Reply to Give me constructive advice on how to help my middle schooler in English

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Give me constructive advice on how to help my middle schooler in English"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Have you tried CTY? They would be in class with other high performing peers which could get them out of the rut. My poor kid was in the dumbed down curriculum and became catatonic by the end of the school year, producing mediocre work. Being around kids who are at their same level might snap them out of that.[/quote]
CTY is overpriced. If you're willing to go online and have gifted kids, there are better options like AoPS, NUMATS, Davidson, Athena's Academy, Astra Nova, Cresco Nova, Synthesis, Northwestern GLL, Eclipse Academy, Online G3, Stanford OHS, Lukeion, and CLRC. https://www.davidsongifted.org/gifted-blog/online-gifted-learning-options/[/quote]

Pp, can you expand on this? Which are really strong here? My kids are actually total rule followers and very respectful of their teachers - if their teachers ask them to do something, they will absolutely follow it to a T and not shirk at all. Virtual school was completely fine for them except the missed social aspect. I'd need something with a live teacher on zoom who somehow enforces accountability. [/quote]
Which subject(s) do you want? Are they gifted, or advanced in one or more subject(s)? Do you want something supplemental/enrichment or a full course on a school subject complete with all the work and time commitments of a full course or a full course on a topic unlikely to be covered in school? What's your budget? What ages/grades are your children?[/quote]

Op here.. kids going into 6th and 8th. They are both gifted. We opted out of both math/Humanities magnets (which they were both offered seats at) because we didn't want the commute and also they had good friends. Second guessing ourselves on the Humanities front now I guess. We want English and supplemental. Something like a book club with some rigor/analysis on text analysis and writing about the books. Ideally a class once a week (2 hrs) and reading/hw on the side. Fwiw Ms English is so dumb that my older kid routinely knocks out the required assignment in class and then uses the extra time to start her math hw. [/quote]

I see this so much. People stick with mediocre public school because they want convenience and like the social aspect.

Well, your kids have friends and you have a short commute, but they can’t write.

I feel sorry for your kids but not you.[/quote]

Op here. Well, that is kind of mean. And also my kids are definitely farther along in Math/Humanities/foreign language than most of my friends who do send their kids to privates. Also - we aren't white. This may not be relevant to some but we really value diversity. So - nothing is perfect. 
It's helpful when people don't engage in black and white thinking. I am a parent who is just trying to make things a bit better in this one arena.

Also - I never said they could not write. They write just fine. They write a ton in global Humanities which is the class that's basically forcing them to really write these days, but those texts are non fiction that they analyze. [/quote]

Your statement about your kids being farther along than private school kids is so insanely false.

We’ve had a long debate on here about math in MCPS vs private and have shown that private schools are better than non-magnet MCPS.

But to say your kids are farther ahead in humanities is delusional. I’m sorry, it’s the truth.

Lastly, many private schools around here are plenty diverse from a racial standpoint. My daughter has friends at her private school who are Iranian, Hispanic, Black, Indian, Spanish, French, etc etc etc.

You sound massively ignorant about private schools and really have no basis for making the statements you do.[/quote]

So this is OP. Actually my kids attended private and international schools most of their lives. The past 2 years is their first time in public. I can say confidently that they are able to cover more material in math/science/humanities than at their private/international schools (I am not going to say where because I could out myself at this point). My spouse and I have an MD and PHD between us and we are quite fine with science and math here. Meanwhile, I have literally looked at the material that friends' middle schoolers are learning in math and humanities at various private schools and it's of a lower standard in math for sure and equal in humanities.

Also, I can already tell you don't actually understand the diversity issue.  We go to a majority - minority school and I appreciate that as a brown person. I could care less if your child has friends from all over - that's basically what every white person in the DMV says. And I will tell you that there's a huge difference between having 2 Muslim friends and having a special prayer room set aside for prayers that people actually use everyday. Every brown/black person knows what it's like to be a token versus having a real voice and a real home.

Anyway, that's not what this thread is about. It's about how the English in mcps middle school is total crap. This isn't a thread for people to bash the public schools and pat yourselves on the back for sending them to private. It's for people who want to stay in public schools and are looking at reasonable, cost effective ways to improve their kids' education. Also, i'd like to know if anyone has done anything at their school level to improve the situation (advocating with the administration for example).

[/quote]

You’ve looked at materials other people’s kids are covering? Enough to make a blanket statement?

I call such MASSIVE BS. [/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