No good teachers at BASIS High school?
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Anonymous
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This is our second year at BASIS.
Last year my child worked long hours and loved his teachers, especially the science teachers. There were notes and study guides. Homeworks matched the lessons. This year has been quite the opposite. Apparently the really good teachers have been assigned to the lower grades. Tons of homework is being assigned with no textbooks. The notes given by the teachers are quite scant and do not really match the homework. Just before midnight, my child got a phone call from a classmates who was having anxiety attacks because she still had 2 homeworks to finish. Another friend said he will probably get 3 hours of sleep only as he is getting ready for tomorrow's government test. Is this the new norm for 9th grade? |
Anonymous
Well isn't this a school that prides itself on extreme acceleration, high expectations, and getting people to be at least 3 years ahead in math? You can't want "challenge" and then complain about the massive amounts of work that go with it. |
Anonymous
| What grade is you child in, OP? |
Anonymous
From the post, 9th. |
Anonymous
This. I think when you sign up for BASIS, this is what comes along with the territory. It's obviously not for all students. Maybe you should talk to the school and see if this is the norm (esp, no textbooks..maybe on backorder? since this is the 1st year they have expanded to HS) |
Anonymous
| I am fine with hard work and high expectations but how effective is 5 or more hours of homework? surely there's a point of diminishing returns |
Anonymous
| I went to Visi in the 90s. 5-6 hours of homework in a true college prep high school sounds about right to me. |
Anonymous
Sorry, no, that sounds to me more like teachers not doing their jobs (or a an aloof administration breathing down their necks), and leaving it to kids to learn on their own or parents to teach them after school. Those who think that kind of "hard work" is what gets you ahead in life, don't be fooled. In meaningful college and job applications, it's many a times the "what makes someone special" that gets attention and merit. Sure there are test scores to account for but that's only half the story. Working on homework until midnight on a regular basis is not making anyone's child special. What can make a child "special" is things like holding youth leadership positions, writing a book, organizing a campaign or food drive, going abroad for a year, making it through the ranks in a youth orchestra, dealing with adversity, putting together and executing a business plan etc. |
Anonymous
| Why are you posting this here? The teachers all have email and office hours. |
Anonymous
sounds like child abuse to me |
Anonymous
Yeah sure, and if this is your philosophy on education, then don't send your kids to a charter school started with the express purpose of demanding a lot of kids, putting them multiple years above grade level, teaching calculus as early as 8th grade, and reading Beowulf in 5th grade. Sending your kids to a school that is set up for acceleration above everything else and then complaining about how there is too much homework seems kind of strange to me. Some kids will be up to the challenge of an intense pace, and even up for staying up until midnight every night in middle school. Most won't. This is why schools like BASIS are not for everyone. |
Anonymous
| Also, I don't really have any investment in this issue since I don't have kids who attend BASIS. I just find it really strange that people on here complain about how their kids don't get enough work/challenge, and then complain that they have to do too much work when they are accelerated. Get a grip, either chillax about acceleration, or accept the pressure that comes from it. |
Anonymous
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I seriously doubt the poster who raised the issue is a BASIS parent. Seems like a rabble rouser.
Also, last night I went out to dinner with two BASIS ninth graders in our group, they had finished their homework and seemed quite relaxed. |
Anonymous
Acceleration does not mean staying up until midnight and still not finishing homework. There is a difference between loads of homework and accelaration, and homework should not make up for lack of good teaching. Also, accelaration can happen with 3-4 hours of homework daily if teachers are well trained and experienced. |
Anonymous
I just fail to see how a kid who is not in the supergenius level has enough time to learn these complex concepts in math/science/literature at a fast pace without a lot of time out of the classroom to supplement. I went to a college that was known for having fast paced classes that covered material in greater depth than other schools. You know how we did it? Great teaching, but supplemented with really challenging homework that took a long time to do to push us into the next level concept. I had times where I spent ten hours on a single biochemistry problem set. You simply can not blaze through higher level math without expecting students to spend a lot of time on their own at home. And since BASIS is lottery and not test in, aside from self-selection bias, there is no guarantee that you are teaching a group of kids who are well above average intelligence level. Plus, when I went to high school, I routinely spend anywhere from 3-6 hours on homework a night. I remember many nights I stayed up until midnight without finishing work. This was at a very competitive high school that was one of the most highly ranked schools in the state. Pressure cookers are not for everyone. It doesn't always mean the quality of teaching is poor, but if you expect kids to be several years above grade level, that is not going to happen simply from good teaching during a 6 hour school day. If it truly is busywork, that's one thing. But if you have a curriculum that expects people to be taking organic chemistry or quantum mechanics by senior year, you simply can't move at the pace of a traditional high school. Where is that extra time coming from? |