it with school systems in other Southern states (e.g. Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia). Indeed, compared to those, it is probably one of the "best." Compared to school systems in states with better schools, though, it's just ok - nothing to write home about.

Okay, coming from an actual southern state (Texas), I can assure you that actual southerners do not consider Maryland to be the south. I don't know if Marylanders do (my impression is that they do not), but even if they do? No-one else does. Maybe people from Nebraska or something.

Anyway, there are three genuine southern states that regularly score in the top 5 to 10 in national rankings of elementary school students: Texas, Virginia, and North Carolina. All of them regularly beat Maryland as well as the majority of the rest of the country as well. So, this attempt to broadly paint "southern states" as somehow inferior doesn't quite pass the sniff test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

22:04 - It's useless to try to tell people "from" here that their school system (or name it) isn't (arbitrarily, based on an annual periodical's ranking) "the best". Let them think so.

22:04 here. My theory is that Marylanders, who live in a Southern state, thinks MCPS is the cat's pajamas because they are comparing it with school systems in other Southern states (e.g. Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia). Indeed, compared to those, it is probably one of the "best." Compared to school systems in states with better schools, though, it's just ok - nothing to write home about.

Okay, coming from an actual southern state (Texas), I can assure you that actual southerners do not consider Maryland to be the south. I don't know if Marylanders do (my impression is that they do not), but even if they do? No-one else does. Maybe people from Nebraska or something.

Anyway, there are three genuine southern states that regularly score in the top 5 to 10 in national rankings of elementary school students: Texas, Virginia, and North Carolina. All of them regularly beat Maryland as well as the majority of the rest of the country as well. So, this attempt to broadly paint "southern states" as somehow inferior doesn't quite pass the sniff test.

You are right, not all Southern states are equal wrt education.

Maryland *is* Southern. It is south of the Mason-Dixon line. That is a fact (regardless of perception of other Southern states).

[Anonymous]

OK, but Maryland was (willingly or not) on the Union side during the civil war, and politically it skews a lot more liberal than most states people would agree are southern.