Seeking advice on Fairfax County Public High Schools
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Anonymous
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Please save your arm chair psychoanalysis for someone needs for someone who needs it. That goes for your analysis of my sentence structure. But, if that's your thing and that's what it takes to feel good about yourself, well that's just fine with me.
My concern is the current state of disrepair in FCPS curriculum and instruction. Clearly you can't defend it or you would. So you've instead chosen to discredit the messenger. For me, I don't care if you hated your father and loved your mother or perhaps it was the other way around; who knows? I certainly don't nor do I care. Frankly, I wish you well. I also wish you could make this dialog less personal and more productive similar to the PP who spoke of their high achieving children doing well and their children with IEPs are suffering. High achieving students perform well in any school district. They are smart and they test well. Middle of the road students need better teachers than FCPS has to offer. |
Anonymous
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Please, within the bounds of keeping your anonymity, give us a rough idea of your background and the qualifications that lead you to your opinions about the state of teaching in FCPS. What is your degree in? Are you inside the system or an outside observer?
Just a little understanding of the context of your thoughts would be useful. |
Anonymous
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Thanks, it's good to respond to a pleasant posting for a change. I wish I could give up my anomynity, but I can't. The only thing I ask for is that our teachers be more engaged with the students. Learning is exciting when our teachers are excited about the importance of what they are teaching.
In every single subject there is passion and joy, but Fairfax is practically void of this phenomenon. I'm repeating myself now, but your teacher don't dramatically read excerpts from Shakespeare or the great political speeches in history. Sure lecturing every day would be too much, but putting them in groups everyday is awful as well. Talk to the students. Let them know their teachers love the subjects they are teaching. There funny, crazy, fascinating, OMG stories in every subject, but the kids will never learn those stories sitting in groups. Thanks for listening. |
Anonymous
No, you've been repeating yourself not just "now," but for weeks on end. Give it a rest. |
Anonymous
"for someone who needs it" ... can't blame that one on autocorrect, huh? You were just so irritated with me that you had to craft your little response without proofreading it, I guess. My children are thriving in FCPS. I have one in AAP and another one too young to be tested yet. The older regularly comes home talking about the interesting experiments and discussions the teacher facilitates. They have gone into deep analysis in humanities and history. He's learning math at a level I didn't see until years later. He is already a very strong reader and the teacher has sent home books she personally selected for his level and interests "just because." He has been really excited about school for the past two years. Truthfully, the year before that his teacher was a bit mechanical, but before that one year all teachers were also superb in instruction, differentiation and individual connection. I am thrilled with our FCPS experience but "clearly" you can't hear a defense of the system, can you, messenger? I maintain you've got an axe to grind and my guess is that it is rooted in some perceived slight in the way you have been treated over the years by this nasty crew of incompetent educators. And now the big question: So what are you doing about "the current state of disrepair in FCPS curriculum and instruction?" Obviously you are desperate for change. |
Anonymous
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This is social media! Why would I proof read anything? The facts speak for themselves. Your children seem to be doing well in a school for special children. Great. Good for you and them.
But please as I've asked so many time before. What did they learn today? For the rest of mortals FCPS is a great disappointment. |
Anonymous
Do not give away who you are, but please let us know the rough information requested above. Thank you. |
Anonymous
Why are you so adamant about this? I described my children's excellent school experience and you're still wondering about what exactly? What they learned today? Maybe some of us aren't willing to discuss specifics with you and you'll have to accept that our students are learning plenty in FCPS. You didn't answer my question about what you are doing to bring about change for the mortals. What - are - you - doing - besides - posting - on - DCUM - about - how - disappointed - we - all - should - be? |
Anonymous
Yeah, I'd like to know as well. |
Anonymous
The issue is that DCPS teachers lack passion and creativity in the classroom. Students seldom if ever come home excited about having learned something in school today. The reason for this is because their teachers fail to emphasize the importance of the content. The teachers also fail to link it to preexisting knowledge and current events and discoveries. This is important information for the OP to consider before enrolling their children in FCPS. Even your children who have been removed from the general population have not shared with you anything particularly exciting that happened in school today. This is interesting considering one might believe FCPS would place their most dynamic teacher in an school for advanced children. If nothing exciting happened at an advanced educational center today it is highly unlikely anything worth mentioning was taught at the general education facilities in Fairfax County. Besides creating a Joint Congressional Committee on the Lack of Dynamic Teaching Practices in Fairfax County, Virginia, Public Schools, I'm really not doing anything else related to this matter. |
Anonymous
Again, there is nothing to tell and I have no interest in who you maybe either. There is a systemic drone in FCPS classrooms of busy people learning something, but miraculously doing it without joy or excitement while their teachers pass by giving nods of approval. They pass their exams at the end of the year, but seem incapable of discussing what they've learned or why it's important or to what it's all connected. |
Anonymous
The uh...Joint Congressional Committee on the Lack of Dynamic Teaching Practices in Fairfax, VA? |
Anonymous
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My son is a middle school student in FCPS. He came home talking about aerodynamics. He had built a paper rocket, and had a visitor to their classroom who, as he described with great excitement, "really worked for NASA as an engineer. Like, Really!" They were taking their paper rockets and testing them and once they passed certain stability tests, they were creating them out of metal and re-testing them. He knew things I cannot even describe about aerodynamics air flow, weight issues etc.
My other son is working on a group project to build sustainable city. Presents with a variety of ecological challenges, along with a city budget allocation. The group has met in my kitchen and i have heard them arguing over priorities and philosophies of societal responsibilities and value decisions. I could provide more examples but I think you are going to be convinced of your opinion regardless, based on what we can only guess is your own personal experience either with your own child(ren) or in your employment history with FCPS. We can't really get any other information from you so you'll have to excuse the assumption. |
Anonymous
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Hey OP, welcome back to the area! (um, are you sure you want to come back after reading this thread??)
In any case… we live in the city of Falls Church, and although our DC is young, we've interacted with neighborhood State Dept families who have kids at George Mason high school (including our baby sitter - if you move here and your kids are interested in babysitting, they'll have plenty of opportunities). One of your criteria is small, and the school definitely has that (I think about 150 kids per class year or something like that). It has the IB program, which is why many State families like it, and overall it seems demanding - the kids are really academically focused, and involved in a ton of extracurriculars. A couple of other views - when State evacuated families from Egypt, they mostly relocated here, and the kids thought the high school wasn't as demanding as their program in Cairo. And there has been some discontent with handling of special needs/IEPs. Parents are definitely involved here. Housing, as you noted, is an issue - there's a lot of demand, and not much available for sale right now. Have you considered renting? There are many families that do that. For the Falls Church part of Fairfax County (where we've also lived), Falls Church high school is an option. If you read the threads here you'll see that it's not that highly rated - it has a low income component and some low test scores. But I think the ratings are misguided. The neighborhood around the school (Broyhill Park, and others that I can't think of at the moment) are affordable for this area, and the families we know who live there are great. Nearby neighborhoods like Greenway Downs also feed it. Good luck with your decision! |
Anonymous
How do you come about your knowledge of what is going on in FCPS classrooms? |