Reply to Finding Middle Schools?

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Finding Middle Schools?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]11:48, I am baffled and bewildered at how you could ever possibly think your DC would be "behind" in STEM at BASIS.  NO other school in DC (and that includes Deal and Latin) offers the math acceleration, LEAP science, the number of AP science courses, et cetera that BASIS does.  NONE, not even close.  BASIS spends at least 9 hours a week on science, from 5th grade on.

BASIS gives students a very solid and strong foundational knowledge AS WELL AS critical thinking skills.  I can tell you that my DC is becoming quite adept at deconstructing arguments and rhetoric, through logic, analysis, and recognizing fallacies - all critical thinking skills that BASIS has been teaching.  What you seem to not understand is that critical thinking without also having foundational knowledge and content is virtually useless.  How could anyone ever think critically about something they don't really have any meaningful knowledge of?  It's putting the cart before the horse.[/quote]

I have not come to a judgment about the science although I haven't seen much hands-on learning (experiments or dissections) compared to other highly regarded science programs in the city (including private in this analysis).  I am primarily speaking to the math.  Offering math acceleration is not the same as properly "teaching" math.  From my observations, Deal does a much better job at this.  BASIS  just moves to the next lesson every day without the "why", probably because they have to cover so much material due to the acceleration.  Also, from my research Saxon math is weak in foundational math so the students will not learn it themselves from the textbook as compared to other textbooks.  My DC is not being privately tutored but loves the "outside" math class which is reteaching the content taken last year at BASIS where my DC scored nothing less than a "98" without any retakes or test corrections.  From their website, Latin also does a better job of teaching what a variable is.  MIT doesn't care about math acceleration they care about whether you understand what you are doing.  It is the difference between a 650-700 and 750-800 on the SAT.  Hopefull the poor children will go to a College where they can learn the foundation in their programs.

I also beg to differ with you on the critical thinking.  You have described one aspect of critical thinking.  Ther are other aspects such as the ability to figure out how to approach problems where you don't have the "foundational knowledge."

I'm still waiting on the writing - virtually non existent last year - only a little this year/English teacher is better.  My DC wrote almost everyday in elementary school and came to BASIS able to write reports and naturally organize a paragraph properly.  That skill has actually gone backwards because of the lack of daily or even weekly writing.  But you keep on boosting as it is working for you.  I think they teach to the test.  I "understand" very well what my DC is receiving and not receiving.  As I mentioned I like the rigor, especially as I am not a stay at home mom, and don't have the time to plan and enforce it myself.  Rigor, convenience, and my ability to supplement BASIS's deficiences will probably keep us there until high school.[/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