Kindergarten Communication from Teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish I could DM you - I have googled Catholic schools multiple times in the last 18 months and I never thought I'd consider parochial school.

We are Protestant. We carefully bought an house in a “good” public school pyramid (think W) with every intention of public schools all the way through. We now also are looking at local Catholic schools.

The ones near us have smaller class sizes than our public - low 20s of kids rather than 30+ kids/classroom. Much less screen time. Mainstream textbooks for math, science, history at the Catholic. Phonics-centered reading instruction. Explicit spelling and grammar instruction. I never thought we would be looking serious at Catholic schools, yet here we are.

Yeah, why not, indoctrinate your kid in Catholicism like JD Vance. It is way more important to get textbooks, the Bible and that all important gold cross necklace these days anyway that to like support some kind of public entity.
Times have changed and you have got to put the Bible and supporting religion first.

I gather you didn't actually *read* the post you are responding to, where it was quite clear that they:

- intended originally to go public,

- were not Catholic,

- were not interested in the religious aspects,

- but were impressed that Catholic schools still teach solid academics.

Oh no I read it. I understood it and I also understand that you are operating in an environment that is attacking all things public. Perhaps you don’t understand how that is pervading your thinking, but it is. Many posters, parents and government officials are attacking public schools and have been since the pandemic. Know that although you “believe” you are just doing it for the “good of your child”. You are also doing it because it is in the ether to do right now. You aren’t trusting ANY public service and are being manipulated. Everything public is being attacked (federal government, local government, schools etc) and the you jumping on that bandwagon.

So, don your crosses ladies, get your household vote together and try to sway your husbands. Schools are the last bastion of democracy. Keep punching them and watch the (and democracy) fall or get smart, stand up and fight for public services.

Now, go ahead and insult me and call this “bizarre” or “horrible” or “unhinged” but the more you know…

Psychopath

[Anonymous]

Is it normal to not have homework or textbooks?

OMG. The next 13 years are going to be very long for you and even worse for your child if you can't learn to relax, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish I could DM you - I have googled Catholic schools multiple times in the last 18 months and I never thought I'd consider parochial school.

We are Protestant. We carefully bought an house in a “good” public school pyramid (think W) with every intention of public schools all the way through. We now also are looking at local Catholic schools.

The ones near us have smaller class sizes than our public - low 20s of kids rather than 30+ kids/classroom. Much less screen time. Mainstream textbooks for math, science, history at the Catholic. Phonics-centered reading instruction. Explicit spelling and grammar instruction. I never thought we would be looking serious at Catholic schools, yet here we are.

Yeah, why not, indoctrinate your kid in Catholicism like JD Vance. It is way more important to get textbooks, the Bible and that all important gold cross necklace these days anyway that to like support some kind of public entity.
Times have changed and you have got to put the Bible and supporting religion first.

I gather you didn't actually *read* the post you are responding to, where it was quite clear that they:

- intended originally to go public,

- were not Catholic,

- were not interested in the religious aspects,

- but were impressed that Catholic schools still teach solid academics.

Oh no I read it. I understood it and I also understand that you are operating in an environment that is attacking all things public. Perhaps you don’t understand how that is pervading your thinking, but it is. Many posters, parents and government officials are attacking public schools and have been since the pandemic. Know that although you “believe” you are just doing it for the “good of your child”. You are also doing it because it is in the ether to do right now. You aren’t trusting ANY public service and are being manipulated. Everything public is being attacked (federal government, local government, schools etc) and the you jumping on that bandwagon.

So, don your crosses ladies, get your household vote together and try to sway your husbands. Schools are the last bastion of democracy. Keep punching them and watch the (and democracy) fall or get smart, stand up and fight for public services.

Now, go ahead and insult me and call this “bizarre” or “horrible” or “unhinged” but the more you know…

I assume you are a troll, but the reason many of us are down on public school is that we are speaking from our own experiences with it. We put our children in public school and saw first hand what is happening. Nobody has brought local and federal government into this thread or other school-related threads that I've seen. - signed, another casual Protestant that ended up putting kids into Catholic school

The other troubling thing that is happening in education right now is that the religious extremists/ far right have taken up the mantle of "classical education" and twisted it into a way of indoctrinating kids and families. I visited a Christian school last year and toured it with my son, not realizing who is funding it and why. The only reason they are able to do this is that many, many public districts have turned too far away from the basics of teaching the "3 Rs."

I’m not a troll at all- that is funny. But again, if you can’t understand the underpinnings of what is happening to our democracy right now or aren’t willing to see that attacking government from local schools to the federal government workers isn’t something that is en vogue you are fooling yourself.

When democracies fall, one of the things they attack is public schooling. You are making their work easy.

Public schools in this area have all added handwriting, phonics vocabulary and grammar into curriculums for the last 3-5 years.

You can speak all you want from “your own experience” but you are also on here, reading posts, hearing from the federal government on the news (who wants to dismantle regular public schools for (vouchers) and seeking out other disgruntled parents about the public schools(again on here) so yes, that is social media. If you think you are operating blindly just “seeking out what is best” you aren’t. You are here, on this forum looking for others who agree the public schools are “a mess.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish I could DM you - I have googled Catholic schools multiple times in the last 18 months and I never thought I'd consider parochial school.

We are Protestant. We carefully bought an house in a “good” public school pyramid (think W) with every intention of public schools all the way through. We now also are looking at local Catholic schools.

The ones near us have smaller class sizes than our public - low 20s of kids rather than 30+ kids/classroom. Much less screen time. Mainstream textbooks for math, science, history at the Catholic. Phonics-centered reading instruction. Explicit spelling and grammar instruction. I never thought we would be looking serious at Catholic schools, yet here we are.

Yeah, why not, indoctrinate your kid in Catholicism like JD Vance. It is way more important to get textbooks, the Bible and that all important gold cross necklace these days anyway that to like support some kind of public entity.
Times have changed and you have got to put the Bible and supporting religion first.

I gather you didn't actually *read* the post you are responding to, where it was quite clear that they:

- intended originally to go public,

- were not Catholic,

- were not interested in the religious aspects,

- but were impressed that Catholic schools still teach solid academics.

Oh no I read it. I understood it and I also understand that you are operating in an environment that is attacking all things public. Perhaps you don’t understand how that is pervading your thinking, but it is. Many posters, parents and government officials are attacking public schools and have been since the pandemic. Know that although you “believe” you are just doing it for the “good of your child”. You are also doing it because it is in the ether to do right now. You aren’t trusting ANY public service and are being manipulated. Everything public is being attacked (federal government, local government, schools etc) and the you jumping on that bandwagon.

So, don your crosses ladies, get your household vote together and try to sway your husbands. Schools are the last bastion of democracy. Keep punching them and watch the (and democracy) fall or get smart, stand up and fight for public services.

Now, go ahead and insult me and call this “bizarre” or “horrible” or “unhinged” but the more you know…

I assume you are a troll, but the reason many of us are down on public school is that we are speaking from our own experiences with it. We put our children in public school and saw first hand what is happening. Nobody has brought local and federal government into this thread or other school-related threads that I've seen. - signed, another casual Protestant that ended up putting kids into Catholic school

The other troubling thing that is happening in education right now is that the religious extremists/ far right have taken up the mantle of "classical education" and twisted it into a way of indoctrinating kids and families. I visited a Christian school last year and toured it with my son, not realizing who is funding it and why. The only reason they are able to do this is that many, many public districts have turned too far away from the basics of teaching the "3 Rs."

I’m not a troll at all- that is funny. But again, if you can’t understand the underpinnings of what is happening to our democracy right now or aren’t willing to see that attacking government from local schools to the federal government workers isn’t something that is en vogue you are fooling yourself.

When democracies fall, one of the things they attack is public schooling. You are making their work easy.

Public schools in this area have all added handwriting, phonics vocabulary and grammar into curriculums for the last 3-5 years.

