Reply to Anyone leave a Magnet Program?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My daughter is interested in the Eastern Magnet for next year..but is a tiny and very young for her year kid.  Not happy to hear about the environment you describe.  Are your children ( and you) still happy enough with the program to continue?  More details would be great.[/quote]

There are similar kids as you describe now -- small, young.  These are not the kids who dropped the program.  Actually, in a way the physically small and not yet sexually developed girls are somewhat off the radar and thus not as much of a target.  It's the girls who are pretty and sexually developed that really were gone after during Slap Ass Week and have to suffer the unwanted and over the boundary line attention of boys.

My child will continue, but it has been a rough year.  The problem is that keeping DC back at the home school, creates a different set of problems (unchallenged, has to navigate a social environment where smart girls aren't valued, etc. )  It's picking between 2 not great options, each with a different set of pros and cons.

That said, I wish I had a fuller understanding of the social/behavioral environment before I sent DC.  I would have been better able to support her earlier.  I think DC has found it quite depressing and as the year goes on, we've had to have explicit conversations about how to handle situations and how to self-care for the stress.  On a peer level -- the school is quite rough, with a lot of fighting, a lot of foul language, and a lot of sexual and racial discrimination.  The magnet students are sheltered from some (but not all) of this, because it's not primarily magnet-on-magnet kid.  But, even having to watch it happen to others can be distressing and intimidating.

While the academics are good, I think the teachers often confuse being academically tough with being a deliberate pain in the ass.  DC has had to put up with projects assigned without deadlines and then deadlines laid down quickly at the last minute.  Rubrics that aren't followed or being graded for things that weren't on the rubric.  A lot of really arbitrary useless requirements.   DC has found that most of the "challenge" from the program stems from the excessive and arbitrary rules.  Although the academic challenge itself is greater than the home school, it's not at all overwhelming.

I might not have believed my DC's stories, or I might have put it off to DC being too sensitive, until I myself had a run in with one of the teachers!  Plus, I hear DC and peers talking about it in the back seat during car pools. [/quote]

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