Reply to Parents of former Basis students - where did you go, and why

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I disagree,  pp, at that age of 11/12/13, it's still pretty typical for kids to be lacking maturity,  forget what was learned in the year prior, along with testing the limits.  DC says silent lunches were only used a few times in this school year, and felt it was deserved as the kids were indeed rowdy at the beginning of the year, but considers things much improved now.  I also disagree that things like silent lunches are draconian - they set up a system of peer pressure and students are more inclined toward shared community standards and values. [/quote]

I did not mean to suggest that silent lunches are "draconian," having never had one.  I would think it would be impossible not to giggle if you are supposed to be silent though, unless someone has made you feel awful or you are scared of them.  I cannot imagine trying to control THAT as a 10/11 year old.

I am referring to other things, like what someone called "academic redirection," which I did not understand but sounded over the top, policies about late homework when the homework buddy system does not function, and what I felt last year was just nastiness on the part of some teachers towards kids who were really trying - again, treating a kid who is not a bad kid (and as you point out, maybe only 10 or 11) like a bad kid. Then that kid does not want to go to teacher hours because the kid thinks the teacher thinks they are a bad kid, will never give them a fair shot, or hates them for some reason.  Teachers taking it personally. Making the whole class suffer because one student did something that was actually bad maybe. Or losing control of the class (or letting a student take control) and then blaming everyone in there except for the person who was supposed to be in charge - the teacher themself. Sorry to be so vague. And I am talking about last year. Especially with inexperienced teachers, who got easily frustrated and are no longer there.

But what some of us are saying is that if you want kids to stay for the upper years, you have to treat them with a modicum of respect and dignity.  Here are parents saying that their kids are learning a lot, but they would never stay because of the way they have been treated - and I think for the most part we can assume we are talking last year, and they do not all have kids in the same grade.

I find an inherent contradiction in the idea that these students at 10/11 coming into 5th, sometimes from academic wastelands, chaotic home environments, and the kind of poverty that made buying the unnecessary school supplies that were listed at the beginning of the year by teachers who don't understand and did not think, stressful on a whole different order of magnitude, and a policy of being docked for not having somehow bought your own copy of a specific version of a book (not the book itself, which we usually could get used) but the copy of the book with the correct ISBN number, these students are supposed to become incredibly responsible and organized overnight at all times, and then they are treated like irresponsible, unmotivated children sometimes by the people who are holding these kids to such high standards.

I have heard about kids being reduced to tears and publicly humiliated, and that is not appropriate even in high school.  The only school I know that specializes in public humiliation is law school.  5th graders should not be terrified about homework. There are no comps.  But they want to prove they are good kids.

But as several have pointed out, even a few teachers like that or experiences where kids feel unfairly singled out and/or unfairly punished, or perhaps a year of silent lunches that were determined by the behavior and attitudes of others, can leave such a bad taste in your mouth as a parent that when your child says they do not want to go back you understand, or if they want to go back you worry.  I worry about the possibility of this happening later on, when grades matter, when our 10/11 year old kids become sensitive adolescents.

For some something bad enough has already happened that they will "never stay."  What grade do you think those kids are in?  What do you think they are referring to?  I could come up with at least 15 incidents or policies or decisions just off the top of my head, and now we have an inexperienced kid running our school, in charge of our children and their future.

I was referring to last year.  I just could not understand why the 6th (not 5th) graders kept having silent lunches, and I cannot believe that [b]as an entire class[/b] they kept "testing limits."

Now if we had a tiny 7th grade, that might explain all the 6th grade silent lunches.  Instead, we are 25 down in 6th. Those are 25 who will not stay because they never got the chance to come.  I have no idea what that was about. But it sounds like your child is in the 7th grade, and they just tested the limits again, found them to be still there, and did not have the same issues this time.  And as far as I can tell, the 5th grade this year has never had a silent lunch.

I was referring to last year.  I just could not understand why the 6th (not 5th) graders kept having silent lunches, and I cannot believe that [b]as an entire class[/b] they kept "testing limits."

It is fine to say that people who leave over silent lunches are silly, but it sounds as if some are planning to, whether or not there are more silent lunches in the future - the tone has been set, the damage has been done, whatever it was.  They will not be staying for high school.

At Washington Latin, because of the wikis posted on the internet, it is easy to be a helicopter parent, to bail your kid out once in a while, to stay on top of what they are supposed to be doing, and for most of us, to make sure they do it fairly well.  We have to trust Basis so much more because they have no assigned curriculums, you get a different English teacher suddenly there is a whole new plan for the year.  We have to trust them on quality control in terms of the education our children are getting and we have to trust them to be fair.  But half the time the only way you hear about what they do is from your child, who heard it from another child, who heard it from...........

I just think it is obvious from these threads that, unlike in Arizona, so many parents and children arrive at Basis DC is 5th grade not planning to stay past 8th anyway.  So you have to give them real reasons to want to stay.  They are your charges, but they and their parents are also your customers, consuming the goods that you are offering.  And apparently, those goods so far are not measuring up to Walls and Wilson - and mind you, these posters have not been complaining about the education.  In fact, some of the kids appear to love what they are learning.  Just saying.......

I want to hear from parents who have left.[/quote]

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