Anonymous wrote:

Transplant_1 wrote:My child is at Deal, and one thing I notice, is that non-consistency, confusion, lack of communication / clarity, is often explained away with "students need to learn to self-advocated and organize." I don't deny they need to learn this, and would have to in any public school. But it seems just too much. It seems there just aren't enough rescources to create clarity, consistency, etc. Just look at the difference between the website of JR and a high school in MoCo, Fairfax, Arlington. Also, I find, that as a parent, if you are trying to support your child -- either with organization, trying to help them develop montivation for challenge, etc -- the lack of communication/clarity puts you as the parent in a difficult position with nothing to "hold onto" to "grab onto." And this is not about being an overbearing parent, or about letting the kids figure it out or self-advocate. This is about, parents guiding children about the importance of school, until they are at the point of really understanding it themselves. For example, if I let my children "guide themselves" - they would eat sugary junk all day. Same thing with school - if I let my child guide themselves, they would try to do as little as possble. This is where I find the biggest difficult with DCPS's under resource, under communciation, under organization. That as a parent -- no matter what color - if you want to support your child until they can do it on their own, it is very very hard.

My parents (who were very involved in my life overall) were not at all involved in my HS decisions. They had no input into the classes I selected, and they interacted with the school only via back to school night/teacher conferences. There were no parent orientation sessions. If I wanted or needed their help, I’d talk with them. I made good decisions, got into a top college.

I just think parental expectations of involvement are skewed. Kids are capable of registering for classes themselves at 14. And JR limits their options for 9th grade in ways that are age-appropriate, so that they can make these decisions for themselves. They introduce a few AP options in 10th grade to ease them in. Then in 11th grade they have a lot more freedom. It’s actually thoughtful and appropriate—it’s just not what you want. Your complaint is about how you’re involved, and I think JR would say that you don’t really need to be deeply involved.

Anonymous wrote:I find it a little disturbing that on threads about JR, someone always says that JR sends 5-6 kids to ivies so the school must be excellent. Or their child is in the top 10% of kids and on track to apply to the Ivys. Kids like that will be fine at any school, public or private.
You never hear about the majority of kids in the middle - the kids who don’t want to take 5-6 APs junior or senior year?
I’m guessing their experience is less than ideal because regular classes at JR are unfortunately low rigor.
Also, their college outcomes are much more variable

Anonymous wrote:I find it a little disturbing that on threads about JR, someone always says that JR sends 5-6 kids to ivies so the school must be excellent. Or their child is in the top 10% of kids and on track to apply to the Ivys. Kids like that will be fine at any school, public or private.
You never hear about the majority of kids in the middle - the kids who don’t want to take 5-6 APs junior or senior year?
I’m guessing their experience is less than ideal because regular classes at JR are unfortunately low rigor.
Also, their college outcomes are much more variable

Anonymous wrote:

Transplant_1 wrote:My child is at Deal, and one thing I notice, is that non-consistency, confusion, lack of communication / clarity, is often explained away with "students need to learn to self-advocated and organize." I don't deny they need to learn this, and would have to in any public school. But it seems just too much. It seems there just aren't enough rescources to create clarity, consistency, etc. Just look at the difference between the website of JR and a high school in MoCo, Fairfax, Arlington. Also, I find, that as a parent, if you are trying to support your child -- either with organization, trying to help them develop montivation for challenge, etc -- the lack of communication/clarity puts you as the parent in a difficult position with nothing to "hold onto" to "grab onto." And this is not about being an overbearing parent, or about letting the kids figure it out or self-advocate. This is about, parents guiding children about the importance of school, until they are at the point of really understanding it themselves. For example, if I let my children "guide themselves" - they would eat sugary junk all day. Same thing with school - if I let my child guide themselves, they would try to do as little as possble. This is where I find the biggest difficult with DCPS's under resource, under communciation, under organization. That as a parent -- no matter what color - if you want to support your child until they can do it on their own, it is very very hard.

My youngest is an 8th grader at Deal. Oldest kid went to Deal but is in 10th grade now. I really have no idea what you are talking about. I don’t need a website to tell my kids school is important. If your kid lacks intrinsic motivation, it is likely because they have had heavy external motivation, which stops working as they enter the teenage years.

Anonymous wrote:I find it a little disturbing that on threads about JR, someone always says that JR sends 5-6 kids to ivies so the school must be excellent. Or their child is in the top 10% of kids and on track to apply to the Ivys. Kids like that will be fine at any school, public or private.
You never hear about the majority of kids in the middle - the kids who don’t want to take 5-6 APs junior or senior year?
I’m guessing their experience is less than ideal because regular classes at JR are unfortunately low rigor.
Also, their college outcomes are much more variable

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Transplant_1 wrote:My child is at Deal, and one thing I notice, is that non-consistency, confusion, lack of communication / clarity, is often explained away with "students need to learn to self-advocated and organize." I don't deny they need to learn this, and would have to in any public school. But it seems just too much. It seems there just aren't enough rescources to create clarity, consistency, etc. Just look at the difference between the website of JR and a high school in MoCo, Fairfax, Arlington. Also, I find, that as a parent, if you are trying to support your child -- either with organization, trying to help them develop montivation for challenge, etc -- the lack of communication/clarity puts you as the parent in a difficult position with nothing to "hold onto" to "grab onto." And this is not about being an overbearing parent, or about letting the kids figure it out or self-advocate. This is about, parents guiding children about the importance of school, until they are at the point of really understanding it themselves. For example, if I let my children "guide themselves" - they would eat sugary junk all day. Same thing with school - if I let my child guide themselves, they would try to do as little as possble. This is where I find the biggest difficult with DCPS's under resource, under communciation, under organization. That as a parent -- no matter what color - if you want to support your child until they can do it on their own, it is very very hard.

