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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm on my third at Churchill.  I don't see the kids as super competitive with one another.  I agree with a pp that there are a lot who strive (for Ivies or whatnot) but I haven't seen that as translating to competing with other kids on a regular basis--as in sabotaging them for grades or things like that.  There's certainly disappointment at college admissions time when others did better than you, but not like hoping for kids to do badly in school.  Probably because grade inflation is such that *other kids* doing well doesn't make it any harder for *me* to to well.

I would say, though, that it is very, very cliquey.  Everyone strives to be in a "group."  It is well defined who is in what "group."  LIke you can ask your kid, what group is Larla in , and your kid will be able to definitively list the members of Larla's group.  I could be calling these "friendship groups" except that a lot of times these kids don't really seem like friends.  Some group members don't like one another but stay in the group.  Others stay in groups long after they really hang out with the other kids regularly. (But the group goes to homecoming and prom together, for instance, so you stay in the group so you're not left out of those events.). I don't really understand it and it seems stressful.

Academically, my guess is that most MCPS schools (except those with special programs like IB) will be the same.  Only a novel or two assigned per year in English clasess most years.  No big writing projects the way I had school.  Basically, kids take a ton of APs and the AP teachers all teach to the same test, so little time for the (enriching) other stuff. [/quote]

Thanks PP. Are you saying that even in AP level classes (or honors) there is little reading of novels and writing? That would be a drastic change from my time.

I'm thinking the cliques are just a normal part of teenage angst years? I am ok as long as the groups are not antagonistic against each other. [/quote]

When I was in HS I had a different curriculum (not AP) and we wrote multiple long research papers in a given year.  I've seen my kids (who pretty much max out APs) write none. Zero.  In AP lit (senior year) there is more novel reading but other years, there are relatively few assigned.  Maybe 4 per year (one per quarter) at most, with most reading assignments much shorter.   Even those novels are sometimes excerpted so they don't read the whole thing.

I don't want to imply the kids aren't prepared for college-- I think they are.  They get admitted to good schools and succeed there.  But I've found the AP curriculum much more teach-to-the-test.  Less deep inquiry. Short (more easily gradable and formulaic) writing assignments.  I don't think it's the fault of teachers (they work hard, are angaged, and really seem to care about the kids). I think they are doing their best to prepare kids for the AP test at the end of the year and that has become a formula.  My personal preference (deep inquiry, more reading) is a better fit with the IB curriculum than the AP curriculum.  I don't know enough about private schools to know where those curricula fit. [/quote]

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