Reply to Homework load in 5th and 6th grades at basis dc?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NP. Have you visited schools in other countries? Finland? Singapore? China? Poland? Any of them? They do not spark joy. Schools are for educating children. Only in America do we expect beautiful facilities. There are NO studies claiming windows, fields, pretty walls, etc. are necessary to educate children. This is why we suck. We spend money on the wrong things and not on our teachers.[/quote]

PP -- Have you? A lot of Singaporean and Finnish schools don't have the dank, windowless appearance of Basis. I am an immigrant and realizes that while the educational system in the US as a whole "sucks" to use your phrasing, compare say MA on the PISA rankings v/s Finland and you'd be surprised. Again, the OECD/PISA rankings for China are not for China as a whole, but for Shanghai.

Back to the topic of the thread - Note that Basis is not supposed to be "any old school", it is supposed be the rigorous ideal to which DCPS should be aspiring (at least in the eyes of parents). But we were not impressed by our visit there. Again, it is not just about homework and rigor. Simple things like science labs for upperclassmen are pretty minimal and cannot be expected to be anything but, given the space and logistics. We asked for instance about the Physics labs and were told that computer simulations were used extensively for many concepts. We are physicists and having both taught undergraduates and graduate students, know that simulations are useful after students have gained an understanding of the "physical" system and the underlying natural laws.

While we agree that Basis may be the more "academic" alternative that DCPS lacks, especially EOTP or the Hill [b]but kids do need the trappings like brightly lit classrooms, a good art program, sports etc. to thrive and succeed. [/b]

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Best post on this thread.  Thank you, immigrant. Beautiful facilities aren't the be and end all, but they matter. I've seen some beautiful government schools in Finland, Singapore, China and Poland. [/quote]

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