Reply to Middle and high school on Capitol Hill

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Middle and high school on Capitol Hill"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Yes, it is, but w/out academic streaming before HS, Latin instruction/expectations are soft for this particular student. Our younger child is more than challenged at Latin. Older child has many school friends and likes school, but also likes doing more enriching work than she gets from teachers. The curriculum itself is less the the problem than the fact that the school won't let her loop up for subjects (particularly math), and that few other students in her cohort work at her level. We've considered alternatives--home schooling, moving to burbs, switching to BASIS, paying for private--but what we're doing is working, and we can afford it, so we keep doing it. We seldom discuss our methods in the school community to avoid calling attention to touchy issues. No point. [/quote]

It sounds like a test in program really would be great for your eldest, but it must be nice to at least have them both at the same school.  Anyway, Thanks for sharing your perspective.  My eldest doesnt want/need such enrichments, but our youngest may.[/quote]

Yes, test-in program would be great for her, problem is, how to access one at this stage. Have thought about moving to MoCo for 8th, so she could take the tests for the Blair magnets and the Richard MoCo International Bacc 9th grade program. But MoCo takes care of its own - they want magnet students who've come up through their 4th-5th grade Centers for the highly gifted, and their MS test-in magnets at Eastern (Silver Spring), Takoma Park, and Robert Clemente in Germantown. Could re-invent our lives in MoCo for 8th, only for her to get shut out for having attended DC public schools through 7th grade. Same with Fairfax and Arlington for testing into TJ. We may move IB for Richard Montgomery in Rockville, where they'd take her for their IB program by 11th grade based on grades in 9th and 10th. Their IB program offers humanities classes two years ahead of Walls and Wilson. In DC, you can feel isolated with a highly gifted student in public schools, because they aren't supposed to exist (you're seen as a really pushy parent exaggerating your child's abilities if you ask for flexibility). Latin's refusal to accelerate her isn't necessarily sustainable for us, and Basis won't let her start in 8th or 9th, claiming that she can't have had enough math or science to keep up there. But she's getting more than enough math and science to meet BASIS standards at CTY and Stanford EPGY. Walls may work, not sure. I could go on, but am starting to wish we'd moved from the Hill to MoCo several years ago. We put too much faith in DC charter early on.
 [/quote]

You are going to drive yourself nuts!  It sounds like you are doing AMAZING!!! Sure, maybe you could have moved to MD or VA, but who is to say that really would have been better for your kids-- or the rest of the family?   Who knows-- maybe there was/is some value to your eldest being in an environment that was/is not filled with geniuses? Maybe there is some value to being in a more urban environment?  Maybe elite colleges will be even more likely to recruit-- maybe they are more eager for a DC public charter school grad rather than another MoCo kid?

Don't second guess-- you've done great so far and there is no reason to think you aren't going to continue to make great choices for your family.

But I do hope you continue to keep fighting the good fight to get DC schools to do right by your kids.  Eventually Latin or BASIS may relent to your requests for flexibility![/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