Shell-shocked student - on to Deal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was the case with a friend's child at Hardy in 6th grade, as well. Overwhelming. I posted about it on an earlier thread on Hardy several months ago. She's doing well this year, and surprise, is on medication for ADD, so with a daily dose of Vyvanse she can handle it.

I just think it's too much to ask 11 year olds to handle, quite frankly. Makes me want to find a nice quiet private school that's off the grid.

There's so much literature to support smaller schools. Decades worth. This is one of the (many) benefits of a Pre-K to 8. Too bad most of the good ones are private. Those old parochial primary schools were really on to something.

[Anonymous]

There is a Deal Open House this Saturday 9 or 9:30...expect lots of Oyster-Adams faces there...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's so much literature to support smaller schools. Decades worth. This is one of the (many) benefits of a Pre-K to 8. Too bad most of the good ones are private. Those old parochial primary schools were really on to something.

A word of optimism for those out their that will apprehensively be sending their children onto Deal from their smaller DCPS ES and may be worried about the size. My current 7th grade child was also overwhelmed by the size and more complicated organizational demands of Deal at the beginning of 6th. I compared notes with other friends who had kids at other private and public (DCPS and MoCo) and heard the same about their children. Of course, the kids at private had less complaints about size but they were overwhelmed with work and organizational demands. Flash forward one year and my same child is so self-sufficient that I rarely have to check on homework completion and I hear about issues at school only after DC has already advocated for himself and worked out solutions to the problem. This is a kid for whom most would not have expected this level of self-reliance.
Yes, I know there are decades of studies that show smaller is better and it probably is. But my child is in middle school here and now and Deal is our neighborhood school and it is really our only option for a number of reasons. My child has probably grown in a lot in ways that I hadn't considered when I apprehensively sent DC off to Deal last school year and I think ithis is due to the kind of place Deal is including it's size. So don't despair and give it a chance.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:For Deal, students at each feeder elementary school have a designated day when all 5th graders come to visit for a day. Students who are not at feeder schools can come with a parent and spend all or part of the day on the open house days (already held in November and December). Arrangements can usually be made for students coming from other schools to spend a day, but a parent must attend with them. Call the Deal counseling office. www.alicedeal.org

Also, there is an open house this Saturday, Jan 8, 9a-noon, with a presentation at 10a. Some teachers will be on hand and students will lead tours of the building.

Thanks for this helpful post. Unfortunately, the school is not offering shadow days for kids who are not at feeder schools. We will be going to the open house tomorrow, however.

[Anonymous]

My son. who attended a small, hands-on, high-performing charter from grades 1 - 6, thrived socially and academically at Deal. Indeed, in many ways it was the best learning environment for that age group in the city--diverse group of students, lots of activities like science fair and National History Day embedded in the curriculum so that all kids have a chance to demonstrate mastery of a subject that interests them, and tons of extra curricular activities, including the spring musical, jazz band, chorus, video, national junior honors society... Deal is now an International baccalaureate school, too, so teachers are probably even more intentional about collaborating across disciplines, so that english and history and music all complement understanding of, say, U.S. history.

My son entered knowing several very close friends, so that helped. He had a fabulous home-room teacher, who trusted his students to talk quietly in the hall just one day into the school year while he helped a girl open her balky locker. He got into debate, became interested in engineering after winning the citywide science fair twice, and learned to love and research history doing National History Day (www.nhd.org).

Were there stronger and weaker teachers? Of course. Did hidebound rules and budget cuts and central office diktat drive me crazy? You betcha. But that is par for the course in public education, as is the narrowing of curriculum in the era of standardized testing. Deal has an open door policy. Go visit. Sign up for the pta newsletter (dealpta.org) See the musical this Wednesday evening. Talk to teachers. Here's the other thing to remember: middle school is where our kids often check out of school. This age group needs deeper content and more exposure to what they can do with what they've learned. Deal knows a lot about supporting and motivating middle-school students. Go kick the tires and judge for yourself.

[Anonymous]

Okay, now how about the fact most of us will never get IN to Deal? Or do we do the secret handshake and pretend an address like so many, ahem, middle class families seem complicite about when it comes to Deal...