Homework load in 5th and 6th grades at basis dc?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re inbound for S-H and presently on the Basis waitlist. Our child is self-motivated and excels academically but is prone to stress and anxiety. Anyone care to opine on the better option?

It can be a stressful environment, but a great education. Maybe stick with S-H? how does your kid feel about it? And where are you on the waitlist...is it a likely chance you will get a spot?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re inbound for S-H and presently on the Basis waitlist. Our child is self-motivated and excels academically but is prone to stress and anxiety. Anyone care to opine on the better option?

It can be a stressful environment, but a great education. Maybe stick with S-H? how does your kid feel about it? And where are you on the waitlist...is it a likely chance you will get a spot?

PP should choose SH. Risk of “prone to anxiety” to “anxiety disorder” is probably too high to mess with.

Alternatively you could do BASIS for 5th and return to SH for 6th it doesn’t work.

-current qBASIS parent

[Anonymous]

Agree with BASIS for 5th with SH as backup for pp. if your child prefers group projects, stick with DCPS. My DC hates them (and carrying others) so has been very happy with BASIS.

[Anonymous]

My basis dc kid finishes a fair amount of homework at school and averages maybe 1 hour of hw Monday through Thursday. This has been true for both 5th and 6th grade. Has time for sports and music outside of school.

Some kids (including another child of mine) don’t want to put in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Times have changed, BASIS parent. Deal's study body is highly diverse these days, offering challenge to advanced learners. Adams, Hardy and Stuart Hobson, too. These schools all offer good gyms, stages, playing fields, full-fledged sports programs, art and music rooms and instruction, and libraries. The BASIS franchise made a colossal mistake in buying that god awful office building. No denying it.

OK, thanks for the correction. We’ll just move IB for Deal. Or Hardy. Or Adams. Or Stuart Hobson. Or Oz.

Do you think everyone has $1m for a home?

Give us a break, I bought my IB house for SH for what studio apartment costs in the neighborhood now, and spent many years fixing it up, like my neighbors. The school was no prize when we arrived. We earned our IB option.

You can have your bare bones charter school with it's mile-wide and an inch-deep curriculum.

[Anonymous]

How come the Hobson booster never talks about curriculum. Oh wait, there is none.

[Anonymous]

Not a BASIS or Hobson booster, but somebody who thinks the above posts are petty.

From what I've observed, the DCPS middle school curriculum is actually surprisingly rich and challenging. The problem is catastrophic implementation in most schools for a variety of reasons, from weak teachers protected by the union, to chronic absenteeism of many students, to widespread social promotion in the elementary school grades. The kids are supposed to get good instruction in geography, world cultures, 7th grade algebra if they can handle it, English literature etc. Sadly, few do outside Deal, Hobson, Hardy and Adams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Times have changed, BASIS parent. Deal's study body is highly diverse these days, offering challenge to advanced learners. Adams, Hardy and Stuart Hobson, too. These schools all offer good gyms, stages, playing fields, full-fledged sports programs, art and music rooms and instruction, and libraries. The BASIS franchise made a colossal mistake in buying that god awful office building. No denying it.

OK, thanks for the correction. We’ll just move IB for Deal. Or Hardy. Or Adams. Or Stuart Hobson. Or Oz.

Do you think everyone has $1m for a home?

Give us a break, I bought my IB house for SH for what studio apartment costs in the neighborhood now, and spent many years fixing it up, like my neighbors. The school was no prize when we arrived. We earned our IB option.

You can have your bare bones charter school with it's mile-wide and an inch-deep curriculum.

And for those who have a struggling IB, do they somehow earn/deserve that? This mentality is how people justify huge discrepancies between what schools/districts provide. No one has earned a better-resourced school - all should have the same access to well-resourced schools.

Fellow IB SH parent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a BASIS or Hobson booster, but somebody who thinks the above posts are petty.

From what I've observed, the DCPS middle school curriculum is actually surprisingly rich and challenging. The problem is catastrophic implementation in most schools for a variety of reasons, from weak teachers protected by the union, to chronic absenteeism of many students, to widespread social promotion in the elementary school grades. The kids are supposed to get good instruction in geography, world cultures, 7th grade algebra if they can handle it, English literature etc. Sadly, few do outside Deal, Hobson, Hardy and Adams.

This +1000

Don't assume your motivated child will have a stress free existence at SH. The work has been surprisingly (and refreshingly) challenging for my academically motivated child. There's also a ton of enrichment that requires balancing extra-curriculars with academic demands.

[Anonymous]

This. I'm weary of BASIS snobbery about traditional public schools in this city not offering challenge, a rich curriculum or strong teaching simply because they're DCPS schools.

Parents are starting to see better leadership along with a critical mass of well prepared students in honors classes at Hardy and Hobson. As a result, to those of us living a very short walk from IB buildings, a handful of DCPS middle schools are increasingly attractive.

We didn't take our BASIS 5th grade spot after touring the depressing building and being told that our bilingual child would be forced to study Latin in 5th and 6th along along with another language from 7th grade (two languages are more than enough for us).

To those of you who've taken a BASIS spot, or will, good luck to your families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This. I'm weary of BASIS snobbery about traditional public schools in this city not offering challenge, a rich curriculum or strong teaching simply because they're DCPS schools.

Parents are starting to see better leadership along with a critical mass of well prepared students in honors classes at Hardy and Hobson. As a result, to those of us living a very short walk from IB buildings, a handful of DCPS middle schools are increasingly attractive.

We didn't take our BASIS 5th grade spot after touring the depressing building and being told that our bilingual child would be forced to study Latin in 5th and 6th along along with another language from 7th grade (two languages are more than enough for us).

To those of you who've taken a BASIS spot, or will, good luck to your families.

Isn't this how Washington Latin works too?

[Anonymous]

Yes, it does.

We're going with Hobson partly because the principal is fine with letting us home school our child in a very difficult language one of us speaks (not a Romance language). He won't force instruction in another language on us. We appreciate the flexibility and recognition that we've home schooled the child to an advanced level in the language for his age and just want to be left alone to continue. We won't be the first parents in this situation in our fast-changing neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it does.

We're going with Hobson partly because the principal is fine with letting us home school our child in a very difficult language one of us speaks (not a Romance language). He won't force instruction in another language on us. We appreciate the flexibility and recognition that we've home schooled the child to an advanced level in the language for his age and just want to be left alone to continue. We won't be the first parents in this situation in our fast-changing neighborhood.

And for high school???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it does.

We're going with Hobson partly because the principal is fine with letting us home school our child in a very difficult language one of us speaks (not a Romance language). He won't force instruction in another language on us. We appreciate the flexibility and recognition that we've home schooled the child to an advanced level in the language for his age and just want to be left alone to continue. We won't be the first parents in this situation in our fast-changing neighborhood.

And for high school???

These folks all plan on Walls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it does.

We're going with Hobson partly because the principal is fine with letting us home school our child in a very difficult language one of us speaks (not a Romance language). He won't force instruction in another language on us. We appreciate the flexibility and recognition that we've home schooled the child to an advanced level in the language for his age and just want to be left alone to continue. We won't be the first parents in this situation in our fast-changing neighborhood.

And for high school???

These folks all plan on Walls.

Was referring to the foreign language graduation requirement at any DCPS school.