Reply to I want a school without parents who want "pathways for advanced students"

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "I want a school without parents who want "pathways for advanced students""

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have been reading through the various GT, how do I get my DC out of a class with "average" students, it helps everyone if children are slotted into "pathways" at an early age threads and my conclusion is that those parents are right.  Please MCPS, give those people their own schools.

I don't want my DC in a class that is moving at warp speed.  I don't want my DC to be in a class that has to teach to tests. I don't want my DC to be in a class where memorization is rewarded more than creative thought and problem solving.  I don't want my DC to have hours of homework, or even any homework k-4th grade, as it takes time away from them being able to read what that want and explore things that interest them.  I don't want my DC in a school that creates puts so much stress on grade an "achievement" that she is afraid to fail.

So MCPS, please give those parents the schools they want, go ahead an establish public hagwons for their children, I don't care.  Just give me an alternative to get away from them.  [/quote]

This is not the approach in the HGCs.
The curriculum is enriched and yes it is accelerated, but the pace is appropriate for these students.  They do a lot of work but at least in the elementary school magnets, nearly all of it is done at school.  DC does not bring home any more homework than dc had in the old school.  The only subject that stresses memorization is Geography - by the end of the year the kids have to learn the names and locations(on a map) of every country on every continent and all the states in the U.S.  I happen think this is useful to know!
They do a lot of work in class but the projects are creative, and usually require research and critical thinking.  They do very little in the way of "worksheets".  For the first time, dc is excited about school.
They do receive a grade for all their work (and the standards are high) but the program does not stress the standardized testing much.  The kids barely heard about the MSAs and did not spend time on MSA prep.  this is very different from our old school where they had MSA prep for weeks.
How, you may ask does one teacher with 26 students manage to do all of this?  I really think it is because the teacher is teaching one group of kids instead of multiple groups.  So, there is more time for course extensions and interesting project work and group discussions and presentations.  
I hope what I'm describing does not resemble a "hagwan"!  My kid would hate to be in that environment.    In my opinion the HGC approach inspires a love of learning. And yes, now that I've seen the difference between the HGC and our home school, I am very concerned about what happens in middle school when dc might not get one of the (too few) magnet spots in Eastern/Takoma or even if dc gets in, if we can't manage the commute.  
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics