So, what is wrong with Hardy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hardy's problem is that there are WAY too many OOB kids who bring poverty, dysfunction, and generally pull down test scores. That's why IB families don't want to go there.

I'm IB - we call it the "4th grade flight." Hardy's students have too many social/personal issues for the school to be able to focus on academics. I went to a similar public middle school (decades ago) and had to fight with my fists every day. I didn't learn anything and had to take many private summer school classes and correspondence courses to make up for all the lost time. I don't want to put my kids through that misery. I don't care what anybody else thinks about a middle school's "status", or about whether the students wear uniforms or not. I just want my kids to get a good, basic education, and to be safe. Based on my tours of the school and conversations with other parents, I am not convinced Hardy can provide a decent education in a safe environment for my kids. Some IB parents make it work -- they are wonderful people, and their kids are fantastic. I don't think I could make it work for my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hardy's problem is that there are WAY too many OOB kids who bring poverty, dysfunction, and generally pull down test scores. That's why IB families don't want to go there.

I'm IB - we call it the "4th grade flight." Hardy's students have too many social/personal issues for the school to be able to focus on academics. I went to a similar public middle school (decades ago) and had to fight with my fists every day. I didn't learn anything and had to take many private summer school classes and correspondence courses to make up for all the lost time. I don't want to put my kids through that misery. I don't care what anybody else thinks about a middle school's "status", or about whether the students wear uniforms or not. I just want my kids to get a good, basic education, and to be safe. Based on my tours of the school and conversations with other parents, I am not convinced Hardy can provide a decent education in a safe environment for my kids. Some IB parents make it work -- they are wonderful people, and their kids are fantastic. I don't think I could make it work for my kids.

What leads you to believe Hardy isn't a "safe environment?" Do you really think there are fights there every day? Every week? Every month? Every few months? If so, you are sadly misinformed.

--Mother of an 8th grader

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hardy's problem is that there are WAY too many OOB kids who bring poverty, dysfunction, and generally pull down test scores. That's why IB families don't want to go there.

I'm IB - we call it the "4th grade flight." Hardy's students have too many social/personal issues for the school to be able to focus on academics. I went to a similar public middle school (decades ago) and had to fight with my fists every day. I didn't learn anything and had to take many private summer school classes and correspondence courses to make up for all the lost time. I don't want to put my kids through that misery. I don't care what anybody else thinks about a middle school's "status", or about whether the students wear uniforms or not. I just want my kids to get a good, basic education, and to be safe. Based on my tours of the school and conversations with other parents, I am not convinced Hardy can provide a decent education in a safe environment for my kids. Some IB parents make it work -- they are wonderful people, and their kids are fantastic. I don't think I could make it work for my kids.

Please note that "we do not make it work". Hardy just works great by itself. None of the available alternatives, regardless of the cost, would have given our DC the education and the individualized attention he is receiving from the Hardy teachers. DC has been happy, engaged and motivated from day 1. And the second sixth term is going even better, with the start of pre-algebra math for qualifying kids (class size: 13 kids) and SEM (class size: 7 kids).

I do not know what kind of kids you have and their peculiarities, but the education mine are receiving is not decent, is of the highest standards (and the environment is very safe, not even worth commenting on the safety/discipline aspects). However I agree, the school works at its best for high caliber kids, who have access to honors classes and even further differentiation in the second term (such as the pre-algebra course which opens the way to algebra in grade 7). If your kids are not up to the challenge, you'd better pass.

It is working great by itself. We are not making it work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hardy's problem is that there are WAY too many OOB kids who bring poverty, dysfunction, and generally pull down test scores. That's why IB families don't want to go there.

I'm IB - we call it the "4th grade flight." Hardy's students have too many social/personal issues for the school to be able to focus on academics. I went to a similar public middle school (decades ago) and had to fight with my fists every day. I didn't learn anything and had to take many private summer school classes and correspondence courses to make up for all the lost time. I don't want to put my kids through that misery. I don't care what anybody else thinks about a middle school's "status", or about whether the students wear uniforms or not. I just want my kids to get a good, basic education, and to be safe. Based on my tours of the school and conversations with other parents, I am not convinced Hardy can provide a decent education in a safe environment for my kids. Some IB parents make it work -- they are wonderful people, and their kids are fantastic. I don't think I could make it work for my kids.

What leads you to believe Hardy isn't a "safe environment?" Do you really think there are fights there every day? Every week? Every month? Every few months? If so, you are sadly misinformed.

--Mother of an 8th grader

IB parent here. My kid graduated from our IB elementary a couple of years ago. In his class there were two kids who went to Hardy. One of them came home from school one day beaten up. He was at Hardy because his parents couldn't afford private, they quickly moved to Bethesda. A story like that spreads like wild-fire in an elementary school community. Hardy may in fact be no less safe than Deal, Bethesda public schools or some privates, but it's got a hill to climb in terms of its reputation, and it's not climbing it.

Sadly, the problems with Hardy's reputation go back to the Pope years. I've talked with parents from that era and there are lots of stories of violence. I've talked with in-bounds parents who were told the school wasn't going to do anything to protect the physical safety of their children. There were a group of people at the school at that time who used children as pawns in their adult struggles, and they are despicable people, unfit to be involved in education.

[Anonymous]

"A story like that spreads like wild-fire in an elementary school community."
"The wild-fire" didn't make it to our IB elementary.
It's not Hardy's reputation I'm worried about, it's yours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hardy's problem is that there are WAY too many OOB kids who bring poverty, dysfunction, and generally pull down test scores. That's why IB families don't want to go there.

I'm IB - we call it the "4th grade flight." Hardy's students have too many social/personal issues for the school to be able to focus on academics. I went to a similar public middle school (decades ago) and had to fight with my fists every day. I didn't learn anything and had to take many private summer school classes and correspondence courses to make up for all the lost time. I don't want to put my kids through that misery. I don't care what anybody else thinks about a middle school's "status", or about whether the students wear uniforms or not. I just want my kids to get a good, basic education, and to be safe. Based on my tours of the school and conversations with other parents, I am not convinced Hardy can provide a decent education in a safe environment for my kids. Some IB parents make it work -- they are wonderful people, and their kids are fantastic. I don't think I could make it work for my kids.

What leads you to believe Hardy isn't a "safe environment?" Do you really think there are fights there every day? Every week? Every month? Every few months? If so, you are sadly misinformed.

--Mother of an 8th grader

IB parent here. My kid graduated from our IB elementary a couple of years ago. In his class there were two kids who went to Hardy. One of them came home from school one day beaten up. He was at Hardy because his parents couldn't afford private, they quickly moved to Bethesda. A story like that spreads like wild-fire in an elementary school community. Hardy may in fact be no less safe than Deal, Bethesda public schools or some privates, but it's got a hill to climb in terms of its reputation, and it's not climbing it.

Sadly, the problems with Hardy's reputation go back to the Pope years. I've talked with parents from that era and there are lots of stories of violence. I've talked with in-bounds parents who were told the school wasn't going to do anything to protect the physical safety of their children. There were a group of people at the school at that time who used children as pawns in their adult struggles, and they are despicable people, unfit to be involved in education.

Pope-era mom here. We did not have this experience at all. But then, according to you, I must have been too busy using my child as a pawn. "Lots of stories." I can imagine there may have been an incident or two that I didn't hear about but I love how supposedly educated people elevate that to "lots." If there had been "lots of stories," I would have heard about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hardy's problem is that there are WAY too many OOB kids who bring poverty, dysfunction, and generally pull down test scores. That's why IB families don't want to go there.

I'm IB - we call it the "4th grade flight." Hardy's students have too many social/personal issues for the school to be able to focus on academics. I went to a similar public middle school (decades ago) and had to fight with my fists every day. I didn't learn anything and had to take many private summer school classes and correspondence courses to make up for all the lost time. I don't want to put my kids through that misery. I don't care what anybody else thinks about a middle school's "status", or about whether the students wear uniforms or not. I just want my kids to get a good, basic education, and to be safe. Based on my tours of the school and conversations with other parents, I am not convinced Hardy can provide a decent education in a safe environment for my kids. Some IB parents make it work -- they are wonderful people, and their kids are fantastic. I don't think I could make it work for my kids.

What leads you to believe Hardy isn't a "safe environment?" Do you really think there are fights there every day? Every week? Every month? Every few months? If so, you are sadly misinformed.

--Mother of an 8th grader

IB parent here. My kid graduated from our IB elementary a couple of years ago. In his class there were two kids who went to Hardy. One of them came home from school one day beaten up. He was at Hardy because his parents couldn't afford private, they quickly moved to Bethesda. A story like that spreads like wild-fire in an elementary school community. Hardy may in fact be no less safe than Deal, Bethesda public schools or some privates, but it's got a hill to climb in terms of its reputation, and it's not climbing it.

Sadly, the problems with Hardy's reputation go back to the Pope years. I've talked with parents from that era and there are lots of stories of violence. I've talked with in-bounds parents who were told the school wasn't going to do anything to protect the physical safety of their children. There were a group of people at the school at that time who used children as pawns in their adult struggles, and they are despicable people, unfit to be involved in education.

I suppose that's why Hardy turned to uniforms as a panacea for a less than safe school environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hardy's problem is that there are WAY too many OOB kids who bring poverty, dysfunction, and generally pull down test scores. That's why IB families don't want to go there.

I'm IB - we call it the "4th grade flight." Hardy's students have too many social/personal issues for the school to be able to focus on academics. I went to a similar public middle school (decades ago) and had to fight with my fists every day. I didn't learn anything and had to take many private summer school classes and correspondence courses to make up for all the lost time. I don't want to put my kids through that misery. I don't care what anybody else thinks about a middle school's "status", or about whether the students wear uniforms or not. I just want my kids to get a good, basic education, and to be safe. Based on my tours of the school and conversations with other parents, I am not convinced Hardy can provide a decent education in a safe environment for my kids. Some IB parents make it work -- they are wonderful people, and their kids are fantastic. I don't think I could make it work for my kids.

What leads you to believe Hardy isn't a "safe environment?" Do you really think there are fights there every day? Every week? Every month? Every few months? If so, you are sadly misinformed.

--Mother of an 8th grader

IB parent here. My kid graduated from our IB elementary a couple of years ago. In his class there were two kids who went to Hardy. One of them came home from school one day beaten up. He was at Hardy because his parents couldn't afford private, they quickly moved to Bethesda. A story like that spreads like wild-fire in an elementary school community. Hardy may in fact be no less safe than Deal, Bethesda public schools or some privates, but it's got a hill to climb in terms of its reputation, and it's not climbing it.

Sadly, the problems with Hardy's reputation go back to the Pope years. I've talked with parents from that era and there are lots of stories of violence. I've talked with in-bounds parents who were told the school wasn't going to do anything to protect the physical safety of their children. There were a group of people at the school at that time who used children as pawns in their adult struggles, and they are despicable people, unfit to be involved in education.

Pope-era mom here. We did not have this experience at all. But then, according to you, I must have been too busy using my child as a pawn. "Lots of stories." I can imagine there may have been an incident or two that I didn't hear about but I love how supposedly educated people elevate that to "lots." If there had been "lots of stories," I would have heard about it.

Pope is gone, but some of his like-minded fans remain on the Hardy faculty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a current Stoddert parent who toured Hardy, and I was literally running for the exit.

I recently visited St Anselm's with high expectations (MS has been ranked "best MS in DC for 3 years in a row by a well-respected source), and I was literally running for the exit.

What didn't you like about it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hardy's problem is that there are WAY too many OOB kids who bring poverty, dysfunction, and generally pull down test scores. That's why IB families don't want to go there.

I'm IB - we call it the "4th grade flight." Hardy's students have too many social/personal issues for the school to be able to focus on academics. I went to a similar public middle school (decades ago) and had to fight with my fists every day. I didn't learn anything and had to take many private summer school classes and correspondence courses to make up for all the lost time. I don't want to put my kids through that misery. I don't care what anybody else thinks about a middle school's "status", or about whether the students wear uniforms or not. I just want my kids to get a good, basic education, and to be safe. Based on my tours of the school and conversations with other parents, I am not convinced Hardy can provide a decent education in a safe environment for my kids. Some IB parents make it work -- they are wonderful people, and their kids are fantastic. I don't think I could make it work for my kids.

What leads you to believe Hardy isn't a "safe environment?" Do you really think there are fights there every day? Every week? Every month? Every few months? If so, you are sadly misinformed.

--Mother of an 8th grader

IB parent here. My kid graduated from our IB elementary a couple of years ago. In his class there were two kids who went to Hardy. One of them came home from school one day beaten up. He was at Hardy because his parents couldn't afford private, they quickly moved to Bethesda. A story like that spreads like wild-fire in an elementary school community. Hardy may in fact be no less safe than Deal, Bethesda public schools or some privates, but it's got a hill to climb in terms of its reputation, and it's not climbing it.

Sadly, the problems with Hardy's reputation go back to the Pope years. I've talked with parents from that era and there are lots of stories of violence. I've talked with in-bounds parents who were told the school wasn't going to do anything to protect the physical safety of their children. There were a group of people at the school at that time who used children as pawns in their adult struggles, and they are despicable people, unfit to be involved in education.

Pope-era mom here. We did not have this experience at all. But then, according to you, I must have been too busy using my child as a pawn. "Lots of stories." I can imagine there may have been an incident or two that I didn't hear about but I love how supposedly educated people elevate that to "lots." If there had been "lots of stories," I would have heard about it.

Pope is gone, but some of his like-minded fans remain on the Hardy faculty.

And how does this affect test scores, since that seems to be the main issue here. Really: how does the fact that there are fans of Pope (who I remind you has not been Principal for five years) on the faculty have any impact whatsoever on test scores or the childrens' ability to learn? And if it does not have any (as I suspect is the case) can you stop bringing up this particular bit of nonsense?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hardy's problem is that there are WAY too many OOB kids who bring poverty, dysfunction, and generally pull down test scores. That's why IB families don't want to go there.

I'm IB - we call it the "4th grade flight." Hardy's students have too many social/personal issues for the school to be able to focus on academics. I went to a similar public middle school (decades ago) and had to fight with my fists every day. I didn't learn anything and had to take many private summer school classes and correspondence courses to make up for all the lost time. I don't want to put my kids through that misery. I don't care what anybody else thinks about a middle school's "status", or about whether the students wear uniforms or not. I just want my kids to get a good, basic education, and to be safe. Based on my tours of the school and conversations with other parents, I am not convinced Hardy can provide a decent education in a safe environment for my kids. Some IB parents make it work -- they are wonderful people, and their kids are fantastic. I don't think I could make it work for my kids.

What leads you to believe Hardy isn't a "safe environment?" Do you really think there are fights there every day? Every week? Every month? Every few months? If so, you are sadly misinformed.

--Mother of an 8th grader

IB parent here. My kid graduated from our IB elementary a couple of years ago. In his class there were two kids who went to Hardy. One of them came home from school one day beaten up. He was at Hardy because his parents couldn't afford private, they quickly moved to Bethesda. A story like that spreads like wild-fire in an elementary school community. Hardy may in fact be no less safe than Deal, Bethesda public schools or some privates, but it's got a hill to climb in terms of its reputation, and it's not climbing it.

Sadly, the problems with Hardy's reputation go back to the Pope years. I've talked with parents from that era and there are lots of stories of violence. I've talked with in-bounds parents who were told the school wasn't going to do anything to protect the physical safety of their children. There were a group of people at the school at that time who used children as pawns in their adult struggles, and they are despicable people, unfit to be involved in education.

Pope-era mom here. We did not have this experience at all. But then, according to you, I must have been too busy using my child as a pawn. "Lots of stories." I can imagine there may have been an incident or two that I didn't hear about but I love how supposedly educated people elevate that to "lots." If there had been "lots of stories," I would have heard about it.

Pope is gone, but some of his like-minded fans remain on the Hardy faculty.

And why would that matter since there wasn't "lots of violence" during the Pope era and there's not "lots of violence" now? I can't figure out whether some posters are having difficulty formulating a logical argument or I'm just responding to a troll over and over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a current Stoddert parent who toured Hardy, and I was literally running for the exit.

I recently visited St Anselm's with high expectations (MS has been ranked "best MS in DC for 3 years in a row by a well-respected source), and I was literally running for the exit.

What didn't you like about it?

PP here: It seemed chaotic and loud in the halls. I wasn't impressed with the teachers, and the students could not have looked any more unenthused or detached from the classroom. After touring I understand why my two sons don't want to go to Hardy (based on their observations when they are in the building every Friday for Filmore.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hardy's problem is that there are WAY too many OOB kids who bring poverty, dysfunction, and generally pull down test scores. That's why IB families don't want to go there.

I'm IB - we call it the "4th grade flight." Hardy's students have too many social/personal issues for the school to be able to focus on academics. I went to a similar public middle school (decades ago) and had to fight with my fists every day. I didn't learn anything and had to take many private summer school classes and correspondence courses to make up for all the lost time. I don't want to put my kids through that misery. I don't care what anybody else thinks about a middle school's "status", or about whether the students wear uniforms or not. I just want my kids to get a good, basic education, and to be safe. Based on my tours of the school and conversations with other parents, I am not convinced Hardy can provide a decent education in a safe environment for my kids. Some IB parents make it work -- they are wonderful people, and their kids are fantastic. I don't think I could make it work for my kids.

What leads you to believe Hardy isn't a "safe environment?" Do you really think there are fights there every day? Every week? Every month? Every few months? If so, you are sadly misinformed.

--Mother of an 8th grader

IB parent here. My kid graduated from our IB elementary a couple of years ago. In his class there were two kids who went to Hardy. One of them came home from school one day beaten up. He was at Hardy because his parents couldn't afford private, they quickly moved to Bethesda. A story like that spreads like wild-fire in an elementary school community. Hardy may in fact be no less safe than Deal, Bethesda public schools or some privates, but it's got a hill to climb in terms of its reputation, and it's not climbing it.

Sadly, the problems with Hardy's reputation go back to the Pope years. I've talked with parents from that era and there are lots of stories of violence. I've talked with in-bounds parents who were told the school wasn't going to do anything to protect the physical safety of their children. There were a group of people at the school at that time who used children as pawns in their adult struggles, and they are despicable people, unfit to be involved in education.

Pope-era mom here. We did not have this experience at all. But then, according to you, I must have been too busy using my child as a pawn. "Lots of stories." I can imagine there may have been an incident or two that I didn't hear about but I love how supposedly educated people elevate that to "lots." If there had been "lots of stories," I would have heard about it.

By "at the school" I meant administrators and teachers, not parents.

Question: were you IB or OOB? It seems like there were different realities in those days depending on where you lived.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a current Stoddert parent who toured Hardy, and I was literally running for the exit.

I recently visited St Anselm's with high expectations (MS has been ranked "best MS in DC for 3 years in a row by a well-respected source), and I was literally running for the exit.

