Reply to Takoma Middle School Magnet Program-Is it really worth it ?

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Reply to "Takoma Middle School Magnet Program-Is it really worth it ? "

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

The magnets are supposed to cater to two populations:

1. The truly gifted students who are so far ahead of their peers that their needs cannot be met in a regular classroom. They are usually willing to travel, since there is no alternative for them.

2. The high-achievers who would thrive anywhere. The ones living far away usually prefer to stay at their home middle school. This is why magnets have historically been located in less affluent parts of MoCo, to give excellent but underprivileged students a chance to have a "safe", college-bound peer group at magnet.

Only you know in which category your child belongs, OP!

As for the class content, it's not just the curriculum that's more in depth. It's the peer group which fosters amazingly high-level discussions, and the teachers who understand and stimulate them.

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Umm.  Magnets were created to spur voluntary integration.  They are usually located at high minority low SES schools in the hope that special programs would encourage the voluntary transfer of a pool of students that would desegregate the school.

It would be nice if the school system had done it for the benefit of excellent underprivileged students as you describe.  But, in reality, MCPS was trying to avoid court-ordered busing schemes that had provoked damaging backlashes in places like Boston and VA.  Magnets, immersion, the DCC and other programs were created as processes to foster voluntary segregation.
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