Reply to FCPS Proposal to close down AAP Centers at Greenbriar West ES and Carson MS

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]13:16
I am not the poster you keep arguing with and antagonizing

It is quite simple really.

Those kid of kids who are usually on their own and social outcasts at most schools have, at the centers, a peer group of 6-10 kids who are just like them or very similarly quirky.

They go from a situation where they are either completely isolated, ignored or bullied at a typical school, to a school where they have not just one friend who is a friend by default, but several friends.
Like it or not, there is a disproportionately higher geek factor in the AAP center, that gives the kids who would normally be outcasts a group of friends. It gives these typesf kids the opportunity to develop friendships in a more natural and normal way than they are able to in a typical school where they are all alone at best, or bullied and ostracized at worst.

Whether you like AAP centers or hate them, that aspect is by far one of the best things about them.[/quote]

This has not been my experience. [/quote]

Do you mean it is not your child's experience or are you a student posting?

Are you saying that your awkward child has no similarly bright but awkward friends in AAP or are you saying that you can't think of six or so kids in a given AAP grade that slower socially, geeky, twice exceptional or socially challenged in spite of their brightness.

Because I am the poster you are responding to and I can think of a dozen kids off the top of my head in my kids aap grade who fall into that categorh. AAP has been very good for them. Mostly boys and two girls.
[/quote]

I am talking about my experience in AAP classrooms and Gen Ed classrooms, my children and my friend's children.  Bullying happened in every classroom to some degree and the kids with the least social skills were always on the bottom regardless of the academic setting.  It is also false that academically advanced children tend to be more socially backward- IME they have a similar range of social skills to their peers in Gen Ed.  I think that there is a self selection.  A child that has had difficulty finding friends for various reason that do not include a deficit in social cues will probably be moved to the AAP setting if they qualify and most likely they find it better there- but that could happen if they changed to a different school.  Children who are doing very well socially in their local school tend to stay in the local school because they have found their social group.  So, parent think- AAP is where children who don't fit in find friends.  For children with social skills deficits, they find both places daunting.

It really depends on the cohort of children.  I have two sons.  Two years apart.  Their social cohort was vastly different.  In the eldest's class, there was a horrible mixture of personalities that created a mean girl and bullying boy culture.  The school did social skills groups, mixed up kids as they moved through the school,.... it still had too many BMOC and Queen Bee wanna bees. It was toxic.  Those that could pulled out. Aides never asked for that grade.  Fast forward two years and it was night and day.  Younger was in the nicest class ever.  Everyone wanted to teach or aid in that grade as they moved up.  It was at one of the school where 1/3 of the kids routinely get into AAP and there is a large cohort that is also quite smart.  Interestingly, the cohort in youngest class also had the most students designated as special ed- about 20% and about ~25% had siblings in eldest's class.  There were many 2E children.  Unfortunately, the discrepancy has continued into HS- eldest's class seems to have more trouble than the others.

I saw mean spiritedness in all intelligences (well, not in the lowest).  [/quote]

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