School is not giving what was expected
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Anonymous
You're just like my husband. He had the nerve to remind me that we have none yet and the choice won't be mine. So rude. So I'm setting aside "future grandkid private school" money instead lol. |
Anonymous
This pretty much sums up what every involved parent knows about FCPS--so sad and pathetic. I feel for you as a teacher, but I feel for our family way more because at the end of the day, we are stuck in this elementary school system (cannot afford private school) and cannot move elsewhere. Our choice, like what a PP mentioned, is to homeschool to supplement and enrichment classes in areas we cannot homeschool. It is a shame, and I don't think there is anything that can be done because it is a cluster---k and you would need an complete overhaul of the School Board and the Administration. That will take a huge coordinated effort by engaging almost every elementary school family in the county. So sad! |
Anonymous
If it makes you feel better, it's the same way in neighboring counties. |
Anonymous
No, it doesn't actually make me feel better. Comparing ourselves to places with bad educational policies should not be the benchmark. |
Anonymous
This is the crux of the issue. We are in a "great" public school system. We have a foreign language tutor, my kids go to mathnasium 2xs a week, and each summer do writing camps to make sure they grow into good writers. Because we have means our kids have access to much much more than what the school can offer. The school is who benefits from what we do and provide at home. Our kids high test scores, AP tests passed, and good college prospects are due in NO PART whatsoever to the school system. The credit is to be given to our cash and the time we have to work with our children. I figure as long as we are spending less than 10K per kid on these things per year, we are better off than private. Additionally just because your kids goes to private does not mean they will get the education you think you are paying for. You are really in for a disappointment if you think you can send your kids off to school and they will somehow learn. Classes are large, classrooms are inclusive of kids who should be in special needs classes, full of disruptive ADHD kids (aka, my parents don't pay enough quality attention to me, therefore I act like an animal and they give me amphetamines to solve it) and teachers are spending most of their time on behavior issues. So to answer your question OP, get the tutors and outside help. You will not change a government system that continues to reward bad performance due to an inalienability to terminate for performance. |
Anonymous
Hold up a second. Is the part in bold referencing teachers? Please tell me you didn’t cite large class sizes and disruptive student behavior as issues and then in the next paragraph blamed the teachers for poor performance. |
Anonymous
I'm not the PP but I don't think any parent on this site blames the teachers. I think we all genuinely feel horrible for the teachers! Time and again, I think 80% of the blame goes to the Administration at Gatehouse, and the School Board. It would be great if the teachers and parents could actually band together and get this fixed, but I just don't know if that is possible. It's just a horrible-horrible situation. |
Anonymous
Both are going on. Shitty parents and shitty teachers. I had to spend the ENTIRE SUMMER between 5th and 6th grade completely bringing my child up to the math standard. The teacher was a well known LOSER who had 25 years under his belt. Combine a teacher that is retired in place with a bunch of kids who would be sitting in an old school special ed classroom and nothing is getting done. |
Anonymous
But you and your kids are perfect...SMH. |
Anonymous
Yeah, sorry, you bought within a very large and very diverse school district. Your school was probably a great schools 10 because it's all white rich people. Nothing else. You should have done some research on FCPS before you bought. |
Anonymous
Sorry, you dial the wrong number if you are calling for a heated exchange about races. Go find a boxing bag in your house. |
Anonymous
I have experience with Brookline and schools south of Boston, like Duxbury. They still do weekly spelling tests. The spelling lists come from a curriculum that’s purchased and teachers get a book full of appropriate lists for each week. They buy handwriting workbooks and use them in lower grades. They are assessed on how to write a paragraph in first grade, which can feel like a bit much to the first grade teachers, but many of the first graders can do it. It surprises me that my students here are much older and don’t really understand how to write a paragraph. There will be times where they will want to know how to write properly- resumes, college admissions letters, job cover letters. You can be very bright but come off as less intelligent than you are in your writing. I feel sorry if that ever holds any of these kids back, you know? I am not the smartest person alive, but I am thankful I learned how to write decently (if it’s something really important like a cover letter, I proofread a million times because I certainly am not perfect). I just feel sorry there is so much I expect my students to know and then I realize they were never taught this stuff in school and it blows my mind. I then try to teach it and am told not to. You’re just supposed to follow the guide and use the crappy FCPS approved recourses. I recently realized that in MA the standardized state test tests students for writing in fourth grade and beyond. The math tests also feature short answer and essay questions. Learning how to write about your thinking in math is really stressed up there, starting in primary grades. Down here the SOL test is all multiple choice until there is a writing test in fifth grade, if I am correct. It makes me really upset if the schools don’t focus on writing mechanics, handwriting, or spelling just because the state tests don’t focus on any of that. These kids still deserve to be taught such things. They aren’t dumb for not knowing what to capitalize when they write or how to spell. What is dumb is the county refuses to teach such things. They really need to change the approach to teaching ELA down here in my opinion. There are a lot of really bright kids who excel in math and science, but there will come times where they need to show how smart they are in the form of writing and I’m afraid that will hold some of them back. I recently got an evaluation at work and it’s full of grammatical and spelling errors. I think anyone reading it will take it less seriously because it makes my admin look pretty careless and honestly not super intelligent (not saying they aren’t, but you wouldn’t know by reading an important document they created full of OBVIOUS errors...). Writer’s workshop might seem more exciting than lessons on grammar and parts of speech, but really it’s just like a time for kids to write and they’re never really taught how to do so... it’s crazy to me. As a kid I liked learning the “boring” things like parts of speech. I know they still teach that stuff back home. I remember it being huge in the second grade classrooms I was in. They learned verbs, adjectives, nouns, etc. They also did tons of word sorts which further assisted with spelling. And of course they did spelling tests each week and teachers weren’t discouraged to not tell kids how to spell words they misspelled. Down here there seems to be this push to let kids spell things anyway they please.... that’s not going to be cute when they’re 18 and applying to MIT or Harvard with excellent grades but a very hard to read admissions letter. |
Anonymous
| 1st grade teacher here. I wish I could spend my writing time teaching my students how to write better sentences. Instead they are forced into paragraph writing with citations instead. It's no wonder the writing they produce later on is such crap. Less is more IMO. |
Anonymous
You can't seriously think the cause of ADHD is lack of qualify attention??? Do you have any idea how much time ADHD parents spend working with their children? Do you realize meds can be required due to actual differences in brain functioning? Go private or move if you can't deal with special needs kids in your school. They can't control their problematic behaviors. What's your excuse? |
Anonymous
I've thought about this as well. So many highly educated people. Just need the space and about $20,000 more per year to handle quitting my job. |