Any parents out there NOT hung up on CES?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, if it helps, I would say that CES is not about “getting ahead” so much as solving an existing problem. So if your child is feeling kind of desperate in school and even the teachers agree that their time is largely wasted all day, then the CES helps that kid have a schoolday where they actually get to learn something. While they are learning a lot about writing, they are really learning how to learn at school and sometimes, for the first time, how to deal with challenge and failure so that when they get to harder classes they will understand how to work hard and persist to get the work done well.

Your child may need some enrichment or not... you know your kid. If you are doing writing classes in the summer, I think you can rest assured that your child will be well prepared for the tougher classes of high school one day. But if you think of CES as basically a kind of special ed to help some kids learn how to be well-adjusted students and how to BE normal, happy kids, it might give you less anxiety about how your child might be missing something.

That said, I think most of us would love to see some of the enrichments in CES brought into the entire school curriculum. Some schools do have an enriched ELA program and that, along with compacted math, can do a lot for bright kids.

Um, okay. If it makes you feel better. My child is a well-adjusted, normal, happy kid who loved his home school and he's not the only one.
There is a subset of kids who weren't doing well at their home schools and it's great they have somewhere to go but characterizing the CESes a place for misfits is really weird of you PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I'm a complete weirdo for this area, but I would rather my kid have a well rounded, classic childhood and don't want an intense academic program to detract from that. We do use tutoring for our 5th grader to make compacted math easier for her, and we require her to do a somewhat aggressive summer reading program, but that's it. She's in an intense athletic club, and with all of that, I want her to spend the remainder of her time running around the neighborhood with her friends, drawing, and making slime. Or, whatever else she wants to do with her creative energy. If she were obsessed with academics, I would support her, but in my own life, I find that social skills, creativity, and executive function are more important than knowledge.

LOL

Another LOL. In addition to this chill parent requiring their child to do an "aggressive" summer reading program you forgot to highlight the "intense" athletic club.
This post is a joke right

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know two families who turned it down - so apparently not all parents are hung up on it.

+1
I know a few parents who turned it down and my CES child has a friend he made there who left in the first quarter to return to his neighborhood school. A couple other kids did too. It wasn't due to academics as they were doing fine but I think they and their parents weren't into it in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't want to name our center because I want to be nice to the teacher. Ours does not do anything to deep dive. It is the same. Strangely enough, compacted 5/6 is kicking some of the kids' butts not because it is hard but the level of ridiculous explaining. It is like asking the kids to explain why this absolute value is smaller than another, and the kids have to explain 3 different ways why it is. Wish the teacher would make the math more interesting with real world application problems and have the kids explain that.

Sounds pretty different from my older two who went back when it was the HGC program. They loved it and are in middle schools now and still best friends with those kids- who scattered all about. Guess we’ll pass on it for our youngest, plus no one got in from our elementary but a couple. Used to be many more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know two families who turned it down - so apparently not all parents are hung up on it.

+1
I know a few parents who turned it down and my CES child has a friend he made there who left in the first quarter to return to his neighborhood school. A couple other kids did too. It wasn't due to academics as they were doing fine but I think they and their parents weren't into it in the first place.

I wonder if more and more parents are opting out lately compared to a few years ago when it was still HGC. I knew no one who opted out or dropped out and went back to the home school at our HGC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, all CES are focused on reading and writing? Why?

Because the CES program is officially humanities-based, with a special curriculum. The math (including compacted math) and science curricula are the same as at other elementary schools (officially, anyway, although perhaps some CES teachers include additional challenges or projects).

At our CES, the material is exactly the same for science and compacted math. As a matter of fact, sometimes the general ed and CES kids have science together.

OP here. I never knew that. I guess I thought the entire curriculum was “advanced”.

Depends on the school. At e.g. Pine Crest, the CES fifth-grade math is phenomenal.

Now the CES kids at Pine Crest are interspersed with the non-CES kids who placed into compacted math. There are 3 sections of compacted math at each grade,randomly assigned so not all CES kids are taught by CES teachers for math.

