Anonymous wrote:My second is finishing up 8th grade year at JW. Totally a mixed bag: I'd say 1/3 of teachers are good, 1/3 are mediocre, 1/3 are terrible. The front office staff is rude. The counselors are good, but they are limited in what they can do to resolve issues between kids because Restorative Justice is such a bad program. Glad to be putting this school behind us.

Don’t tell that to CGES parents who have lost their minds about the mere possibility they’ll be moved from JW.

Anonymous wrote:My second is finishing up 8th grade year at JW. Totally a mixed bag: I'd say 1/3 of teachers are good, 1/3 are mediocre, 1/3 are terrible. The front office staff is rude. The counselors are good, but they are limited in what they can do to resolve issues between kids because Restorative Justice is such a bad program. Glad to be putting this school behind us.

My kids went there.

One had an ok experience; academic is lackluster to say the least but DC came from HGC (or CES now). The other DC had so many friend issues it really colored how they view JWMS.

MS experience will largely be about the social scene. If they have a great friend group, MS will be fine. If they have lots of drama in their friend group, they will hate it. This is why they focus more on the social emotional learning rather than academics in MS.

By junior year in HS, most have matured and focus on college, so most of the friend drama disappears, and frenemies become polite acquaintances.

My kid loves Silver Creek. It really surprised me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or is it “just a middle school thing”.

I don’t see much people showing positivity or enjoyment with their children at their middle school

IMO, the biggest problem in MS is the small number of students who ruin the environment of a class. For example, you can have 26 awesome students with 3 who are fine until the 3 who disrupt every day enter the room. It's exhausting for everyone.

Then there's the drama that MS students really can't handle yet - social media, phones, etc. Even without them in the class, it carries over over from the outside hours.

I'm sure there are a lot more examples, but it's just the age. It is amazing to see how much some of them change when they leave MS and visit a few years later.

This is very true. We have had a decent experience at our MCPS middle school (which is not always a popular one amongst the DCUM crowd) but it's the drama that seems to be the issue. The teachers have been great, admin is fine and my kids have found a great group of friends but its the drama/fights that seem to be a constant problem at the school. And its the girls as much as the boys. Somehow they seem to mellow out in high school.

My second is finishing up 8th grade year at JW. Totally a mixed bag: I'd say 1/3 of teachers are good, 1/3 are mediocre, 1/3 are terrible. The front office staff is rude. The counselors are good, but they are limited in what they can do to resolve issues between kids because Restorative Justice is such a bad program. Glad to be putting this school behind us.

Anonymous wrote:I loved the MS experience that my bio kids had TPMS (non-magnet, FWIW).

Bio kids? Bizzare way to describe your kids.

Anonymous wrote:Or is it “just a middle school thing”.

I don’t see much people showing positivity or enjoyment with their children at their middle school

They’re better than DCPS middle schools by a long shot. Most MCPS parents are just ungrateful and like to complain.

Middle school is a terrible time of life.

However, I moved from a school district in California to Robert Frost in the 1980s and I found the environment very strivery and mean.

I was picked on one day out of the blue in outdoor gym class, and when I sassed my tormentors verbally, one of them punched me in the face hard. Both of them got suspended from school. White girl on white girl violence.

I moved away again shortly after that to another state, and my new middle school was immediately a nicer environment although still not perfect. People do like to pick on perceived nerds.

I remember discussing with my dad at the time and he said people who lived in our area were ambitious. I first became aware of clothing snobbery there (it was the "designer jean" era and "Izod preppy" era). I also remember people who lived in what was far North Potomac felt very special and snobby about that. Even if living in the same kind of subdivision as my Dufief-based subdivision. At the time, there was literally a cow pasture across the road behind our house, which was Gaithersburg then but now goes by North Potomac.

I returned to MoCo as an adult for 8 years but but decided not to raise children there. In part because of my middle school experience.

Anonymous wrote:Or is it “just a middle school thing”.

I don’t see much people showing positivity or enjoyment with their children at their middle school

IMO, the biggest problem in MS is the small number of students who ruin the environment of a class. For example, you can have 26 awesome students with 3 who are fine until the 3 who disrupt every day enter the room. It's exhausting for everyone.

Then there's the drama that MS students really can't handle yet - social media, phones, etc. Even without them in the class, it carries over over from the outside hours.

I'm sure there are a lot more examples, but it's just the age. It is amazing to see how much some of them change when they leave MS and visit a few years later.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I loved the MS experience that my bio kids had TPMS (non-magnet, FWIW).

What about your adopted kids?

DS was in private in Atlanta for MS. I don’t think the experience was as rigorous academically as MCPS. Certainly fewer electives and field trips. He liked the structure which really focused on every student having an adult mentor. They did a lot of service projects.

Anonymous wrote:I loved the MS experience that my bio kids had TPMS (non-magnet, FWIW).

What about your adopted kids?

Both my kids had a good experience in MS, one at a magnet and one at our local MS. I don’t know that the academics at our local MS were exceptionally rigorous, but it was more than adequate.

I’m a rising MS parent, so not quite there, but am thrilled about the MS my DC will be going to. Have heard great things about it and love the principal.

I loved the MS experience that my bio kids had TPMS (non-magnet, FWIW).

Or is it “just a middle school thing”.

I don’t see much people showing positivity or enjoyment with their children at their middle school