McLean?

[Anonymous]

My concern with McLean is that there is one lady who seems really rude (I've visited twice) I believe she's the learning coordinator or learning specialist. She is very offensive in that she repeatedly states that McLean is 'not a special education school'. That's okay and all, but I wish she (and the school) would define more clearly what they are, and who they serve. Just wondering if anyone has a clearer understanding--perhaps a current or past parent, or anyone else involved w/the school--of what type of child they might serve best?

[Anonymous]

McLean School does struggle w/its identity. Special needs support vs. traditional elite private.

[Anonymous]

I am a McLean parent. I will say off the top that while I don't know for sure who you are speaking about or what grade level you are considering. If you are looking at the lower school, I do know the learning coordinator quite well. If she was the individual you met with, I truly believe you had a mistaken impression of her and I urge you to try and look past it if the school captures your interest. She is one of the most devoted, insightful and purely heart-driven people in the building and truly embraces those kids and parents.

As far as the type of school McLean purports to be, I agree to a point that it does try to be more than one type of school, because it serves more than one type of student. Yes, a number of the kids who are here have learning disabilities, but they are on the mild side, as distinguished from some of the more profound issues you see better served in other schools. I know kids with some executive functioning issues (often served by OT), some who have word retrieval issues or articulation weaknesses (they are in speech therapy to remedy this), some who have a variety of attention issues (these are often identified and addressed as part of the regular teacher/parent give and take), and some who have learning issues such as dyslexia. But I also know children who do not have any identifiable issues or disabilities, just standard learners who for one reason or another benefit from the small classrooms or individualized teacher attention. For example, in one of my kid's classes, there is a student who was not learning to read, and this year she was finally diagnosed as dyslexic. Once that happened, her teachers began to teach her in a completely tailored way that served her needs and within a month of her diagnosis, she was reading. My son, by contrast, is a typical learner. We chose McLean for him because we thought he needed a smaller classroom than the public school offered, and he wasn't really the "alpha dog" that so many of the "traditional elite private schools" seek. He is in an accelerated reading group, and an accelerated math group. His friend with the dyslexia is in a different reading group, but she is in his math section. They learn differently in some ways, and similarly in others and McLean can adjust their program to make them each meet their own respective level of highest achievement. My kids (and their McLean friends) attend typical camps, typical afterschool activities, typical religious schools. They have typical friends. But at school they learn next to kids who learn differently, and next to kids who learn typically and they learn not to judge themselves or each other. When my other son's class ended up having readers that far exceeded the level anticipated for their grade, the teachers and the learning specialist met and bought a brand new reading program for the class, and that group of students work at a higher reading level than the rest. Those who aren't in that group work in another group at a pace that suits them and these kids all combine for whatever art or science or play activity serves the entire group. While McLean definitely holds a specialty niche among those kids who might need a smaller classroom, more teacher attention, or different learning strategies to succeed, it also serves a community of standard learners who maybe seek a more nurturing environment or a more individually tailored curriculum to really shine. I believe that is what the learning coordinator tried to convey during your visits to McLean -- it is somewhat of a misnomer to assume that McLean is a special education mecca in spite of the fact that it is uniquely equipped to identify and address the needs of kids with certain types of mild learning issues. I think they are proud of what they can offer those students, but I think they are equally proud of what they can offer to the general student community, and don't want that aspect of their profile to be undervalued or overlooked.

[Anonymous]

I'm so out of it, where is the Mclean school, in Mclean or Potomac?

PP, I think its nice of you to bring balance to this judgment of the woman in question, but if that learning specialist did, in fact, tell PP 'Mclean is not a special needs school' it is incumbent upon HER to clarify. It is indeed an extremely offensive comment. My own child has mild regulatory issues, but not enough to say he is special needs. Since learning this I have become extremely sympathetic and an advoate for special needs children. I check this board regularly to share whatever little knowledge I have accumulated when I searched for answers for my own child. There is such a horrible stigma that is given to children of special needs and schools who take special needs children and that is why this woman's comment is utterly offensive. Public or private, every school SHOULD have special needs children in classrooms for at least two reasons: 1) to teach neurotypical children to embrace children of all needs and 2) to help special needs children feel included. So this schools' policy of not taking special needs kids is not sensitive. This woman's comment is downright rude.

[Anonymous]

The one thing that does occur to me reading thru this is that no one other than the mom who posted about the original interaction knows how the phrase "special needs" came up in the exchange. What I wonder most is what did the mother say to the learning specialist that led up to the comment? I mean, she could have asked, completely reasonably, how McLean deals with a variety of kids with special needs and the learning specialist in the conversation could have responded using the same phrase that she was originally given. I'd be curious how the back and forth went, because it seems a little odd to think that she had people asking how her school worked and then out of the blue she was to blurt out "This isn't a special needs school." Maybe the original mom could give us a little snapshot into how the moment happened.

[Anonymous]

The McLean School is in Potomac. (The Potomac School is in McLean, I believe, kind of funny). And I think you are reading the previous stream of comments incorrectly, she never said they don't take special needs children at their school, I believe the issue in question is whether the school defines itself as a special needs specialty institution, which apparently it does not. I don't think there was an exclusionary issue raised, I think the debate is about how the school is marketing. Don't think she was necessarily making a rude comment, I think she was defining her product, good or bad.

[Anonymous]

In this area, there are a number of schools (McLean, Lowell, Green Acres) which do not have special education programs but provide programs and flexibility which are well-suited to children with mild special needs, as well as children who just need a small, intimate, flexible learning environment. What seems to happen (having watched this over the past 15 years) is that word gets around that these schools are good places for kids with special needs. Parents start applying, both for kids with mild needs and for kids with more significant needs. The schools start to feel overwhelmed - they can serve some students with some needs, but don't want the entire class to have mild to moderate needs. So they pull back a bit, emphasizing that they are not "special needs schools". The applications shift back to a mix of kids with mild needs and kids who are more traditional learners, the schools relax, and the whole cycle begins again.

I wonder if that is what you were hearing at McLean?