Feynman school

[Anonymous]

The feynman team is pretty good at marketing. Just look at their twitter feed, It is as if they are raising geniuses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't care as much about STEM as I do about having my child in a culture where learning is fun and interesting. Feynman is that in spades. I'm always going to quibble with teachers and curriculum anywhere from time to time.

My child wanted me to add that the music and art are really good. They do each once a week. They sing and learn dances in music and use the Abracadoodle art curriculum. Less enamored of the Drama class even though my child loves the stage. I'm not sure what's going on there. Seems to be an emphasis on improv and creativity which aren't my child's things.

That's something I didn't mention. My child is not one of those imaginative, creative types. Feynman has helped foster those traits and helped my child have more confidence in coming up with ideas and building things. I'm grateful for that. Also, there is a lot of writing--huge step up from the last school in my child's skills there.

I do wish their PE had a more sports focus rather than random games, but I guess they are running around which is what matters. They are still too young for sports, I guess.

This is very helpful color. Thank you. Can you please also tell me-

How are their teachers? Loving, caring, enthusiastic? Willing to work with parents to tailor make instruction/pedagogy to suit the needs of my kid? Or just doing a job 9-5 parroting guidelines based "teaching methods"?

[Anonymous]

see this-

This might provide additional info on the school, its sponsors and origin-

http://giftedexchange.blogspot.com/2013_10_01_archive.html

Bethesda magazine also ran a feature on the Giolds and their quest for a new school.

Kind of gives me some comfort that this is not a money making operation- it is a non-profit.

[Anonymous]

DCUM is split on Feynman. Half the parents (mostly moms!) here are prestige conscious- so big 3 or bust. They hate upstarts like Feynman, so big "naysayers". The owners dont do any favor to this opinion by moving every other year and giving interviews that reinroces the school is new or that they hired consultants to burnish image or that they are trying to building up the school's higher grades (as a non-profit) without a clear line of sight into how that might look. The other half of the "yays" who are either enamored by the slick marketing campaign or a small fraction who really believe in gifted/talented kids can be "built" with right exposure to STEM from an early age.

The ideal person you should be asking is someone who has 2 kids- one who goes/went to Feynman and the other who goes/went to MoCo HGC or FCPS system. Good luck finding that ideal person to interview

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This is very helpful color. Thank you. Can you please also tell me-

How are their teachers? Loving, caring, enthusiastic? Willing to work with parents to tailor make instruction/pedagogy to suit the needs of my kid? Or just doing a job 9-5 parroting guidelines based "teaching methods"?

Yes to loving, caring, and enthusiastic. It's a very nice culture, warm and inviting for the children. My child reports that the teacher says, "Life is hard," now and then, but from the story, it seems to be an appropriate response to a child whining about something being unfair or what have you. It's clear that the teacher enjoys my child, and gave specific examples about how my child's behavior was appreciated by both teacher and peers during our conference. If I quibble with the teaching methods, it's because I believe a little direct instruction goes a long way and Feynman seems to strongly prefer the children develop the knowledge themselves. I see benefits and drawbacks to that. The teacher encourages questions, but children are largely expected to figure things out. My child has learned a ton, almost without realizing it because it's coming from the inside. Some of our concerns have been directly addressed well, others not really. However, that's going to be true anywhere. The teacher encouraged me to continue to email about questions and concerns. There is not any parroted teaching, at least that I've seen. My child is able to work individually on many assignments, so it appears to be tailored.

I wish I could see more of what goes on day to day, but it's hard as a working parent to schedule an observation. I believe they allow it and I would like to. Maybe in January. We see no reason for our child not to return next year at this point. I do love that the no homework policy means that we have more family time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCUM is split on Feynman. Half the parents (mostly moms!) here are prestige conscious- so big 3 or bust. They hate upstarts like Feynman, so big "naysayers". The owners dont do any favor to this opinion by moving every other year and giving interviews that reinroces the school is new or that they hired consultants to burnish image or that they are trying to building up the school's higher grades (as a non-profit) without a clear line of sight into how that might look. The other half of the "yays" who are either enamored by the slick marketing campaign or a small fraction who really believe in gifted/talented kids can be "built" with right exposure to STEM from an early age.

The ideal person you should be asking is someone who has 2 kids- one who goes/went to Feynman and the other who goes/went to MoCo HGC or FCPS system. Good luck finding that ideal person to interview

I don't think that many of us parents chose Feynman because we were enamored by a marketing campaign. We are educated people with the ability to utilize critical thinking for the pros and cons of the schools we evaluate and choose to educate our children.

AAP and HGC logical comparisons, but not the only comparisons for many of us parents. We like smaller class sizes, you don't get those at any AAP center. We like the well rounded educational experience our children crave, from an early age. One that nurtures and challenges our kids at the level and pace that works for them. We like that our children are encouraged to fail and see the value in doing so. This is one thing that many children rarely, if ever experience in other schools, including HGC's. Our children are happy and thriving.

Feynman may not be perfect, but no school is. Yet it has done a pretty good job in our eyes, over the past couple years we've been part of the community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is very helpful color. Thank you. Can you please also tell me-

How are their teachers? Loving, caring, enthusiastic? Willing to work with parents to tailor make instruction/pedagogy to suit the needs of my kid? Or just doing a job 9-5 parroting guidelines based "teaching methods"?

