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Anonymous
| Seriously, my kid is pretty smart and he is indeed weird!! So a school that helps with social skills and monitors emotional development IN ADDITION to providing academic challenge is tremendously important to our family. He'll get the academic material almost anywhere he goes, even if it isn't being directly taught (assuming the school has a library). But the social part is really important and the best window of opportunity to make an impact (not to say completely address!!) slams shut by middle school. |
Anonymous
9:28 - GAS has been recommended for that exact reason - a place where a self-motivated smart kid is in a stimulating environment and given room to thrive but will also be part of a welcoming environment, where the school knows each kid, where acceptance of differences are discussed and fostered, where kids are appluaded for who they are taught to be proud and to take ownership of who they are - even if they are smart, different and a bit quirky. And where other kids are taught to accept them too. Hope it is true - it'd be nice to find a place like that. 
And note -- that it isn't to say that all or even most kids at GAS are the extra smart quirky kind - there are kids all over the adacemic and social spectrum who can benefit from a school that knows them and cares about their social education as well as their academic education. I like that diversity - and if you have a self-motivated academic kid - its not important for everyone at school to be super smart...as long as you have "some" kids as academic peers. Like 9:28, my child will thrive academically anywhere DC is given something to learn. Whether DC advances multiple grades ahead in multiple subjects is not as important as DC being stimulated. The goal is to raise a well rounded person who can use academics to achieve whatever DC wants in a career, to be self confident and proud of who DC is, to be able to live and work in a world with people of all types. |
Anonymous
Isn't that line the mantra of Montgomery County Public Schools? Uttered without irony of course. |
Anonymous
|
My daughter goes to Sidwell and her two friends go to GDS.
They all graduated from Green Acres School last year. I am not sure what you are talking about not getting into great upper schools. We also had a lot of kids get into the IB programs at their local high schools. |
Anonymous
| 12:26, As a Green Acres parent, does the reality of Green Acres match any of what 9:28 was hoping it might be? |
Anonymous
| correction...does it match what 9:28 is looking for and what 9:59 was hoping Green Acres would be... |
Anonymous
This does sound a bit like a school sales brochure! |
Anonymous
| I get it that the school has some smart kids and there are anecdotes of kids who get into good high schools. But it truly would be nice to have the numbers. My friends who toured Norwood middle school said those numbers were readily available (students went where over the past few years, though not numbers of applicants/acceptances). So are these numbers available from Green Acres? Can someone provide them? It would put an end to the speculation on the thread. |
Anonymous
11/15, 10:18 here again. I thought my originals posts were pretty specific. If you are comparing numbers in a more granular way than that (Norwood wins, 7-5!), I don't think you're actually getting any "better" information. Both schools have graduates who get into many local high schools, including the most competitive. It seems like Norwood has more kids (as a percentage) who attend Sidwell and Green Acres has more who go to GDS. Once a high school knows the middle school program is sound, it's much more about the kid than the school she's attended. Can you help me understand why you'd want specific numbers down the line if not to compare them like sports scores? |
Anonymous
Sorry - that was me
Just a geeky mom here looking for a good match for her kid...maybe I should change my profession to advertising. (and maybe I should get back to work instead of posting here!) A comment on the Norwood-Green Acres comparison. They are pretty different schools and numbers don't tell everything (but are certainly useful - so I am not downplaying that). I am sure there are many kids who would thrive at either school and for those families, parents should just go with what they feel most comfortable with - and that could understandably be outplacement. But some kids may just fit better at one school or the other and in those cases, numbers don't always capture those factors. |
Anonymous
|
9:28 here ... mom of weird, bright child. Our child goes to Burgundy, which is a progressive and nurturing pk-8 school like GA. So although I have never stepped foot on GA campus (it is not geographically an option for our family), I am willing to bet that it will meet the needs of a family such as 9:59.
Parents need to determine what kind of early school experience they are hoping their kids will have. For us, solid and challenging academics is certainly very important, but we are also very hopeful that our child will really enjoy those incredibly fleeting childhood years. I realize that those two goals need not be mutually exclusive, but if I were to err in one direction or the other, the second one tends to win. But like most DCUM families ... we really want everything to be exactly right ... a fairly unrealistic goal. |
Anonymous
|
<And note -- that it isn't to say that all or even most kids at GAS are the extra smart quirky kind - there are kids all over the adacemic and social spectrum who can benefit from a school that knows them and cares about their social education as well as their academic education.>
Gotta say, the kids I met at GAS were quirky... but in a nice, friendly, GLEE-cast sort of way. Gawky, braces, slightly rotund. But you know what? Most of our kids will look like that in middle school, as most of us did. And we all love Glee FOR the cast; it's their quirkiness that makes those kids so lovable. I enjoyed talking with the GAS kids a lot and I have no doubt that they will grow up to be nice, well-rounded, socialized adults--- with or without high school at Sidwell or the Blair magnet program. Imagine. |
Anonymous
|
and imagine....a place where quirky kids can learn to be confident of themselves and learn acceptance of others during an already awkward age?
It still remains that those "quirky" kids probably represent a broader academic spectrum than at some of traditional power house schools in the area - and that's okay - it also seems more like the real world. On average, really smart people who can work with others are more successful than those who can't! |
Anonymous
| Are people trying to say that GA is good for quirky smart kids? If so, what about kids who aren't super smart, will the school teach them? I have heard disaster stories from families with kids who were average or slightly above average WRT education there. Do the bright kids there teach themselves? |
Anonymous
Good question...I am trying to find a match the smart quirky variety... I can see a scenario of a kid taking advantage of the freedoms and not excelling WRT education... But what about those really bright kids? Is GA encouraging/helping them to reach that potential? Or are the kids doing it on their own? Or is it a combo - that the kids are self-motivated and the school allows and encourages them to explore outside of the box? I would love to hear input from current parents. (keep in mind that I care a lot about the social education there...but I am still curious about this academic question) |