You can speak all you want from “your own experience” but you are also on here, reading posts, hearing from the federal government on the news (who wants to dismantle regular public schools for (vouchers) and seeking out other disgruntled parents about the public schools(again on here) so yes, that is social media. If you think you are operating blindly just “seeking out what is best” you aren’t. You are here, on this forum looking for others who agree the public schools are “a mess.”

They are a mess. I realize you’re a paid shill but even you have to know they’re a mess. They need to address the discipline issues. Until then they will continue to lose numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish I could DM you - I have googled Catholic schools multiple times in the last 18 months and I never thought I'd consider parochial school.

We are Protestant. We carefully bought an house in a “good” public school pyramid (think W) with every intention of public schools all the way through. We now also are looking at local Catholic schools.

The ones near us have smaller class sizes than our public - low 20s of kids rather than 30+ kids/classroom. Much less screen time. Mainstream textbooks for math, science, history at the Catholic. Phonics-centered reading instruction. Explicit spelling and grammar instruction. I never thought we would be looking serious at Catholic schools, yet here we are.

Yeah, why not, indoctrinate your kid in Catholicism like JD Vance. It is way more important to get textbooks, the Bible and that all important gold cross necklace these days anyway that to like support some kind of public entity.
Times have changed and you have got to put the Bible and supporting religion first.

I gather you didn't actually *read* the post you are responding to, where it was quite clear that they:

- intended originally to go public,

- were not Catholic,

- were not interested in the religious aspects,

- but were impressed that Catholic schools still teach solid academics.

Oh no I read it. I understood it and I also understand that you are operating in an environment that is attacking all things public. Perhaps you don’t understand how that is pervading your thinking, but it is. Many posters, parents and government officials are attacking public schools and have been since the pandemic. Know that although you “believe” you are just doing it for the “good of your child”. You are also doing it because it is in the ether to do right now. You aren’t trusting ANY public service and are being manipulated. Everything public is being attacked (federal government, local government, schools etc) and the you jumping on that bandwagon.

So, don your crosses ladies, get your household vote together and try to sway your husbands. Schools are the last bastion of democracy. Keep punching them and watch the (and democracy) fall or get smart, stand up and fight for public services.

Now, go ahead and insult me and call this “bizarre” or “horrible” or “unhinged” but the more you know…

I assume you are a troll, but the reason many of us are down on public school is that we are speaking from our own experiences with it. We put our children in public school and saw first hand what is happening. Nobody has brought local and federal government into this thread or other school-related threads that I've seen. - signed, another casual Protestant that ended up putting kids into Catholic school

The other troubling thing that is happening in education right now is that the religious extremists/ far right have taken up the mantle of "classical education" and twisted it into a way of indoctrinating kids and families. I visited a Christian school last year and toured it with my son, not realizing who is funding it and why. The only reason they are able to do this is that many, many public districts have turned too far away from the basics of teaching the "3 Rs."

I’m not a troll at all- that is funny. But again, if you can’t understand the underpinnings of what is happening to our democracy right now or aren’t willing to see that attacking government from local schools to the federal government workers isn’t something that is en vogue you are fooling yourself.

When democracies fall, one of the things they attack is public schooling. You are making their work easy.

Public schools in this area have all added handwriting, phonics vocabulary and grammar into curriculums for the last 3-5 years.

You can speak all you want from “your own experience” but you are also on here, reading posts, hearing from the federal government on the news (who wants to dismantle regular public schools for (vouchers) and seeking out other disgruntled parents about the public schools(again on here) so yes, that is social media. If you think you are operating blindly just “seeking out what is best” you aren’t. You are here, on this forum looking for others who agree the public schools are “a mess.”