My youngest is an 8th grader at Deal. Oldest kid went to Deal but is in 10th grade now. I really have no idea what you are talking about. I don’t need a website to tell my kids school is important. If your kid lacks intrinsic motivation, it is likely because they have had heavy external motivation, which stops working as they enter the teenage years.

lol this is such a classic DCPS parent response. “What, you think the school should actually make an effort to teach your child? What’s wrong with your child?!”

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Transplant_1 wrote:My child is at Deal, and one thing I notice, is that non-consistency, confusion, lack of communication / clarity, is often explained away with "students need to learn to self-advocated and organize." I don't deny they need to learn this, and would have to in any public school. But it seems just too much. It seems there just aren't enough rescources to create clarity, consistency, etc. Just look at the difference between the website of JR and a high school in MoCo, Fairfax, Arlington. Also, I find, that as a parent, if you are trying to support your child -- either with organization, trying to help them develop montivation for challenge, etc -- the lack of communication/clarity puts you as the parent in a difficult position with nothing to "hold onto" to "grab onto." And this is not about being an overbearing parent, or about letting the kids figure it out or self-advocate. This is about, parents guiding children about the importance of school, until they are at the point of really understanding it themselves. For example, if I let my children "guide themselves" - they would eat sugary junk all day. Same thing with school - if I let my child guide themselves, they would try to do as little as possble. This is where I find the biggest difficult with DCPS's under resource, under communciation, under organization. That as a parent -- no matter what color - if you want to support your child until they can do it on their own, it is very very hard.

My parents (who were very involved in my life overall) were not at all involved in my HS decisions. They had no input into the classes I selected, and they interacted with the school only via back to school night/teacher conferences. There were no parent orientation sessions. If I wanted or needed their help, I’d talk with them. I made good decisions, got into a top college.

Same here. And same applies to my middle school experience. However, when I submitted my class selections, there was never s doubt that those classes would in fact appear on my schedule the following fall. When I received a grade on a test, that grade appeared on the top of the first page with red pen making the questions I’d done incorrectly and if a teacher made a grading error I could ask about it in real time, and teachers did not give me the runaround if I asked them to look at an apparent error. None of this waiting for weeks for grades to appear on aspen with out the benefit of having the work returned to you so you can see why you got the grade. I can tell you my kids are 10x more self reliant and confident than I ever was. But at the same time they need more parental support because the system is so dysfunctional.

Anonymous wrote:

Transplant_1 wrote:My child is at Deal, and one thing I notice, is that non-consistency, confusion, lack of communication / clarity, is often explained away with "students need to learn to self-advocated and organize." I don't deny they need to learn this, and would have to in any public school. But it seems just too much. It seems there just aren't enough rescources to create clarity, consistency, etc. Just look at the difference between the website of JR and a high school in MoCo, Fairfax, Arlington. Also, I find, that as a parent, if you are trying to support your child -- either with organization, trying to help them develop montivation for challenge, etc -- the lack of communication/clarity puts you as the parent in a difficult position with nothing to "hold onto" to "grab onto." And this is not about being an overbearing parent, or about letting the kids figure it out or self-advocate. This is about, parents guiding children about the importance of school, until they are at the point of really understanding it themselves. For example, if I let my children "guide themselves" - they would eat sugary junk all day. Same thing with school - if I let my child guide themselves, they would try to do as little as possble. This is where I find the biggest difficult with DCPS's under resource, under communciation, under organization. That as a parent -- no matter what color - if you want to support your child until they can do it on their own, it is very very hard.

My parents (who were very involved in my life overall) were not at all involved in my HS decisions. They had no input into the classes I selected, and they interacted with the school only via back to school night/teacher conferences. There were no parent orientation sessions. If I wanted or needed their help, I’d talk with them. I made good decisions, got into a top college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Transplant_1 wrote:My child is at Deal, and one thing I notice, is that non-consistency, confusion, lack of communication / clarity, is often explained away with "students need to learn to self-advocated and organize." I don't deny they need to learn this, and would have to in any public school. But it seems just too much. It seems there just aren't enough rescources to create clarity, consistency, etc. Just look at the difference between the website of JR and a high school in MoCo, Fairfax, Arlington. Also, I find, that as a parent, if you are trying to support your child -- either with organization, trying to help them develop montivation for challenge, etc -- the lack of communication/clarity puts you as the parent in a difficult position with nothing to "hold onto" to "grab onto." And this is not about being an overbearing parent, or about letting the kids figure it out or self-advocate. This is about, parents guiding children about the importance of school, until they are at the point of really understanding it themselves. For example, if I let my children "guide themselves" - they would eat sugary junk all day. Same thing with school - if I let my child guide themselves, they would try to do as little as possble. This is where I find the biggest difficult with DCPS's under resource, under communciation, under organization. That as a parent -- no matter what color - if you want to support your child until they can do it on their own, it is very very hard.

My parents (who were very involved in my life overall) were not at all involved in my HS decisions. They had no input into the classes I selected, and they interacted with the school only via back to school night/teacher conferences. There were no parent orientation sessions. If I wanted or needed their help, I’d talk with them. I made good decisions, got into a top college.

Same here. And same applies to my middle school experience. However, when I submitted my class selections, there was never s doubt that those classes would in fact appear on my schedule the following fall. When I received a grade on a test, that grade appeared on the top of the first page with red pen making the questions I’d done incorrectly and if a teacher made a grading error I could ask about it in real time, and teachers did not give me the runaround if I asked them to look at an apparent error. None of this waiting for weeks for grades to appear on aspen with out the benefit of having the work returned to you so you can see why you got the grade. I can tell you my kids are 10x more self reliant and confident than I ever was. But at the same time they need more parental support because the system is so dysfunctional.