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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The crazy thing is that bottom of the class are sometimes former high A public school students.  I know 2 of them.  Straight high As in DPCS middle school.  Very bright kids. Transfered to a Big3 in high school and got a C freshman year foreign language (because foreign language background was horrible in DCPS) and a B or B+ every year since in English and/or foreign language and now they're in the bottom of the class. 
 
In retrospect these particular kids would have done much better staying in public.  [/quote]

Do you hear yourself?  These particular kids would become adults who couldn't write their way out of a paper bag if they had stayed at JR or SWW.  By your own description.

How is that "much better," exactly? [/quote]

My J-R grad is at an Ivy double majoring in History and English. And has a 3.95 GPA.  So, um, they are apparently writing themselves just fine out of your proverbial bag.[/quote]

How is this possible?  Did he teach himself to write at home?  I"m genuinely curious.  My kids came out of Deal and were barely able to write a coherent 5 paragraph essay despite having high As in ELA at Deal. They went on to a Big3 private and struggled mightily with the writing that was required of them.  They both got Bs the first semester.  Some Deal classmates got Cs and then Bs the entire way through.  [/quote]

They didn't learn anything at Deal but J-R (then Wilson) was a different story.  AP classes- particularly the history ones- were rigorous and they worked on the Beacon (the school newspaper) all four years.  I'm not saying it was the same as if they had gone to Maret or Sidwell, but it did the trick.[/quote]

DP: My oldest barely had writing required in AP classes at J-R. How long ago was this and did they really learn to write in a Wilson AP class? Please be honest if you sent them to Writopia or something. Congrats on your kid doing so well, writing for the Beacon is a great help, but the kids I know who did so were already naturally good writers with parents who are writers -- no one in DCPS taught them.[/quote]

Never went to Writopia (I had to look up what that was).  No outside support, just Wilson.  The Beacon was a ton of work and maybe that was the difference from the normal Wilson experience.  Neither I nor my husband is a professional writer, though we both do have to write a lot for work.[/quote]'

was your son a big (independent) reader?[/quote]

Big reader?  Yes.   Interesting that you assumed a son.[/quote]

ha.  I don't have time to read back through the posts but I thought you had said son. Maybe I'm thinking of another post.  I don't think I have any sort of bias.

Regardless, I think the reading part is HUGE in developing kids who can write and think. I think DCPS does a horrific job at teaching/fostering analytical writing at the middle and high school level but there will always be kids who don't need school to teach them this.  These kids are almost universally independent readers. They're also the types that will go on to be a leader at the Beacon, etc.  Then there are kids like mine.  Smart but not readers or writers.  They cruised through DCPS middle school with almost 100% in all classes despite never having been independent readers.  We moved them to a top private high school and they got their a$$ kicked with the level of writing/thinking that was asked of them. But they're smart so they caught up to speed (not to the A level but A-/B+ level) within a semester.  Their STEM grades were and are high.

I think the problem with kids like mine in DCPS is that they never learn to really write well and it never catches up to them in high school.  They go on to college and have mixed results.  If these choose STEM majors (which many do) then it probably never catches up to them.  It they choose humanities majors it really can.  I have seem it happen with the kids of family members and friends (which is part of why we moved schools).  [/quote]

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