My experience with the public schools have nothing to do with Trump. This began with Biden or earlier, maybe Bush II? I am not political and no I don’t read political forums here or elsewhere. I am not seeking out nothing, just sharing what our family has experienced. You are the one generalizing and making weird broad assumptions

[Anonymous]

Kindergarten homework is good for developing handwriting skills and the all-important skill of following directions to finish a simple task through to completion. A single worksheet page where the child needs to write a few words and solve single-digit addition problems is not going to rob Larlo of his childhood. The Venn diagram of people who redshirt spring birthdays and people who decry homework in K has a very big overlap. They are basically people who are terrified of their child growing up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish I could DM you - I have googled Catholic schools multiple times in the last 18 months and I never thought I'd consider parochial school.

We are Protestant. We carefully bought an house in a “good” public school pyramid (think W) with every intention of public schools all the way through. We now also are looking at local Catholic schools.

The ones near us have smaller class sizes than our public - low 20s of kids rather than 30+ kids/classroom. Much less screen time. Mainstream textbooks for math, science, history at the Catholic. Phonics-centered reading instruction. Explicit spelling and grammar instruction. I never thought we would be looking serious at Catholic schools, yet here we are.

Yeah, why not, indoctrinate your kid in Catholicism like JD Vance. It is way more important to get textbooks, the Bible and that all important gold cross necklace these days anyway that to like support some kind of public entity.
Times have changed and you have got to put the Bible and supporting religion first.

I gather you didn't actually *read* the post you are responding to, where it was quite clear that they:

- intended originally to go public,

- were not Catholic,

- were not interested in the religious aspects,

- but were impressed that Catholic schools still teach solid academics.

Oh no I read it. I understood it and I also understand that you are operating in an environment that is attacking all things public. Perhaps you don’t understand how that is pervading your thinking, but it is. Many posters, parents and government officials are attacking public schools and have been since the pandemic. Know that although you “believe” you are just doing it for the “good of your child”. You are also doing it because it is in the ether to do right now. You aren’t trusting ANY public service and are being manipulated. Everything public is being attacked (federal government, local government, schools etc) and the you jumping on that bandwagon.

So, don your crosses ladies, get your household vote together and try to sway your husbands. Schools are the last bastion of democracy. Keep punching them and watch the (and democracy) fall or get smart, stand up and fight for public services.

Now, go ahead and insult me and call this “bizarre” or “horrible” or “unhinged” but the more you know…

I assume you are a troll, but the reason many of us are down on public school is that we are speaking from our own experiences with it. We put our children in public school and saw first hand what is happening. Nobody has brought local and federal government into this thread or other school-related threads that I've seen. - signed, another casual Protestant that ended up putting kids into Catholic school

The other troubling thing that is happening in education right now is that the religious extremists/ far right have taken up the mantle of "classical education" and twisted it into a way of indoctrinating kids and families. I visited a Christian school last year and toured it with my son, not realizing who is funding it and why. The only reason they are able to do this is that many, many public districts have turned too far away from the basics of teaching the "3 Rs."

I’m not a troll at all- that is funny. But again, if you can’t understand the underpinnings of what is happening to our democracy right now or aren’t willing to see that attacking government from local schools to the federal government workers isn’t something that is en vogue you are fooling yourself.

When democracies fall, one of the things they attack is public schooling. You are making their work easy.

Public schools in this area have all added handwriting, phonics vocabulary and grammar into curriculums for the last 3-5 years.

You can speak all you want from “your own experience” but you are also on here, reading posts, hearing from the federal government on the news (who wants to dismantle regular public schools for (vouchers) and seeking out other disgruntled parents about the public schools(again on here) so yes, that is social media. If you think you are operating blindly just “seeking out what is best” you aren’t. You are here, on this forum looking for others who agree the public schools are “a mess.”

They are a mess. I realize you’re a paid shill but even you have to know they’re a mess. They need to address the discipline issues. Until then they will continue to lose numbers.

Agree, they are a mess. I do think parents are more to blame than schools, but nevertheless, public schools are a mess. Behavior problems galore, mostly EdTech teaching, remedial content. If your child is at grade level or above they won’t learn anything unless you supplement

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kindergarten homework is good for developing handwriting skills and the all-important skill of following directions to finish a simple task through to completion. A single worksheet page where the child needs to write a few words and solve single-digit addition problems is not going to rob Larlo of his childhood. The Venn diagram of people who redshirt spring birthdays and people who decry homework in K has a very big overlap. They are basically people who are terrified of their child growing up.

Kindergarten homework should be the least of OP’s concerns. The bigger problem is public schools have moved away from homework and text books for pretty much all grades below high school. Even at the high school level, there is little being assigned outside of school maybe with AP classes being the exception.

[Anonymous]

I’m a teacher and my kids didn’t do homework in elementary school. Research doesn’t support it and it’s generally useless. I sent a nice note to their teachers at the beginning of the year letting them know my kids wouldn’t be doing homework. Never got pushback. Maybe some judgement, but I couldn’t care less. Older two are at top colleges and I have zero regrets.

[Anonymous]

lol I’m the poster who’s kids didn’t do homework. Sent my late August daughter ahead while everyone else held their kids back. Same for my late spring boys. I wanted them to be in school. What I didn’t want was stressful busy work that isn’t backed up by research. But you do you and keep battling with your exhausted kids.

Anonymous wrote:Kindergarten homework is good for developing handwriting skills and the all-important skill of following directions to finish a simple task through to completion. A single worksheet page where the child needs to write a few words and solve single-digit addition problems is not going to rob Larlo of his childhood. The Venn diagram of people who redshirt spring birthdays and people who decry homework in K has a very big overlap. They are basically people who are terrified of their child growing up.

[Anonymous]

The top public elementary schools in DC/VA/MD have over 25 kids? That is news to me.

Our public starts to look at adding another section once we get to 22 or so. Currently the grade has classes of 18. We also have a kid in parochial and his class is at 22 and nobody is complaining until it gets to 24-25.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher and my kids didn’t do homework in elementary school. Research doesn’t support it and it’s generally useless. I sent a nice note to their teachers at the beginning of the year letting them know my kids wouldn’t be doing homework. Never got pushback. Maybe some judgement, but I couldn’t care less. Older two are at top colleges and I have zero regrets.

Doesn’t this assume they are doing something at school during school hours though? I was jealous of the parents who had kids in the other teacher’s class because they got a math worksheet once a week, English worksheet a couple times a month, and wrote a Friday morning page at school every week. I wanted homework because my kid did basically no writing at school or through homework (there wasn’t any) in 2nd grade. We taught him double and triple digit addition and subtraction at home because they weren’t doing it at school.

[Anonymous]

We are education oriented and specifically looked for schools with no hw and plenty of recess. It may not be what you grew up with, but there is ample evidence in favor of that approach.

If your child is entering Kindergarten already reading, of course they may "stall" in reading progress, since they have already learned the Kindergarten standards. We were fortunate with our second that they sent her to a reading group in 1st grade, but it's certainly not something I advocated for or expected.

I have two kids who qualified as "gifted," and they have never been bored at school, which is lower ranked than the DMV schools overall. I'm not sure if the handwringing on this board is from a small minority of difficult parents (we have them in our district too) or if your schools are really that bad.

My youngest is entering first - he has disabilities so he has been my exception. I did have him do the optional K homework we received, he goes to tutoring, etc. But my typically developing children thrived without any homework - besides reading - until 6th grade. They did go to parochial school for a year during covid, and all the HW was busy work and just added unnecessarily to parental stress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish I could DM you - I have googled Catholic schools multiple times in the last 18 months and I never thought I'd consider parochial school.

We are Protestant. We carefully bought an house in a “good” public school pyramid (think W) with every intention of public schools all the way through. We now also are looking at local Catholic schools.

The ones near us have smaller class sizes than our public - low 20s of kids rather than 30+ kids/classroom. Much less screen time. Mainstream textbooks for math, science, history at the Catholic. Phonics-centered reading instruction. Explicit spelling and grammar instruction. I never thought we would be looking serious at Catholic schools, yet here we are.

Yeah, why not, indoctrinate your kid in Catholicism like JD Vance. It is way more important to get textbooks, the Bible and that all important gold cross necklace these days anyway that to like support some kind of public entity.
Times have changed and you have got to put the Bible and supporting religion first.

