Reply to Eastern magnet Humanities program vs Archdiocese of DC middle school

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Where is the student coming from, and what do you anticipate they’ll do for high school?

If your plan is an MCPS high school, especially if they may be interested in a magnet program, I’d say Eastern for sure. The humanities magnet will prepare them well for an IB Diploma program, and the accelerated math track would line up with the STEM magnet programs, making acceptance a bit easier. Private schools often segment and pace math differently, so the courses may not align with the MCPS tracks as well.

But culturally, it may depend on where you’re coming from and the kid’s personality. Mine was able to tune out negatives and go with the flow, but some kids are more sensitive to distractions or to competitive peers. If they’re currently in a small Catholic school, Eastern will be a huge shift. But assuming they’ll be starting as a 6th grader with everyone else, it’s likely they’ll adjust eventually. [/quote]

Thanks so much for this as we are thinking MCPS HS in the future! When you talk about distractions/competitive peers, was that at Eastern? Or at a parochial school? And if your child went to Eastern, did he/she like it? [/quote]

I’m the PP—mine went to Eastern, liked it pretty well, and is now a junior in an MCPS IB program. But I will say that their experience was disrupted by the pandemic, so they did the last quarter of 7th and 3/4 of 8th through virtual. But they still managed to learn a lot even with the virtual classes, so that says something, I think. The loss of the New York trip in 8th grade was a huge disappointment, though, as you can imagine.

My kid still feels like Eastern was undoubtedly the right choice for them, especially now that they see how much better they were prepared for IB, but I wouldn’t say they loved *everything* about it. The media component really wasn’t their cup of tea, but that’s more an issue of my individual kid’s personality, not the program as a whole. And the history and literature more than made up for it.

I think most who go back to home school do so because they miss their neighborhood friends, or because the bus ride is too long. For mine, I think they were pretty pragmatic about things, figuring there would be downsides to the home school, too, but at least the classes at Eastern weren’t boring and they were actually learning interesting stuff.

The biggest downside was the crowding, especially in the halls and lunchroom, which sometimes erupted in tensions or actual fights, and the fact that the building is long overdue for a complete overhaul. So again, if that’s going to be something your kid is likely to be bothered by, or potentially pulled into, that might be something to consider. Mine just learned the hallways to avoid, and spent lunch in a classroom or the library.

You can probably search this board to find more recent views on Eastern, but at least from the vantage point of three years out, my kid feels it was the right choice. And they still hang out with kids they knew from Eastern. [/quote]

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