Reply to Kilmer vs Longfellow middle. Similarities/differences?

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Reply to "Kilmer vs Longfellow middle. Similarities/differences?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am not familiar with Kilmer, but had two kids at Longfellow in recent years.  The school recognizes academic achievement and wishes to inspire kids to do well.  As was mentioned above, Longfellow has a strong math program and within in an accelerated track where interested kids take advance geometry and algebra 2/trigonometry. Most of the these kids end up going to TJ.  Although the school offers support (in the form of after-school academic competitions) for a small group of motivated kids (about 10% of the student population), the majority of Longfellow students are not put in a position, either directly or indirectly, to compete against each other. Simply put, the school does not have a competitive vibe for most kids.  But, it is academically focuses and students are expectation to do well.[/quote]

I have had kids at both schools, which was the basis for my prior comments.  All I can say is that, as a parent, I thought that Longfellow felt more academically focused and competitive than Kilmer.  I don't if kids would perceive a difference, and none of my kids attended both schools.

At Longfellow, there were more frequent communications to parents than at Kilmer, and the "lead story," if you will, was typically which Longfellow kids had won recent awards or would be competing at something like the Science Olympiad.  It felt as if the administration felt duty-bound to offer this type of information up constantly to keep the parents satisfied that Longfellow was one of the best schools in the county.  At Kilmer, the communications were more sporadic, and the information about the academic awards was more subdued.  At things like musical performances at Longfellow, some parents would ignore the performances by other kids, and then cheer loudly and rush the stage to tape the performance when their own kids performed.  At the same type of performance at Kilmer, parents would interact more with each other, and then applaud politely after each performance, as if it were not much different than a soccer match among a bunch of seven-year-olds.

If I had to boil it down for the OP, I'd say that we probably liked the teachers and administrators at Longfellow better, but found more of the fellow parents at Longfellow off-putting.  Of course, YMMV.  [/quote]

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