Quiet Child in Middle School - Deal? Latin? BASIS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fighting has been isolated in the upper grades and it appears that it is effectively being dealt with.

My kid has maybe an hour and a half a night, and some nights less. The thing for us is that our DC with a short attention span and cluttered ways is now organized and finishes the work efficiently and can plan ahead for nights when there are activities.

An hour and a half? What grade is he in?
For 8th grade we average 3-4hours

Average day of homework
30 problems every day, including 10 minutes of revewing new concepts, and 5 minutes of reviewing for mistakes (1 hour)
2 science homeworks per day (2 hours)
Reading and reviewing history, English homework, work on a project (1 hour)
Review for a test ( at least 30 minutes)

It's true that the pace of math is very fast, even by European standards.
It all depends on the child. My child tells me his classmates are very competitive. In fact one "smart" girl, usually quited poised, got so upset because she got a lower grade that my kid that she ripped part of my child's CJ.

Thank you for this. Writing the deposit check for a real school (private). It hurts, but your testimony puts it all in perspective. Basis is a hot mess, but perfect for people who are too lazy to move to the suburbs.

Not moving to the suburbs is lazy? I thought that was the easy way to go. . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fighting has been isolated in the upper grades and it appears that it is effectively being dealt with.

My kid has maybe an hour and a half a night, and some nights less. The thing for us is that our DC with a short attention span and cluttered ways is now organized and finishes the work efficiently and can plan ahead for nights when there are activities.

An hour and a half? What grade is he in?
For 8th grade we average 3-4hours

Average day of homework
30 problems every day, including 10 minutes of revewing new concepts, and 5 minutes of reviewing for mistakes (1 hour)
2 science homeworks per day (2 hours)
Reading and reviewing history, English homework, work on a project (1 hour)
Review for a test ( at least 30 minutes)

It's true that the pace of math is very fast, even by European standards.
It all depends on the child. My child tells me his classmates are very competitive. In fact one "smart" girl, usually quited poised, got so upset because she got a lower grade that my kid that she ripped part of my child's CJ.

Thank you for this. Writing the deposit check for a real school (private). It hurts, but your testimony puts it all in perspective. Basis is a hot mess, but perfect for people who are too lazy to move to the suburbs.

The process that you are engaged in is known as confirmation bias: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

It is unlikely that you would have been dissuaded from enrolling your child in private school had you read only positive posts about BASIS.

Of course, you could simply have read the post and basked quietly in the sense of validation it afforded you. Instead, you felt the need to bash those of us who, having investigated DCPS MSs, MCPS MSs, FCPSs, and several area privates, chose to enroll our kids in BASIS because we believe, having studied the curriculum, that it will prepare our children better than any of the alternatives.

Good luck to you and your kids. We hope you do not become a slave to those monthly tuition checks. We hope you won't have to work countless hours of overtime to stay afloat, sacrificing precious hours with your children in the process. We hope that, having made your tuition payments, you have enough left over to make respectable contributions during the numerous fund-raisers you'll be facing.

We hope your kids don't develop a sense of inferiority as their classmates flaunt their wealth. Then again, a little humility would be better than a sense of entitlement.

We hope your marriage is strong enough to weather the potential financial storms on the horizon. If you happen to fall on hard times, we hope the school steps in and provides adequate financial aid so that you won't be forced to withdraw and enroll in an inferior school with us lazy folk.

[Anonymous]

+1000
my private dc school was "real" I guess if you determine it by tuition and ranking but I was NOT prepared for my Ivy AT ALL
pretty sure Basis will get them in and they will be prepared

[Anonymous]

OP, I am in the same boat this year. Are you still around to give feedback on how things worked out for your kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I am in the same boat this year. Are you still around to give feedback on how things worked out for your kid?

Forget the OP. I want to know how things worked out for the family who wrote the big private school deposit check.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kids was at Latin for fifth and really got a ton of attention. Now at Basis and getting a better education which will continue thru highschool (and we really hope BASIS sticks to their word and that those who fail the sixth grade comps go to summer school, and if they fail again either repeat sixth or leave) but it is a lot of pressure (although self imposed, and most of the kids from the JKLM cohort have no problem) and she does get less attention unless she goes to office hours. But in general you cannot lose by going to Latin if you think you are going to go private for high school. Walls seems in flux now and Wilson may be to large for the child. Private is not an option for us and we have a highly gifted math kid (not my doing!)

This is why I do not care for BASIS parents. The ones that post on DCUM always seem to dwell on the negative - fail and repeat or leave. Go to Latin.

BASIS parent who had to personally teach my child Algebra 1 or he would have failed rather than get an A and whose history teacher failed to teach Rome which was tested on the test that this parent wants use as an reason to fail or push out students.

Latin parents seem to like rigor with support for students who may be struggling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I am in the same boat this year. Are you still around to give feedback on how things worked out for your kid?

Yes!! Well, as it turns out, we enrolled in Latin and to be sure, it was a struggle at first with my non-organized child. Lots of nights spent doing homework after dinner, and he a very "scheduled" child. But we absolutely are thrilled he is going there. We love everything about it: the small classes, the care of the teacher, the personalized connection made with teachers, students and staff. And the work - it's actually interesting! I didn't think that was possible outside of private schools. The teachers spend time together making the curriculum work. There is a connection with all the 5th grade teachers, you can really see that, that they all get along and that they are happy to be there. And now it seems he WANTS to raise his hand and participate. His personality is the same, but from what he says he wants to talk to teachers and other students sometimes because the culture of learning is different - no interrupting, calm classrooms, and a focus on a topic that has relevance. I appreciate how much reading goes on, and the in depth conversations that happen, chapter by chapter. And not just in English class! BASIS would have been great for the structure it would have provided, but he didn't have that high interest in being in an academic setting, so we now know he would have really struggled there. We are so excited for our son, but also excited for his siblings that get to enroll now too. In my mind its the perfect fit.

[Anonymous]

^^ While I stand by my statements about some BASIS posts on DCUM; did not realize this was an old thread. Probably the same poster still posting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kids was at Latin for fifth and really got a ton of attention. Now at Basis and getting a better education which will continue thru highschool (and we really hope BASIS sticks to their word and that those who fail the sixth grade comps go to summer school, and if they fail again either repeat sixth or leave) but it is a lot of pressure (although self imposed, and most of the kids from the JKLM cohort have no problem) and she does get less attention unless she goes to office hours. But in general you cannot lose by going to Latin if you think you are going to go private for high school. Walls seems in flux now and Wilson may be to large for the child. Private is not an option for us and we have a highly gifted math kid (not my doing!)

This is why I do not care for BASIS parents. The ones that post on DCUM always seem to dwell on the negative - fail and repeat or leave. Go to Latin.

BASIS parent who had to personally teach my child Algebra 1 or he would have failed rather than get an A and whose history teacher failed to teach Rome which was tested on the test that this parent wants use as an reason to fail or push out students.

Latin parents seem to like rigor with support for students who may be struggling.

I am a BASIS parent and have another MS at another school as well, and while the posts on DCUM being hijacked by other BASIS parents drives me COMPLETELY bananas, I will say that the VERY EXCELLENT teacher who did not teach Rome before the midterm had no malicious intent, quite the contrary, as the portion of the exam that was on Rome was written as part of the nation-wide basis 6th grade history midterm, and he did not know about it until that day-as soon as he found out, it was removed from the test altogether and will not count as part of the midterm grade for or against. I cannot speak for the math teacher, but I will say, while BASIS has things that I am not a fan of, their teachers, and this teacher in particular, is NOT one of those things. The admin I could do without, but I really adore all but 1 of DC's teachers out of 8 or 9.

[Anonymous]

Your child may just grow out of it, if given the chance to grow. Quiet and being the middle of the road description could be the result of the parent being such a helicopting personality. Small classrooms just mean that the issues are just smaller but the problems are still of gigantic proportions. Hogwash, if one thinks that a large school doesn't or can't have a close relationship with their student body then by all means homeschool.