Reply to Exclusive school clubs in 4th and 5th grade

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Our school does have some things like this, but other things are mentioned to kids themselves and parents are only contacted if their kid indicates interest. If you have a kid that doesn’t always volunteer themselves and/or just doesn’t pay a ton of attention, that’s another possibility. One of my kids is invited to do everything while another is barely cognizant that the activities exist; if it weren’t for kid #1, I’d think opportunities weren’t advertised to the kids themselves… but because of kid #1, I know they are.[/quote]

OP here, that could be it.

Thanks to the other PPs too. I don’t think the leadership club in this case is code for behavior improvement—I know the kids and they are good kids.

Exclusive clubs are not the same as ability-based, open-through-competition clubs. Teachers inviting certain kids quietly is problematic in elementary in my opinion. Letting kids try and fail is a good exercise. But creating opportunities only for certain kids and quietly/almost secretly is quite another. I don’t know exactly what’s happening though and didn’t want to jump to conclusions.[/quote]

But the point is that some of the "exclusive clubs" are things that the kids implicitly auditioned for via their classes (DCPS math bowl, DCPS Google competition, Battle of the Books, DCPS 5th Grade All Star Choir). The math instructional coach, the music teacher, etc don't need to do sham auditions, because they already know which kids can do math, read books quickly, sing well, etc. Your kid was eligible and considered, he just didn't get it.[/quote]

What does “implicitly auditioned” mean? Shouldn’t the kids and parents (in elementary) be told these opportunities exist? You can’t compete for or be motivated by something if you don’t know about it. I’m perfectly fine with my kid being told you’re not good enough for this if that’s the case, but that’s not what happened. [/quote]

It means teachers have access to all kinds of information about your kid and they place them into the opportunities based on that. Like at our school, the kids who score above a certain threshold on the assessments get to have a special math club, those who score above a certain number on ELA get to join a book club. [/quote]

Thanks, PP. I’m the one who posted about the implicit auditions and this is exactly what I mean. Sometimes teachers don’t need “auditions” because they have way more information about, for instance, a kid’s math ability than one manufactured “audition” would ever demonstrate. Sometimes they want to pick the talented kids who demonstrate love for something — whether reading or singing — not motivate kids to strive for shiny objects their parents want them to want. Also, there are frankly lots of parents like you who don’t want to be told their kid isn’t wasn’t of the X best at something and they aren’t interested in having the fight 10x/year, so they don’t advertise the opportunity to the kids they’re passing over. In all cases, no, kids don’t actually need to know that they weren’t picked for something.[/quote]
Growing up I moved around a lot. My experience was that my teachers’ wholly objective and fact based assessment of my achievements seemed to vary surprisingly by how public my dad’s job was (he was in a senior role that was in the news).   I also experienced all white G&T classes where Jewish parents threatened legal action to have their high achieving kids included, and teachers responded by having kids diagram sentences like “Jesus is Lord.”

I trust most school administrators about as far as I can throw them.  [/quote]
It’s an industry built on people who have an Ed D and demand to be called “doctor.” It’s not like we don’t know what we’re getting.[/quote]

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