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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The short version is I used to be a public school teacher. If I thought I weren’t getting my money’s worth, I wouldn’t do it. [/quote]

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Are you at a Catholic or independent school?  Our private middle school does almost zero worksheets and has a very strong focus on writing and critical thinking.  We have essay assignments in both social studies and language arts every week. They have speech and debate where they have to choose a topic, do research and present.  They do a to of science labs.  They have 15 kids per class get a lot of one-on-one attention.  The experience is vastly different from public school.[/quote]

My child is at one of the top ones in DC without giving away too much info. Its not coed and is known for rigor and no, it’s not St. Albans. Only focus in English is grammar and essay after reading novel. No instruction at all with writing. No sentence fluency lesson, no critical thinking assignments, no paragraph practice, or anything else that that I’m missing that would lend to gaining better writing knowledge. They write in many classes, but for general purposes and not to get better at it. Again, the class targeted for this (English) has no writing instruction. No science labs this year and in fact one thing that occurred last year-I heard teacher promise on virtual with my own ears that they would get to do a lab. Teacher bailed when the kids were told the teacher wanted to give more notes on new topic before final. This was a huge disappointment to my son as it would’ve been and should’ve been a priority considering they would have done labs in a normal year. Teacher certainly could have done it-the kids were attending school at hybrid at that point. And a lab experiment would have been better for learning than more giving notes for the sake of giving more notes. This school has some good but is in desperate need
of an overhaul. I’ve tried to get answers and brought up the topic of what is in curicullum is not getting passed down, I get the vibe of “how dare I question it” and some BS answer. It just gets brushed under the rug. 
Glad however that your child is receiving all that he/she should. Like I said, some things are good with the school, but many are being fooled and I really think the school believes grammar lessons are more important than writing instruction. I’m not knocking grammar lessons but not at the exclusion of writing lessons. Major overhaul needed but it won’t happen, long tradition and would have to get rid of the older major decision makers. Anyone who would try to make changes have their hands tied with the older decision makers controlling everything. 
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Ah the only non-coed top private (school known for rigor) in DC that isn’t STA is NCS. So your DD at NCS….[/quote]

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