Reply to Brent parents: Give me the lowdown on the school

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The school made a short-sighted decision several years ago: to invest heavily in the Emilia Reggio-inspired early childhood curriculum, which promotes mixed-age classes of 3-5 year olds.  This was done during a real estate boom in the little Brent District fueled by the parents of babies, which the school missed, hence the shock when 72 names went into the PS3 hat in 2013 (two dozen more than the previous year).  Real estate is the problem - Brent is running out of classroom space.

So instead of making the tough decision to eliminate PS3 early this year, as the JKLM schools, Hearst and Eaton did when first pressed for space 15-20 years ago, Brent kept it at the expense of including all IB comers for PS4.  The problem may be that parents who've been excluded for both early childhood years are unlikely to be predisposed to knocking themselves out for Brent later on, which is likely to hurt community cohesion and fund-raising efforts long-term. Unfortunately, Brent can't order parents to give generously of time and money.

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This is quite an interesting rewrite of history.  Setting aside the question of whether the decision to move to a Reggio-inspired curriculum was in fact short-sighted, the decision was made just prior to the 2013-14 school year, and the decision to move to exclusively mixed age classroom was not made until October 2014.  I pretty sure the "real estate boom" -- one that you seems to believe was fueled exclusively by parents of babies -- predates these events by several years and was by no means restricted to the little Brent District.  Just take a look at Capitol Quarter or nearly anywhere else across a broad expanse of the Hill.  In any event, it is unclear what you think was "invested" in terms of the new PS/PK curriculum.  It's not like Brent built a new common space, paid to send teachers to Italy, or hired a dedicated atelierista as at SWS.  Rather, there seems to be a much greater focus on art, which enables students to pursue themes of their own choosing in greater breadth and depth.  Compare this with Tools of the Mind or other more structured curricula.  I would, however, love to hear more about the PS3 programs at Hearst and Eaton that were eliminated way back in 1994 or 1999.  You do realize, among other things, that many DCPS elementaries were actually K-6 until relatively recently, right?

While I suspect many Brent parents couldn't care less whether or not you (and those who share your pissy weltanshauung) are predisposed to knocking yourself out for Brent, whatever you might think this means, in spie of the fact that it might very well meaningfully enrich your own child's experience at Brent, community cohesion, again whatever that means, seems just fine to many of us who are focused principally on the education and social development of our own children to worry all that much about malcontents who will forever remain aggrieved about not getting a space for PS or PK back in 2013.   Guess what?  There was a lottery and more applicants than spaces.  And you lost out.  If you can't male peace with that by now, and still want to send your child to Brent next year, you undoubtedly have the option to keep your precious money and not bother to show up and volunteer.  Brent will continue to improve with or without your contributions.  So what have you accomplished exactly aside from poisoning the well?

It's seems fairly obvious that you will never be able to get past the fact Brent didn't bend over backward to accommodate a sizable cohort of IB families for both PS and PK this year and this will never be truly happy at Brent.  That's most unfortunate.[/quote]

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