[Anonymous]

It may be opting out but I also hear it’s harder to get in. Schools are having fewer kids accepted especially in higher SES schools where there is a sizable peer group at the home school. The truly outliners are the only ones being recommended. Makes sense really. Less busing and keeping the smart kids makes sure the school scores stay up. So there is an incentive for the county to keep kids at their school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know two families who turned it down - so apparently not all parents are hung up on it.

+1
I know a few parents who turned it down and my CES child has a friend he made there who left in the first quarter to return to his neighborhood school. A couple other kids did too. It wasn't due to academics as they were doing fine but I think they and their parents weren't into it in the first place.

I wonder if more and more parents are opting out lately compared to a few years ago when it was still HGC. I knew no one who opted out or dropped out and went back to the home school at our HGC.

This is what our school administration told us. It was practically unheard of for someone to leave but this year, the first for universal screening for the whole system, it was not uncommon. Remember parents used to spend a lot of time applying, writing essays and getting teacher recommendations. The kid and the family had to be pretty motivated to even apply. Now they have a system where they just pluck kids from the whole system and many don't want to bother commuting, don't want to leave their regular school for just two years, or feel their child is adequately challenged.

I know one family that turned down the spot without going to the open house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know two families who turned it down - so apparently not all parents are hung up on it.

+1
I know a few parents who turned it down and my CES child has a friend he made there who left in the first quarter to return to his neighborhood school. A couple other kids did too. It wasn't due to academics as they were doing fine but I think they and their parents weren't into it in the first place.

I wonder if more and more parents are opting out lately compared to a few years ago when it was still HGC. I knew no one who opted out or dropped out and went back to the home school at our HGC.

I think more people are opting out due to universal screening. In the past parents put in the work of submitting the application so most had already made a decision, with universal screening many test and "see what happens" before learning about the program. Another reason may be that it seems like at least in some schools there is beginning to be more of an effort to provide enrichment at local schools, so there are more options for some.

[Anonymous]

My poor kid is Waitlisted. I hope that some of the admitted ones could think rationally and opt out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know two families who turned it down - so apparently not all parents are hung up on it.

+1
I know a few parents who turned it down and my CES child has a friend he made there who left in the first quarter to return to his neighborhood school. A couple other kids did too. It wasn't due to academics as they were doing fine but I think they and their parents weren't into it in the first place.

I wonder if more and more parents are opting out lately compared to a few years ago when it was still HGC. I knew no one who opted out or dropped out and went back to the home school at our HGC.

This is what our school administration told us. It was practically unheard of for someone to leave but this year, the first for universal screening for the whole system, it was not uncommon. Remember parents used to spend a lot of time applying, writing essays and getting teacher recommendations. The kid and the family had to be pretty motivated to even apply. Now they have a system where they just pluck kids from the whole system and many don't want to bother commuting, don't want to leave their regular school for just two years, or feel their child is adequately challenged.

I know one family that turned down the spot without going to the open house.

I know folks who opted out when it was HGC, but I think none from our ES opted out last year. Fewer invited last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I moved to an area that we dont need to lotto away from for the local kids. That what it is really about right? Your kid isn’t that smart silver spring mom

Truth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if it helps, I would say that CES is not about “getting ahead” so much as solving an existing problem. So if your child is feeling kind of desperate in school and even the teachers agree that their time is largely wasted all day, then the CES helps that kid have a schoolday where they actually get to learn something. While they are learning a lot about writing, they are really learning how to learn at school and sometimes, for the first time, how to deal with challenge and failure so that when they get to harder classes they will understand how to work hard and persist to get the work done well.

Your child may need some enrichment or not... you know your kid. If you are doing writing classes in the summer, I think you can rest assured that your child will be well prepared for the tougher classes of high school one day. But if you think of CES as basically a kind of special ed to help some kids learn how to be well-adjusted students and how to BE normal, happy kids, it might give you less anxiety about how your child might be missing something.

That said, I think most of us would love to see some of the enrichments in CES brought into the entire school curriculum. Some schools do have an enriched ELA program and that, along with compacted math, can do a lot for bright kids.

Um, okay. If it makes you feel better. My child is a well-adjusted, normal, happy kid who loved his home school and he's not the only one.
There is a subset of kids who weren't doing well at their home schools and it's great they have somewhere to go but characterizing the CESes a place for misfits is really weird of you PP.

