Reply to Basis families: talk to me about the building

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Think back to when you were a kid.  Did you care about buildiings/classrooms/windows?  I sure didn't.  I cared about seeing friends, clothes, etc.  I have an 8th grader at BASIS and we have been very impressed by the program, with the exception of writing instruction - that has generally been minimal, up to now.  Grammar, on the other hand - my kid nails that stuff :).  And now that kid is in 8th grade she absolutely loves the off campus lunch option.[/quote]  When I was in middle school, in a mostly working-class community, I cared most about playing in my school's orchestra and on the girls' lacrosse team and participating in our school's Outward Bound gym program. I also cared about learning French from 6th grade. I attended Ivies for college (on a Pell Grant) and grad school.

I taught a humanities subject in the BASIS high school for a year (just a few years ago) and was asked to extend my contract. I moved on instead. The building was too claustrophobic for me, the curriculum too limited, and admins too controlling. From my perspective, the BASIS policy of cramming four years of high school work into three damages the colleges admissions prospects of some of the students, mainly because they lack the time for serious extra-curriculars in 9th, 10th and 11th grades while they cram in AP classes. The tough DC Metro area elite college admissions pool and much softer Arizona pool are v. different, which the franchise doesn't seem to get.[/quote]

NP here with a student that graduated from BASIS. This teacher obviously never got to know the students they taught. My student was on a school sponsored sport, a school sponsored academic team, Scouts, took non-BASIS arts classes and also played a rec sport SIMULTANEOUSLY during high school at BASIS. ECs were no problem for college admissions and the 12 AP classes didn't hurt either. Their friends were similarly active - DC has so much to offer.

The "cramming" was great because it made senior year fun, less stressful - working on your application essays as a group in a class is much better than doing them by yourself after you finish your homework. [b]College visits were NOT a problem[/b].[/quote] We left BASIS after 10th and did all of our college visits on YouTube while our eldest performed with his Strathmore orchestra (you might know who we are). He attends a college admitting in the single digits. If the policy of making ample room for college visits by omitting senior year classes were so great, all the top privates in this area would follow suit. To my knowledge, none do.[/quote]

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