N word at Whitman

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids have nothing to rely on but stereotypes because they've never met a black person. The stats say it's less than 5% black so it's somewhere between 0 and a small handful of kids. Their parents paid a lot for what they perceived as the privilege of this white school. So their parents shouldn't be surprised when the kids have 0 knowledge of black people.

And you became such an expert on the families in Whitman how?

You plainly aren't connected to the school and are simply spouting uninformed nonsense.

multi racial is where it's at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids have nothing to rely on but stereotypes because they've never met a black person. The stats say it's less than 5% black so it's somewhere between 0 and a small handful of kids. Their parents paid a lot for what they perceived as the privilege of this white school. So their parents shouldn't be surprised when the kids have 0 knowledge of black people.

And you became such an expert on the families in Whitman how?

You plainly aren't connected to the school and are simply spouting uninformed nonsense.

multi racial is where it's at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who’s part of pyle, I second the idea that the issue is lack of community. There’s just tons of people everywhere, and not a lot of bringing people together. The whole idea of teaming is meaningless if you don’t even end up in classes with the same kids anyway. And there’s so much unkindness. In addition to racism and antisemitism, the kids get away with a lot of homophobia, most of which is under the surface but kids see it. I think Nardi probably cares but has no idea what to do, is overwhelmed by the size of the school and probably feels unsupported by his teachers, who don’t have many nice things to say about him.

agree, they need a ability tracking plus a pod system asap. my kid has 30 different kids in each of her 7 or 8 classes and then each class is 1/3 high/lo/average ability. makes for a mess for teaching, learning and finding good friends. everyone seems to resort to their ES friends at lunch.

What’s a pod system?

[Anonymous]

Maybe a reference to a pod of whales? Keep a group together...

[Anonymous]

Ha! Isn’t that what they do with teaming?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who’s part of pyle, I second the idea that the issue is lack of community. There’s just tons of people everywhere, and not a lot of bringing people together. The whole idea of teaming is meaningless if you don’t even end up in classes with the same kids anyway. And there’s so much unkindness. In addition to racism and antisemitism, the kids get away with a lot of homophobia, most of which is under the surface but kids see it. I think Nardi probably cares but has no idea what to do, is overwhelmed by the size of the school and probably feels unsupported by his teachers, who don’t have many nice things to say about him.

agree, they need a ability tracking plus a pod system asap. my kid has 30 different kids in each of her 7 or 8 classes and then each class is 1/3 high/lo/average ability. makes for a mess for teaching, learning and finding good friends. everyone seems to resort to their ES friends at lunch.

You keep lamenting the lack of ability tracking, but there is not ability tracking at any MoCo middle school except the magnets, so this is not an issue related to Pyle specifically. My two kids have had a different experience than yours with the team teaching approach - a number of kids are in multiple classes with them (and on a side note, that isn’t necessarily good when the kids are disruptive, etc so be careful what you wish for). Also they have gotten to know a lot of kids from outside of their elementary school and do eat lunch with a mixed group which relates to whoever has their lunch period (there are four, as you know). I have friends at a number of other area middle schools and they have similar complaints to yours so I really don’t think Pyle is worse (or better) than most other MoCo middle schools.

[Anonymous]

I’m not the ability tracking poster. I agree there’s only so much one can do as the system isn’t separating kids by ability. I think part of Nardi’s problem is that he may not realize how much that matters to certain groups of people. It was too obvious he was opposed, but not clear why. I’ve personally been disappointed that there’s not a lot of substance/action. I know some awesome parents who tried last year to tactfully help him understand what he needed to do to be in tune with the community, but he just couldn’t do it. Again, who knows why. I don’t know if he gets overwhelmed or has people on his staff who advise against the recommendations. If he does have blockers on staff, he really needs to stop listening to them because they’re not in touch with the community and are going to hold him back. Meanwhile other middle schools are doing what many of us hoped to see at Pyle, and with great success. Grr. Frustrating. And of course now the county is behind some more GT classes. My kid won’t get to take those, but I think it’s important they exist. It may be too late for Nardi, but if he wants to try to turn it around, he needs to get his staff focused on building community, look at the teaming differently, and clean house of a few terrible teachers. I’m SURE he knows who they are and what he needs to do.

[Anonymous]

Middle school pod system is where there are 5 pods of three classes each for 6th grade. you have a homeroom for specials (for lang, gym, art, music, history) and 3-level ability tracking for main subjects (math, english lit, science). Thus you know your homeroom well and your ability group people well.

For 7th & 8th grade the 3-level ability grouping continues but pods are combined differently so you half new ppl, half former ppl.

HS is obviously all ability tracking, prereqs, and electives.