I gather you didn't actually *read* the post you are responding to, where it was quite clear that they:

- intended originally to go public,

- were not Catholic,

- were not interested in the religious aspects,

- but were impressed that Catholic schools still teach solid academics.

Oh no I read it. I understood it and I also understand that you are operating in an environment that is attacking all things public. Perhaps you don’t understand how that is pervading your thinking, but it is. Many posters, parents and government officials are attacking public schools and have been since the pandemic. Know that although you “believe” you are just doing it for the “good of your child”. You are also doing it because it is in the ether to do right now. You aren’t trusting ANY public service and are being manipulated. Everything public is being attacked (federal government, local government, schools etc) and the you jumping on that bandwagon.

So, don your crosses ladies, get your household vote together and try to sway your husbands. Schools are the last bastion of democracy. Keep punching them and watch the (and democracy) fall or get smart, stand up and fight for public services.

Now, go ahead and insult me and call this “bizarre” or “horrible” or “unhinged” but the more you know…

I assume you are a troll, but the reason many of us are down on public school is that we are speaking from our own experiences with it. We put our children in public school and saw first hand what is happening. Nobody has brought local and federal government into this thread or other school-related threads that I've seen. - signed, another casual Protestant that ended up putting kids into Catholic school

The other troubling thing that is happening in education right now is that the religious extremists/ far right have taken up the mantle of "classical education" and twisted it into a way of indoctrinating kids and families. I visited a Christian school last year and toured it with my son, not realizing who is funding it and why. The only reason they are able to do this is that many, many public districts have turned too far away from the basics of teaching the "3 Rs."

I’m not a troll at all- that is funny. But again, if you can’t understand the underpinnings of what is happening to our democracy right now or aren’t willing to see that attacking government from local schools to the federal government workers isn’t something that is en vogue you are fooling yourself.

When democracies fall, one of the things they attack is public schooling. You are making their work easy.

Public schools in this area have all added handwriting, phonics vocabulary and grammar into curriculums for the last 3-5 years.

You can speak all you want from “your own experience” but you are also on here, reading posts, hearing from the federal government on the news (who wants to dismantle regular public schools for (vouchers) and seeking out other disgruntled parents about the public schools(again on here) so yes, that is social media. If you think you are operating blindly just “seeking out what is best” you aren’t. You are here, on this forum looking for others who agree the public schools are “a mess.”

They are a mess. I realize you’re a paid shill but even you have to know they’re a mess. They need to address the discipline issues. Until then they will continue to lose numbers.

Agree, they are a mess. I do think parents are more to blame than schools, but nevertheless, public schools are a mess. Behavior problems galore, mostly EdTech teaching, remedial content. If your child is at grade level or above they won’t learn anything unless you supplement

The public school behind our house has approximately 40 percent of the students meeting state standards in reading and math, well below the ~70% state average (and the trend in reading is downward over the past three years). Chronic absenteeism is between 10 and 20 percent of the students each year. It had around 140 behaviors of safety concern, and more than 40 behaviors that endanger others' health, safety, or welfare. They'll have to focus their resources on bringing the majority of the students up to the state standards. My daughter is starting kindergarten and reads probably at a beginning to mid-first grade level (I taught her without any use of EdTech). Needless to say, we skipped the public school and enrolled her in a private school where she won't have to deal with her classmates' problem behaviors and will have a quiet, focused environment she can excel in and free of any EdTech.

[Anonymous]

Re all these concerns of Ed Tech - are your kids actually on devices that much, or are you just worried they would be? My kids go to computer lab once a week, take iready ipad assessments once a trimester in math and reading, and have "listen to a story" as one of their literacy centers , which is done on an ipad. I appreciate the centers approach because then kids can get individualized teaching at different points throughout the day. They do start using ipads daily in 6th, and I wish there was still more handwriting, grammar, and spelling emphasis, but the elementary years have not been anything like what people describe on here.