Reply to Center Level IV school versus local level IV

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
OP again!

Super helpful, thanks! I appreciate this perspective.

One question: you said that being at the base school might allow DD to explore more. I would’ve thought the opposite. Do you mind sharing why that might be the case? Curious to understand more.

As for asking DD if she wants to go to the center school....I haven’t asked her point blank but I know I will get “but I know two people at the base.” Again, she does not go to school with any of these kids right now....they’re friends from sports. So it’s not like they will stop being friends. I am considering maybe not telling DD she has a choice because frankly I am not sure a kid with zero public school experience truly understands the full picture of why her parent might want her to attend one school versus the other. Yes, she’s a bright kid, but she’s still only 8. In her current school, it’s pretty small so she hasn’t seen the effects of pressure to be “cool,” etc quite yet. Of course these pressures come eventually regardless, but I’d love to minimize that kind of stuff as much as I can. I understand one can never avoid it completely.[/quote]

PP here, the explore one.

So in our situation, our kid is kind of a sporty nerd. DC has friends from sports within the school and friends from nerd class. Because classes are super challenging (at fourth grade they are doing 5th-6th grade reading and writing and math, projects, Caesar's English, Socratic method, long term projects, strings), DC is still working really hard at school, but DC also explores more because unlike the center, DC has exposure to a variety of kids, including really sporty ones, and DC already has a connections with fifth/sixth graders from sports. The anxiety of being new and different is just not there, which at the tender age of 8 was a big deal.  But within the class DC gets to explore different things (art, science, etc) because DC juggles a lot already and has the social confidence to maneuver between groups. Just having one connection-- one in-- will help your kid a lot to start the complicated social networks so that they feel like they can do other things, rather than immediately trying to find a friend first or deal with the anxiety of being new and not really paying attention to the lessons.

The extracurriculars are also key-- if your kid is doing art, chess, robotics, and stem after school, they are going to be able to juggle the course load and explore more socially and academically.  With the base school, if it is farther away from home, you may or may not want to allow that level of extra. With us, we had so many after school sports (soccer, basketball, baseball) that the center school would have been an impossibility for DC to continue with chess and robotics. DC would arrive home an hour later than usual: making feeding dinner and sports challenging-- and that didn't even include any after school stuff.

Finally, and this is anecdotal: we just asked our teachers to really challenge DC. We haven't been let down. The other day DC came in discussing pre-algebra like it was nothing. We're learning the metric system. DC's projects have been easy, but interesting. Our kid is super happy and well rounded. I think the LLIV schools have more skin in the game. Also, unlike the centers, there isn't as huge of a divide or competition to get into the "AAP" class, because they still get pullouts (even the AAP kids get pullouts for advanced whatever... ) that all kids have some kind of advanced stuff so the sort of AAP vs. Gened is thing is less... stressful. They are getting a rigorous education but the parental pressure-- it's wondrously not there.

But that's just the school we're in. We're super close to Oak View, so I would assume there would be similarities.

I think you're in the Oak View - Woodson pyramid. If that's the case, the other thing you should know is that when they join up again in middle school, there is a social divide. Not from AAP Center vs. LLIV: just social stuff. Switching to the center and then going back to middle school is a whole can of worms to think about. If you like the parents and kids your kid knows from sports, stick with them. It's good to have allies. If you switch to the center, they might not be there for you in the end.

Finally: either choice will be great for your kid. Figure out what is BEST FOR YOU. Your kid will thrive wherever-- where do you want to be? If you want to be surrounded by other hypercompetitive type A parents: CENTER. You'll love it. If you want to be surrounded by fewer type A parents: LLIV. You would be surprised how easy it is to pick a school when you just figure out where you think you would be happiest at.
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PP thank you for the detailed response. We are in Oak View pyramid and wondering about base vs center. You said you are close to Oak View, does it mean you are at Oak View school? Just trying to connect if your description about your base school was regarding Oak View. Thank you again.[/quote]

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