When do classes get more challenging?

[Anonymous]

Child just started 6th grade and we were thinking that school would get more challenging this year, but child continues to complain that school is too easy and not challenging enough. (It may actually be a little worse than ES, because I think the ES would typically put her in the classes of teachers that were good at enrichment, but now she has 7 different teachers, who don't really have the time for that.) Math is the right amount of challenge, as she's in IM. I'm wondering .... when do they start doing more differentiation and enrichment? High School? Or not until later years of H.S.? Or maybe they just move slowly for the first quarter of middle school, and it will start to pick up? Apparently child asked one of her teachers this, and teacher told her "Nope. This is pretty much it."

[Anonymous]

Aside from maybe time management and spanish in 6th grade my kid did not find MS challenging at all. I figured the point of MS is to get through it so it didn't really bother me. Starting 9th grade now and seems to be a bit more challenge (or at least opportunity for challenge).

[Anonymous]

Someone told me there is more HW in 8th grade. So far, 7th grade, not much HW. DS does most of it in class.

[Anonymous]

Lost years. We put up with 6th and then moved to a K-8 private school. After 8th, the kids split up again, going to public and private HS.

[Anonymous]

I switched my kid to private school in 6th grade and he is finally being challenged. I wish I had the money earlier because he has been coasting along for years.

[Anonymous]

For our kid, there was a little bit more challenge in math and foreign language in Middle School. None of the other classes. However, High School is a whole new ballgame. Our child has homework for the first time in his life. And a lot of it. And he's having to work!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For our kid, there was a little bit more challenge in math and foreign language in Middle School. None of the other classes. However, High School is a whole new ballgame. Our child has homework for the first time in his life. And a lot of it. And he's having to work!

+1, Spanish 3 in 8th, very challenging. And High School, most classes challenging-unless you choose not to be.

[Anonymous]

My 6th grader is challenged in IM and not much else. But for now it is ok as she is adjusting to the routine and everything else that goes along with middle school. My older one was in a ms magnet and 6th grade was very tough because there was so much challenge and so much homework on top of normal middle school stuff.

[Anonymous]

6th grade is still elementary school, even if it is in a middle school building. There is a lot of hand holding and the workload does not increase much, if at all. It's more a year to get used to having multiple teachers, moving from one classroom to another, and developing good study and organizational skills. The workload and challenge level increase in 7th grade, and even more so in 8th grade, but high school is the real leap forward in terms of challenging work.

[Anonymous]

It happens as soon as they hit HS. MCPS does almost no ability grouping in MS. Both my kids felt like MS was a drop off in work from ES. Assignments seemed to be designed to be completed in class and homework scores can only be 10% of the grade, so they have nearly no impact. Everything seemed arranged to prevent kids from failing without making a concerted effort. All the ES homework that was supposedly necessary to build study skills, feels like a waist given the three year break of MS. It's true, third year language can be difficult (and of course will be a class of only motivated 8th graders so expectations can be a little higher) but it's still dependent on the teacher and how much effort was made the previous two years. My youngest is in eighth now and seems to be doing well with French 3 and hasn't complained about a change.

But HS is very different, nearly all classes are grouped by ability, either because of honors sections or because of prerequisites putting students on different tracks. There is a lot of real homework and no real transition time a the start of the year. Lab science was something that took an adjustment for my older DC in 9th. It was necessary to read the lab set up before class and understand both the procedure and underlying material before starting. Having good partners was helpful, but either way it's necessary to know what everyone is doing so that whatever the results it's possible to write up in a meaningful way when back at home. Whatever goes on in MS science class, it wasn't a preparation for HS lab. It's understandable that the level of science would be simpler, but it would be good if they could at least get some practice with the group dynamics and time management of lab work.

I will say in our household it all seems to have worked out. Both my kids were fairly disgruntled about the low expectations, but enjoyed the break and at least my oldest hit high school thrilled to be challenged again. (So far younger DC is like minded but hasn't hit HS yet, fingers crossed.)

