Reply to Swanson - new cohorting system?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]+1 to OP.  My rising 7th grader had a hard year in 6th and is upset to learn none of her friends are in her group.  [b]I really wish they'd give schedules in advance.[/b]  The kids are stressed, and middle school is rough socially, so giving them a [b]heads up that friends may or may not be in the same math or specials by letting them have their schedules this week is one less thing to be surprised by on Monday mornin[/b]g.  I'd love to hear from parents of older kids how these cohorts worked out.  I can see the theory that it means you have a smaller group of classmates and therefore build relationships.  It also runs the risk that you have at smaller schools of not having enough exposure to find your people if for whatever reason you don't really click with this smaller group.

Kids will be fine and adapt, I'm sure.  Covid and all the drama at Swanson last year seem to loom large this year and I wish we could give kids as much knowledge as possible to tamp down stress levels.  [/quote]

Um, sounds like kids are already finding out "before Monday morning" they may not be together?  And even without team names, the groupings would be the same.  Kids were most likely "grouped" on teacher teams the past few years because that's how the schools generally operate.  Nobody should have assumed they'd always be with whoever they became close friends with anyway.  Parents can and should "tamp down" stress levels on their own. I honestly don't understand why this is such a thing with parents every year.  They don't give out schedules earlier precisely for this reason - they don't need parents calling to request changes so Sally can be with her bestie, who may or may not even be her bestie by December.  Maybe Sallie is better-suited for the Gorilla teachers/classes than she is for the Beavers her best friend is with.

As a parent of "older kids" - two middle schoolers now in high school - the cohort system is fine.  The teacher teams are more important than peer groups which are often quite fluid through middle and high school anyway.  It's also a way for kids to learn the names and faces of more of their grade level classmates, some of whom they may find in their high school classes.  The more people they know now, the more likely they will have "familiar faces" moving forward. This is particularly helpful for middle schools that split into different high schools.  And as previously mentioned, lunch is by grade level in middle school. They also have their same extracurriculars.[/quote]

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