Yes to loving, caring, and enthusiastic. It's a very nice culture, warm and inviting for the children. My child reports that the teacher says, "Life is hard," now and then, but from the story, it seems to be an appropriate response to a child whining about something being unfair or what have you. It's clear that the teacher enjoys my child, and gave specific examples about how my child's behavior was appreciated by both teacher and peers during our conference. If I quibble with the teaching methods, it's because I believe a little direct instruction goes a long way and Feynman seems to strongly prefer the children develop the knowledge themselves. I see benefits and drawbacks to that. The teacher encourages questions, but children are largely expected to figure things out. My child has learned a ton, almost without realizing it because it's coming from the inside. Some of our concerns have been directly addressed well, others not really. However, that's going to be true anywhere. The teacher encouraged me to continue to email about questions and concerns. There is not any parroted teaching, at least that I've seen. My child is able to work individually on many assignments, so it appears to be tailored.

I wish I could see more of what goes on day to day, but it's hard as a working parent to schedule an observation. I believe they allow it and I would like to. Maybe in January. We see no reason for our child not to return next year at this point. I do love that the no homework policy means that we have more family time.

Thank you PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM is split on Feynman. Half the parents (mostly moms!) here are prestige conscious- so big 3 or bust. They hate upstarts like Feynman, so big "naysayers". The owners dont do any favor to this opinion by moving every other year and giving interviews that reinroces the school is new or that they hired consultants to burnish image or that they are trying to building up the school's higher grades (as a non-profit) without a clear line of sight into how that might look. The other half of the "yays" who are either enamored by the slick marketing campaign or a small fraction who really believe in gifted/talented kids can be "built" with right exposure to STEM from an early age.

The ideal person you should be asking is someone who has 2 kids- one who goes/went to Feynman and the other who goes/went to MoCo HGC or FCPS system. Good luck finding that ideal person to interview

I don't think that many of us parents chose Feynman because we were enamored by a marketing campaign. We are educated people with the ability to utilize critical thinking for the pros and cons of the schools we evaluate and choose to educate our children.

AAP and HGC logical comparisons, but not the only comparisons for many of us parents. We like smaller class sizes, you don't get those at any AAP center. We like the well rounded educational experience our children crave, from an early age. One that nurtures and challenges our kids at the level and pace that works for them. We like that our children are encouraged to fail and see the value in doing so. This is one thing that many children rarely, if ever experience in other schools, including HGC's. Our children are happy and thriving.

Feynman may not be perfect, but no school is. Yet it has done a pretty good job in our eyes, over the past couple years we've been part of the community.

Seriously come on! readers- you are intelligent analytical beings, right? Evaluate the writing style of the PP with that of 3 other posters, including the one that got tagged as likely a sockpuppet post.

[Anonymous]

My son is in 3rd grade at FEynman. Good school. I feel that my child has been nurtured to develop curiosity. He told me the other day- being a nerd is a good thing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM is split on Feynman. Half the parents (mostly moms!) here are prestige conscious- so big 3 or bust. They hate upstarts like Feynman, so big "naysayers". The owners dont do any favor to this opinion by moving every other year and giving interviews that reinroces the school is new or that they hired consultants to burnish image or that they are trying to building up the school's higher grades (as a non-profit) without a clear line of sight into how that might look. The other half of the "yays" who are either enamored by the slick marketing campaign or a small fraction who really believe in gifted/talented kids can be "built" with right exposure to STEM from an early age.

The ideal person you should be asking is someone who has 2 kids- one who goes/went to Feynman and the other who goes/went to MoCo HGC or FCPS system. Good luck finding that ideal person to interview

I don't think that many of us parents chose Feynman because we were enamored by a marketing campaign. We are educated people with the ability to utilize critical thinking for the pros and cons of the schools we evaluate and choose to educate our children.

AAP and HGC logical comparisons, but not the only comparisons for many of us parents. We like smaller class sizes, you don't get those at any AAP center. We like the well rounded educational experience our children crave, from an early age. One that nurtures and challenges our kids at the level and pace that works for them. We like that our children are encouraged to fail and see the value in doing so. This is one thing that many children rarely, if ever experience in other schools, including HGC's. Our children are happy and thriving.

Feynman may not be perfect, but no school is. Yet it has done a pretty good job in our eyes, over the past couple years we've been part of the community.

Seriously come on! readers- you are intelligent analytical beings, right? Evaluate the writing style of the PP with that of 3 other posters, including the one that got tagged as likely a sockpuppet post.

I am a parent and nothing more.

[Anonymous]

This is crazy. When I say "and nothing more", it means that I don't have anything to do with running the school or whatever else you keep implying. I am a parent whose offspring attend Feynman and happen to be vey happy there. There is no angle.

[Anonymous]

Why does this school list early speech but not late speech/Einstein Syndrome as an indicator of giftedness when Feynman himself was a famously late talker?

[Anonymous]

Well, it's not really true that Einstein was a late talker, and it's not true that Einstein Sydrome is an indicator of giftedness. Einstein Syndrome is a conclusion applied to a kid whose exceptional giftedness causes late talking. You figure out that the kid has the syndrome by figuring out that the kid is gifted, not that he's a late talker, which could also be explained by various non-giftedness factors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, it's not really true that Einstein was a late talker, and it's not true that Einstein Sydrome is an indicator of giftedness. Einstein Syndrome is a conclusion applied to a kid whose exceptional giftedness causes late talking. You figure out that the kid has the syndrome by figuring out that the kid is gifted, not that he's a late talker, which could also be explained by various non-giftedness factors.

Um, no dog in this fight, but the PP said that Feynman was a late talker, not that Einstein was a late talker. I honestly don't see why either of you are talking about it, but you're also talking past each other.

[Anonymous]

Strange experience at open house.