[Anonymous]

Never. Not in HS either. Sadly, my DC, a HS senior, told me that the last 4 years have been a waste and that she hasn't learned anything since magnet middle school program. This despite taking all honors and a heavier AP/IB schedule than many students.

AP is generally monotonous shallow book learning which is formulaic. IB is writing assignments, which could be good if there was ever any feedback on the writing, but there isn't.

Top it off with some terrible teachers - unclear, testing concepts not taught, petty and lazy (not grading for many weeks) and the whole experience has basically provoked deep boredom and lethargy. Fortunately DC has an outside interest that she spends substantial time on (both out of school and in class after DC is finished work or while the teacher is droning on about stuff DC already knows) or she would have lost her marbles a long time ago.

Thank god that your child's teacher was honest about it all. Now you know. Encourage your DC to find other outlets - classes outside if school that are interesting, reading books, whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never. Not in HS either. Sadly, my DC, a HS senior, told me that the last 4 years have been a waste and that she hasn't learned anything since magnet middle school program. This despite taking all honors and a heavier AP/IB schedule than many students.

AP is generally monotonous shallow book learning which is formulaic. IB is writing assignments, which could be good if there was ever any feedback on the writing, but there isn't.

Top it off with some terrible teachers - unclear, testing concepts not taught, petty and lazy (not grading for many weeks) and the whole experience has basically provoked deep boredom and lethargy. Fortunately DC has an outside interest that she spends substantial time on (both out of school and in class after DC is finished work or while the teacher is droning on about stuff DC already knows) or she would have lost her marbles a long time ago.

Thank god that your child's teacher was honest about it all. Now you know. Encourage your DC to find other outlets - classes outside if school that are interesting, reading books, whatever.

ITA. Dd1 had the exact same experience through high school. This is why dd2 is in private school. Because of the smaller class size, there are many more writing assignments (both in quantity and variety), and there is lots of feedback. Dd2 is an excellent writer because of this. Because the students are chosen by the private school, there are higher expectations for the students and they go through the material more rapidly and more in depth. Dd1 hung in there and is now a very happy college senior. Dd2 is a high school junior and really likes her school and how and what she is learning there. I know that many people on DCUM are negative about private schools and think they are a waste of money, but it has been a great fit for dd2. I just wish dd1's high school experience had been better.

[Anonymous]

We're only up to 7th grade, but nothing difficult so far, and DC is in the "advanced" classes, ie, the normal ones.

DC has learning disabilities and for him the high school workload will perhaps be challenging, but the content itself will not be.

We made the decision to not pay for private, since so many of them don't use a better curriculum and don't pay or recruit good enough teachers. We enrich outside of public school, and save our money for college.

[Anonymous]

My current-9th grader recalled that 6th was the most difficult of any in MS, and it wasn't that it was difficult, but that the 6th grade teachers assigned a lot of homework. 7th and 8th weren't difficult, and she really didn't have much homework, either. She had well over 95% in almost all classes all 3 years-- not bragging (I think most of her friends ended up about the same in most classes), but just saying classes were way too easy. (I think a typical kid may find one or two classes more challenging because of the teacher they draw or because they are stronger in some subjects than others, but few find most/all challenging.)

Now in 9th, the only difficult classes are AP classes and Honors Chemistry. Her friends chose honors for a couple of classes where she chose AP and they report that the Honors are not difficult (one mother described them as about like MS).

Unfortunately, in HS there seems to be no middle ground. AP classes are a ton of work and Honors aren't challenging at all...

[Anonymous]

So curious which schools the posters are referring to. I have two bright kids that have finished ES, MS and one finished HS. I don't think either of them would have considered most of their classes not challenging. Yes, some of them weren't but I would hardly say that the majority of their classes, both honors and AP were not challenging. I will say that perhaps what made some of them challenging was been having poor teachers for many math and science classes. DD told me that when she went to take first semester chemistry in college that she realized that no one really ever taught her how to set-up a proper lab notebook and most of the other kids had learned that in high school.