Reply to Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
I INVESTED money in land near downtown Bethesda, which has appreciated and will continue to do so. The schools are good as well!

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for how much longer?

I've been in the system for over 20 years as a teacher.  born in Mo Co - spent my entire lifetime in this county

Don't depend on Bethesda "holding out" for much longer.

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Long enough. My oldest who needs lots of help, has indeed received lots of help from MCPS, for which we are incredibly grateful, and will be out in a few years. My youngest can deal with whatever they throw at her :-)
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My son received services early on, but through Infants and Toddlers. So 2.0 wasn't a factor. However, as a rising 4th grader, he was part of the 2.0 roll out.  You really don't know the effects until you move into another system, which is happening shortly for us.

So while you say your youngest can deal, I think that's a very sad statement to make about educating your child.

Learning isn't about "dealing."  It's about being challenged to master material that will help a person to function in society.

We moved from having total autonomy over guides and instructional practices to having no control over what to present to a classroom of children each learning at a different pace.

Someone mentioned that "ignorance is bliss" with regard to parental awareness.  I should be amazed at this lack of awareness, but I'm not, as I do realize that many parents barely touch the surface when conversing with their own children.  Superficial discussions at best . . .

how sad[/quote]

Ha ha ha! You don't me, and yet you assume so much? I have probably thought more about educating my children than you. We prioritize education and work a lot at home. My youngest is not only a hard worker, but very competent. MCPS can go downhill, it will not affect her.

I have criticized MCPS for years on these boards, over specific things (overuse of tech in primary years, absence of textbooks, poor writing preparation in middle and high school, less-than-rigorous selection of electives instructors, etc), but overall, I take exception to painting this public school system in he disastrous light that some do. It's not a lost cause. It's actually a good system. As a scientist, I appreciate the STEM emphasis and the wealth of possible coursework in high school,[b] I find writing to be quite ambitious at the elementary school level,[/b] and I love how American schools in general encourage public speaking and personal growth. As a foreigner, I can tell you that it's quite different from other education philosophies (rote, head down, listen to the teacher destroy your self-esteem).

No system will be perfect. MCPS works fine, as long as you remember that education ALWAYS begins at home.

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+1 especially the bolded.  I know, I know, there's no grammar "instruction" - actually, there is, just maybe not as much as some people want.  But, the "critical writing" aspect in the early grades is pretty challenging, and many kids struggle with it.  Maybe it's too hard.  I think Common Core standards are actually pretty rigorous, and yes, 2.0 wasn't great, but I think 2.0 tried to implement a more rigorous critical reading/writing curriculum, which is a good thing.

We moved from a different state and landed in MCPS when they were rolling out 2.0, so my DC in 2nd grade at the time was a guinea pig. DC had a really hard time with the writing because back in our other district (wealthy one), there wasn't much emphasis on writing.  DC is now in 7th and doing really well.  My younger DC started MCPS a couple of years after 2.0 was implemented, and I think this DC's writing is better than the older one's at the same age.

2.0 definitely has problems, but it had a few good parts to it.  And both of my kids' writing assignments do have corrections by the teacher, and often times they do mark up grammar mistakes.  One thing I will say I despise about the MS draft edits, though, are the peer edits.  DC is probably the strongest writer in the class, so DC never gets good input from peer edits.  But that isn't a 2.0 issue.[/quote]

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