Cooper Middle School

[Anonymous]

My son has never complained about the renovation. He seems to not mind it.

I always had a close friend or two. That’s all you really need. I did see the cliques outside once when I had to pick up my son from school. I guess it seems fine when your child has friends and it could be torture if you don’t have a group.

I moved when I was in middle school and I have clear bad memories of middle school lunch. I had no one to sit with. Eventually I did make friends and it was fine/

[Anonymous]

Someone made a comment “ridiculous”. Stop by Cooper today yourself at lunch time and see that girls and boys do not mix whatsoever at lunch tables. Totally separated. Not ridiculous. Real.

[Anonymous]

It is a factory in a sense but not exactly. The quality check at a factory has a higher standard. For example, maybe 95% of finished goods must have zero defects. 95% of kids in Cooper do not have straight A’s, not even close. But it is certainly better academically than many schools in the county or the state. Although SOL scores showed lower scores than that of my child’s elementary school. Here you can have A’s but the class doesn’t score like an A in SOL…Hmm..It is like a factory in that they “aim” for everyone to be made the same…., not special ways to enhance individualism. The recipe is missing some other ingredients like good character development. They just go through their academic classes each day and go home. No assemblies regularly to get together to focus on topics like diversity/inclusion, compassion, respect, whatever other values that kids should be taught both at home and at school communities. This is most likely a public school vs Cooper phenomenon except that Cooper happens to have more problematic kids for some reason. There is a full time policeman working there! In elementary school, they graded citizenship attributes in the report card.

[Anonymous]

I’m sure a lot of the bad experiences have to do with the type of kids at the school the last two years. Hopefully with a whole new group of seventh graders coming in this fall, things will much improve!!
I know Forestville has a fantastic graduating sixth grade class that will certainly improve the horrible social dynamics described by the PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m sure a lot of the bad experiences have to do with the type of kids at the school the last two years. Hopefully with a whole new group of seventh graders coming in this fall, things will much improve!!
I know Forestville has a fantastic graduating sixth grade class that will certainly improve the horrible social dynamics described by the PP.

Cooper/Langley parents always seem to be over-the-top critical or over-the-top cheerleaders. It's odd to think one group of rising 7th graders from a particular elementary school is going to change the culture of a school, but I also doubt Cooper was ever as "horrible" as you keep asserting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone made a comment “ridiculous”. Stop by Cooper today yourself at lunch time and see that girls and boys do not mix whatsoever at lunch tables. Totally separated. Not ridiculous. Real.

I have 6th and 8th grade boys. My boys only hang out with boys but they have friends who hang out with lots of girls. There are definitely groups that mix. I think the more “popular” kids mix early on.

The popular girls also get boyfriends first. They also start getting labeled sluts first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone made a comment “ridiculous”. Stop by Cooper today yourself at lunch time and see that girls and boys do not mix whatsoever at lunch tables. Totally separated. Not ridiculous. Real.

And this bothers you... why? There are plenty of girls and boys who do mix and are friends. You seem very... dramatic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is a factory in a sense but not exactly. The quality check at a factory has a higher standard. For example, maybe 95% of finished goods must have zero defects. 95% of kids in Cooper do not have straight A’s, not even close. But it is certainly better academically than many schools in the county or the state. Although SOL scores showed lower scores than that of my child’s elementary school. Here you can have A’s but the class doesn’t score like an A in SOL…Hmm..It is like a factory in that they “aim” for everyone to be made the same…., not special ways to enhance individualism. The recipe is missing some other ingredients like good character development. They just go through their academic classes each day and go home. No assemblies regularly to get together to focus on topics like diversity/inclusion, compassion, respect, whatever other values that kids should be taught both at home and at school communities. This is most likely a public school vs Cooper phenomenon except that Cooper happens to have more problematic kids for some reason. There is a full time policeman working there! In elementary school, they graded citizenship attributes in the report card.

Why do you continue to troll? Please name one middle school that does the bolded. Thank goodness they don't - what a waste of time that could be spend actually learning academics. And you do realize most schools across the COUNTRY have a full-time policeman working there, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m sure a lot of the bad experiences have to do with the type of kids at the school the last two years. Hopefully with a whole new group of seventh graders coming in this fall, things will much improve!!
I know Forestville has a fantastic graduating sixth grade class that will certainly improve the horrible social dynamics described by the PP.

The kids at Cooper are like the kids at any middle school - that is, plenty of nice kids and the usual bad apples. No surprise there. The OP sounds like a chronic complainer or just a troll. There are not "horrible social dynamics" at Cooper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone made a comment “ridiculous”. Stop by Cooper today yourself at lunch time and see that girls and boys do not mix whatsoever at lunch tables. Totally separated. Not ridiculous. Real.

I have 6th and 8th grade boys. My boys only hang out with boys but they have friends who hang out with lots of girls. There are definitely groups that mix. I think the more “popular” kids mix early on.

The popular girls also get boyfriends first. They also start getting labeled sluts first.

You just described any middle school, anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Cooper has any unique problems, just very typical adolescent friend drama.

Cooper is unique in that it has no sports or community building activities whatsoever. Sure, you can go to movie club after school and sit quietly and watch a movie but that is not what I mean.

Most schools that I, my children and people I know, have gone to have made a concerted effort to integrate the kids and make them feel welcome and part of a community. There is one field trip at the very end of the year. There is one sports day, at the very end of the year. There is nothing else.

There is recess for the first time this year but for most of the kids, that still means sitting inside.

There is a short 30 minute lunch, inside. But don't talk too loudly or you will get detention. Half the year, PE is health class - which means sitting inside.

There is also no PTA - just a PTO whose entire job is to raise money for band instruments. Parents aren't really welcome on campus.

It's like a factory where kids who have lots of energy are made to sit inside all day long, moving from class to class with just 5 minutes in between. It's a dark building and most kids don't go outside most days. It is the most miserable school experience I have ever encountered in my 20 years of having kids in school.

im a student here and this is so true the lack of school oriented community leads to a really prevelant school hierarchy

[Anonymous]

These schools look like prison

[Anonymous]

can't a PTA easily be formed by interested parents?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:can't a PTA easily be formed by interested parents?

There is a PTO. I don’t know why they are a PTO and not PTA. Not sure what the differences are either. I’m part of the PTA at our elementary as well as the Cooper PTO. There are plenty of opportunities to volunteer if you would like. The 8th grade party was yesterday. There is a field trip today and had lots of chaperones. I don’t know if the PTO or school organized these but there is parent involvement if you want to be involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:can't a PTA easily be formed by interested parents?

There is a PTO. I don’t know why they are a PTO and not PTA. Not sure what the differences are either. I’m part of the PTA at our elementary as well as the Cooper PTO. There are plenty of opportunities to volunteer if you would like. The 8th grade party was yesterday. There is a field trip today and had lots of chaperones. I don’t know if the PTO or school organized these but there is parent involvement if you want to be involved.

Thanks for sharing! I know a lot of the incoming 7th grade parents will be involved. Hopefully that changes some of the above complaints about no fostering of relationships via school-sponsored social events.