Reply to Luther Jackson Middle school safety/advice?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I've never understood why AAP students solidly in the Thoreau and JMHS boundaries go to LJMS for the AAP program there, then reconvene at  JMHS freshman year.  Why not simply take advanced courses at TMS? Why the special AAP  arrangement at LJMS?

Wouldn't it be easier socially to stay with same group of neighborhood/base ES as you head into middle school?[/quote]

Even with the boundary change, there is a belief among some AAP parents/kids that LJ is "more rigorous" and will therefore be a better launching pad to TJ.  The irony is that many who insist on LJ (to launch to TJ) are actually coming from a pretty average (not rigorous) center.  Funny to me that they think it is SOOO important to get the extra ounce of "rigor" from their MS experience when they have lived without it for the past 4 yrs of ES.  But, whatever.

The answer to your question of "wouldn't it be easier socially..." --- yes, for some.  But remember that in ES centers, the AAP part and the non-AAP part are really quite separate --  Because kids spend most of their time in one classroom, they have less "mix it up" time with non-AAP kids.  So, socially, they might be staying with their kind by going to LJ rather than mixing with the "lessers" (in their minds) in a school like TMS where the mindset of the admin is very much "one school."  No one is identified outright as "AAP" or "not AAP" at TMS.  You may go to an AAP math, English, or Sci. class, but no one really labels you as an "AAP kid."  Everyone is just a TMS student regardless of which class you are taking.  The teams are not identified as being "AAP teams" vs. "not AAP" (even if they are grouped that way).  The admin never says "... the AAP class is doing X.."  The distinction is NEVER vocalized or publicized.

And for those who are hoping to go to TJ, they don't really care if they are in the same MS with kids in their pyramid, b/c they don't plan to be in that HS pyramid past MS.     [/quote]

Thanks, PP. you explained it all so well. I was genuinely curious and I'm a non AAP FCPS alumna.  I was always focused on the social aspects of school and my lifelong friends are former neighbors and elementary thru high school classmates.  [/quote]

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