What didn't you like about it?

PP here: It seemed chaotic and loud in the halls. I wasn't impressed with the teachers, and the students could not have looked any more unenthused or detached from the classroom. After touring I understand why my two sons don't want to go to Hardy (based on their observations when they are in the building every Friday for Filmore.)

I visited the school several times (first time during the feeder school open house, and then for private meetings with the Principal and then during the school Science Fair) and had the opposite impression on each of the points you mentioned.

On the open house day, we witnessed students moving between classes at the end of each period (we saw two periods). Most of us were positively impressed by how quick this transition was. Yes, it was noisy since you have (at each floor) more than 100 students simultaneously moving to different classes, and going different directions ... It lasted just about 4 minutes and then all was silent again. Visiting parents asked the Assistant Principal (a guy who was at Wilson until last year) how come it was so quick and smooth? He explained that students have 4 mins to move between classes after the bell ring. If they take longer, they are marked as "tardy" (and large number of tardies will prompt the school to call for a meeting with the families; OB students with a large numbers of tardies in the first morning class, I think he said 30, may not be invited back to the school on the following year).

Inside the class, students looked very engaged and well-behaved. Class size was small to very small (15-20 kids). On the day of my visit, we checked on the 6th grade art class on the first floor, where the atmosphere looked "magical" (kids drawing and talking with soft voice, charismatic teacher), and then we went to a STEM 6th grade class on the second or third floor, where kids (about 15) looked very engaged and interacted with us in a polite way after the teacher had explained what they were doing on that day and during the year . The teacher herself impressed most of the parents.

On one of the follow-up visits, we arrived around lunch time , and as we were early for our meeting with Principal Pride, we sneaked in to take a look at the cafeteria in action. First we noticed a "self-serve" salad bar at the center of the cafeteria, where kids could pick fresh vegetables of their choice. Though several kids looked uninterested in raw carrots , cucumbers and coleslaw, I know that our DC will. That was a nice unexpected surprise. The cafeteria was loud-loud but the atmosphere was nice and disciplined. I noticed at least 2 adults supervising the cafeteria.

We went back to Hardy this time with our DC, together with another Stoddert 5th grade family, during the school "Science Fair" (about 1 month ago) in the gym. THE KIDS LOVED IT!! And that's when we made our final decision in favor of Hardy. The Fair was very well organized in the school gym (which is huge), projects were on average of high quality, presented through posters as well as in power point (!). We got to talk to the 6th grade science teacher (the kids seemed to adore him), with the STEM teacher we had met during the first open house, as well as with the 8th grade science teacher. Students body seemed racially very well integrated, with most teams made up of multi-racial members. The 6th grade science teacher explained to us that the teams has formed spontaneously. Principal Pride was there too, we told her that we had made up our mind and will join the school for next year....She looked sincerely thrilled, welcomed us an gave the girls a hug!!

So, what can I say, maybe you visited the school in a bad mood or with a negative attitude.. I would suggest that you take a second look, maybe during one of the baskeball games, which your boys might find more interesting than the Fillmore art program...

[Anonymous]

When I visited looking for my DC, I found it to be loud and chaotic. It seemed like a happy chaos, but lots of kids jostling each other playfully in the hallway. Just wouldn't work for my kid. Has some SN issues that make that environment really hard to navigate.

I liked the teachers and don't mind uniforms. What did concern me was that at the end of my visit, the tour guide administrator had to rush off to deal with a fight. I know they happen, but it was another indicator that it would be a difficult environment for my very sensitive kid.

Academically I was impressed with offerings and wished it were a little calmer because there was a lot to like. DC is a middle-of-the-road to strong student depending on the subject. I liked that they weren't afraid of advancing kids who were ready but also have a strong support team.

If IB families (we're not) would embrace it, I could totally see it as a fabulous smaller alternative to Deal. Not everyone wants such a large MS. Just my 2c.