DIdn't MCPS MS's have compacted and honors classes pre-C2.0? our neighbors are graduating whitman this year and never had any of these ES and MS issues.

[Anonymous]

Which middle schools are doing what you hoped to see at Pyle, and what do you mean by that?

The only differentiation I have heard is for the incoming sixth grade which is being tried as a countywide change and piloted in certain middle schools (not sure if Pyle is one of thise but only a handful of schools are pilots and presumably if successful will be more widely implemented the following year) - I read your post to imply that principals at other middle schools in the County are doing something like that on their own initiation, and I haven’t heard anything about that so would be interested to hear what you know differently.

I currently have a seventh and sixth grader at Pyle, and the seventh grader was in the HGC. Many of his peers from the center are now at Pyle and seem to be thriving (well, as much as any middle schooler “thrives” ) or at least are enjoying their experience and are surrounded by lots of academically motivated, intellectually curious peers (both from the center and kids who attended the feeder elementary schools).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middle school pod system is where there are 5 pods of three classes each for 6th grade. you have a homeroom for specials (for lang, gym, art, music, history) and 3-level ability tracking for main subjects (math, english lit, science). Thus you know your homeroom well and your ability group people well.

For 7th & 8th grade the 3-level ability grouping continues but pods are combined differently so you half new ppl, half former ppl.

HS is obviously all ability tracking, prereqs, and electives.

DIdn't MCPS MS's have compacted and honors classes pre-C2.0? our neighbors are graduating whitman this year and never had any of these ES and MS issues.

Does ANY middle school in the County use this pod system?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Which middle schools are doing what you hoped to see at Pyle, and what do you mean by that?

The only differentiation I have heard is for the incoming sixth grade which is being tried as a countywide change and piloted in certain middle schools (not sure if Pyle is one of thise but only a handful of schools are pilots and presumably if successful will be more widely implemented the following year) - I read your post to imply that principals at other middle schools in the County are doing something like that on their own initiation, and I haven’t heard anything about that so would be interested to hear what you know differently.

I currently have a seventh and sixth grader at Pyle, and the seventh grader was in the HGC. Many of his peers from the center are now at Pyle and seem to be thriving (well, as much as any middle schooler “thrives” ) or at least are enjoying their experience and are surrounded by lots of academically motivated, intellectually curious peers (both from the center and kids who attended the feeder elementary schools).

I’m glad your kids are doing well. I’m not personally all that invested in those advanced classes, so that wasn’t what I was referring to. I was talking about some specific program stuff. Because I have been and will prob continue to be a very visible and involved parent with one such program, I don’t want to endanger it by naming it and ticking off Nardi. It’s something I have no doubt you’d want for your kids though and that now exists in other places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would bet a million dollars that one would hear the N word a billion times more at a minority school like Blair or Einstein than at a school like Whitman. That said I don’t think the DCC parents could cover the bet.

W parents are obsessed with Blair. It's most often because their little snowflakes failed to make the cut, and deep down they know it's a better school.

Get into Blair?!? Take away the couple hundred mostly Bethesda kids out of the selective programs, all you are left with are the thousands of kids whose only qualification to “get in” was to be born to parents who couldn’t afford to live in a better area. Hell the one decent neighborhood in silver spring doesn’t even go to Blair. Sour grapes much DCC mom?

Get into Blair? Ha. Going to Bliar isn’t what most middle class parents pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to avoid. At least the ones who can

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would bet a million dollars that one would hear the N word a billion times more at a minority school like Blair or Einstein than at a school like Whitman. That said I don’t think the DCC parents could cover the bet.

W parents are obsessed with Blair. It's most often because their little snowflakes failed to make the cut, and deep down they know it's a better school.

It's true W parents are fixated on Blair, but this post is about their kids running wild using the N Word and Heiling Hotler.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a different perspective. I think the principal was showing that he was taking the matter seriously and that such behavior would not be tolerated. Using offensive and demeaning language like this was a problem when my kid was at Pyle last year and I thought the principal there (Nardi) handled it terribly. Kids were running around heiling Hitler and calling people dirty Jews and using the N word and the F word willy nilly and no one did anything about it. It was depressing.

Is this typical behavior for the W's?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a different perspective. I think the principal was showing that he was taking the matter seriously and that such behavior would not be tolerated. Using offensive and demeaning language like this was a problem when my kid was at Pyle last year and I thought the principal there (Nardi) handled it terribly. Kids were running around heiling Hitler and calling people dirty Jews and using the N word and the F word willy nilly and no one did anything about it. It was depressing.

Is this typical behavior for the W's?

Whitman is located in a segregated area where kids have never met a minority. It isn't a surprise that many lack empathy because of the sheltered existence.