No, it's perfectly true. I'm not the PP who wrote that, but I have children who do need a more "interesting" experience in school - one has learning disabilities too and ended up in a different program, and the other is approximately normal but still doesn't feel quite right in her school.

There is no shame in having what some describe as special needs, that's really what we're telling you. Being gifted is a type of special needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if it helps, I would say that CES is not about “getting ahead” so much as solving an existing problem. So if your child is feeling kind of desperate in school and even the teachers agree that their time is largely wasted all day, then the CES helps that kid have a schoolday where they actually get to learn something. While they are learning a lot about writing, they are really learning how to learn at school and sometimes, for the first time, how to deal with challenge and failure so that when they get to harder classes they will understand how to work hard and persist to get the work done well.

Your child may need some enrichment or not... you know your kid. If you are doing writing classes in the summer, I think you can rest assured that your child will be well prepared for the tougher classes of high school one day. But if you think of CES as basically a kind of special ed to help some kids learn how to be well-adjusted students and how to BE normal, happy kids, it might give you less anxiety about how your child might be missing something.

That said, I think most of us would love to see some of the enrichments in CES brought into the entire school curriculum. Some schools do have an enriched ELA program and that, along with compacted math, can do a lot for bright kids.

Um, okay. If it makes you feel better. My child is a well-adjusted, normal, happy kid who loved his home school and he's not the only one.
There is a subset of kids who weren't doing well at their home schools and it's great they have somewhere to go but characterizing the CESes a place for misfits is really weird of you PP.

No, it's perfectly true. I'm not the PP who wrote that, but I have children who do need a more "interesting" experience in school - one has learning disabilities too and ended up in a different program, and the other is approximately normal but still doesn't feel quite right in her school.

There is no shame in having what some describe as special needs, that's really what we're telling you. Being gifted is a type of special needs.

firstly, these kids are not necessarily gifted. The hardworking ones with good work ethics will do fine. The truly gifted ones will thrive, but there are very very few if any. The rest will barely float by. You people have such strange concepts of these special programs. I have a kid in the program who does well and works hard but I will by far ever consider him or his friends “gifted”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if it helps, I would say that CES is not about “getting ahead” so much as solving an existing problem. So if your child is feeling kind of desperate in school and even the teachers agree that their time is largely wasted all day, then the CES helps that kid have a schoolday where they actually get to learn something. While they are learning a lot about writing, they are really learning how to learn at school and sometimes, for the first time, how to deal with challenge and failure so that when they get to harder classes they will understand how to work hard and persist to get the work done well.

Your child may need some enrichment or not... you know your kid. If you are doing writing classes in the summer, I think you can rest assured that your child will be well prepared for the tougher classes of high school one day. But if you think of CES as basically a kind of special ed to help some kids learn how to be well-adjusted students and how to BE normal, happy kids, it might give you less anxiety about how your child might be missing something.

That said, I think most of us would love to see some of the enrichments in CES brought into the entire school curriculum. Some schools do have an enriched ELA program and that, along with compacted math, can do a lot for bright kids.

Um, okay. If it makes you feel better. My child is a well-adjusted, normal, happy kid who loved his home school and he's not the only one.
There is a subset of kids who weren't doing well at their home schools and it's great they have somewhere to go but characterizing the CESes a place for misfits is really weird of you PP.

No, it's perfectly true. I'm not the PP who wrote that, but I have children who do need a more "interesting" experience in school - one has learning disabilities too and ended up in a different program, and the other is approximately normal but still doesn't feel quite right in her school.

There is no shame in having what some describe as special needs, that's really what we're telling you. Being gifted is a type of special needs.

firstly, these kids are not necessarily gifted. The hardworking ones with good work ethics will do fine. The truly gifted ones will thrive, but there are very very few if any. The rest will barely float by. You people have such strange concepts of these special programs. I have a kid in the program who does well and works hard but I will by far ever consider him or his friends “gifted”.

I did not say all the kids were like this. The other PP and I were explaining to you why some students really need the magnets. The difference in outlook and cognitive skill between the 99.0th percentile child and the 99.5th percentile child is huge. Please stop trying to fight this. It's true.