Reply to My response to APS 2024-2030 Strategic Plan survey

Forum Index » VA Public Schools other than FCPS

Reply to "My response to APS 2024-2030 Strategic Plan survey"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm angry at APS for monopolizing and wasting so much of the children's time. Answered the 2024-2030 Strategic Plan survey. Sharing my answers to vent.

----
[b]Question - What do you hope for the students?[/b]
Answer: I hope that students move through school knowing well how to read, write, speak, count, think, debate, value truth and knowledge. I hope that their curiosity would be encouraged, that they would ask many questions and learn how to find meaningful answers. I hope what they would be taught in a way that they value the lessons, and look forward to growing their skills and understanding.

[b]Question - What are the school's opportunities and challenges?[/b]
Opportunities - you have the attention of most of the county's children age 5-18 for 7 hrs a day/ 5 days a week. This is a tremendous opportunity. You're playing a huge role in their development.

The challenge is that the schools seem rotten to the core and are stunting the children. My daughter is in 4th grade. Apparently, learning spelling, sentence structure and punctuation aren't taught. Her writing had at least 1-2 errors per line, and the teacher didn't mark any mistakes. Put a "likes it" stamp on the page. Shame on you for wasting children's time and potential, making them sit through "CKLA" to learn that that spelling and grammar don't matter. My daughter and I looked at her writing, with all the errors that the teacher ignored. We looked at our poster of "Writing Systems of the World" and we agreed that writing and reading are forms of magic. And that the school failing to teach how to write is severing a person's connection to the past and present and robs them of their human heritage.

---[/quote]

I'm your neighbor, another APS parent and longtime Arlington homeowner...and I dismissed you as soon as I saw "rotten to the core." Get a grip, and get over yourself. You are at least half of why things have gotten as bad as you think they have, and I probably disagree with you on whether they're that bad. [/quote]

I'm another neighbor, another APS parent and another longtime Arlington homeowner. Perhaps the intensity of some of the OP's wording is a bit excessive; but I've re-read the statements multiple times and cannot disagree with any of the foundational points. Even my oldest child who graduated last year has made the same complaints about spelling and grammar instruction, as well as lacking confidence in their writing and ability to do college level work.  Take out the "rotten to the core" and the "writing systems of the world being magic" sentences and what is there really to discredit this person for?[/quote]

I’d be fine if he/she criticized the curriculum choices of APS, which do leave a lot to be desired. But I’m tired of teacher blaming. And I also doubt that one piece of paper is enough evidence to fault the teacher — or even the curriculum.[/quote]

Well, I've put two kids through APS - one out and one a junior in high school. I can tell you that it is not likely the comments and extreme level of passion behind them were from one paper. When these things are not "taught" or "corrected" or "graded" or "expected" year after year after year, I blame APS. Curriculum or teachers, doesn't matter. At some point along the way, the TEACHERS need to TEACH how to write. No Red Ink is not a teacher. If I were a teacher, I would be holding my students' grammar accountable whether it's part of the curriculum or not. I don't take the same message from the comments that you did - that it's only the teacher's fault. They cite both the curriculum and the teacher. And I tend to agree. Maybe it was one assignment that wasn't focusing on grammar and is an outlier - maybe the teacher makes the corrections on other assignments. But that's not been my family's experience through the entire APS system.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics