Anonymous wrote:

Wait... are you suggesting that public schools aren't keeping up with private schools? That's outrageous!

MCPS used to be on par with private schools. Setting high expectations that teachers will actually teach, give feedback, and challenge students is a management/leadership issue not a money issue. Private schools will always out pace public schools in terms of fancy facilities and physical resources but do not fool yourself that public schools can only afford to set low expectations and not teach kids.

Agreed that MCPS used to be so much better. I still can't believe we paid the price we did for housing here and now are faced with the fact we can't afford private schools. We should have moved to a less expensive part of Mont Co. and commuted our kids in for private, which is what I bet people will start doing instead of paying through the nose to live in Bethesda Chevy Chase.

Setting high expectations that teachers will actually teach, give feedback, and challenge students is a management/leadership issue not a money issue.

This statement is so incredibly true! We just did not know how good we had it with Weast, Starr has got to go.

Anonymous wrote:

Wait... are you suggesting that public schools aren't keeping up with private schools? That's outrageous!

MCPS used to be on par with private schools. Setting high expectations that teachers will actually teach, give feedback, and challenge students is a management/leadership issue not a money issue. Private schools will always out pace public schools in terms of fancy facilities and physical resources but do not fool yourself that public schools can only afford to set low expectations and not teach kids.

Agreed that MCPS used to be so much better. I still can't believe we paid the price we did for housing here and now are faced with the fact we can't afford private schools. We should have moved to a less expensive part of Mont Co. and commuted our kids in for private, which is what I bet people will start doing instead of paying through the nose to live in Bethesda Chevy Chase.

Setting high expectations that teachers will actually teach, give feedback, and challenge students is a management/leadership issue not a money issue.

This statement is so incredibly true! We just did not know how good we had it with Weast, Starr has got to go.

Wait... are you suggesting that public schools aren't keeping up with private schools? That's outrageous!

MCPS used to be on par with private schools. Setting high expectations that teachers will actually teach, give feedback, and challenge students is a management/leadership issue not a money issue. Private schools will always out pace public schools in terms of fancy facilities and physical resources but do not fool yourself that public schools can only afford to set low expectations and not teach kids.

Anonymous wrote:Without the foundational stuff, how are my children ever going to enjoy learning?

What are you children missing?

I was speaking generally.

you = your

Without the foundational stuff, how are my children ever going to enjoy learning?

What are you children missing?

Without the foundational stuff, how are my children ever going to enjoy learning? Or, rather, what learning has to offer?

Learning to read opens up all of the wonderful, enjoyable stories in library books. Working on his bilingual skills means that my son can make friends in other parts of the world and isn't that great, Kiddo?

I acknowledge to my children that it's tough learning these new skills, but that the pay off is huge. I support them in their learning now (call it pushing or encouraging or engaging, whatever) so that we can have fun down the road.

Because I grew up in a household that was not at all child-centered, school was a magnificent escape. It was a sanctuary for me. My kids have a safe and loving, child-centered upbringing. School doesn't have the same appeal. It's an unexpected challenge.

My parents never helped me with homework. They also never had to because I was so self-motivated. I can't imagine not engaging my own children pretty seriously with their learning though because of many of the issues brought up in this thread.

The stakes are too high. You just have to lock in the fundamentals. I don't want them to miss out on all of the beautiful adventures life offers those who succeed. Tony Stark got to build Iron Man because he first learned to count by tens!

The confidence of being highly-competent is absolutely worth the investment in these early stages of reading and writing, of math and logic. It sets them on a path that they can then travel robustly on their own.

I don't think it sucks that we have to supplement the work given at school. It's one of the great opportunities of parenting.

Anonymous wrote:

Agree 100%, well said. The problem isn't just the grades. Its the low expectations. I went to a private a school and even "A" or "B" papers came back with comments pointing out strengths and weaknesses. The expectation was that your next paper would address the weaknesses or it would not be an A or B. In MCPS, there is no feedback for students or instructional guidance on how to do your best.

Wait... are you suggesting that public schools aren't keeping up with private schools? That's outrageous!

They are in school for 6 hours a day and when they remove the motivation to recieve true letter grades, and graded homework, and teach well below a child's capability the educators are not doing their job.

The title of this thread was underachieving kids, scholastically my kids are overachievers and I have never pushed them. The one in the HGC is doing okay, but the others are losing all motivation to learn because the work is brain numbing, they say they spend alot of time stting with nothing to do.

I am having to do supplementation at home for the first time ever.

You can't push when they are not recieving a good basic foundational education in school.

Agree 100%, well said. The problem isn't just the grades. Its the low expectations. I went to a private a school and even "A" or "B" papers came back with comments pointing out strengths and weaknesses. The expectation was that your next paper would address the weaknesses or it would not be an A or B. In MCPS, there is no feedback for students or instructional guidance on how to do your best. A C paper gets a "P" with no direction back to a student so the student goes on thinking this level of work is fine. Most of the other work in elementary school is worksheet driven busy work anyway with no way for a student to do anything more than the basic activities. The analogy to filling out a DMV form is appropriate. I guess you could turn over the DMV form and on the back start to design a car while waiting in line but this isn't very likely. Its a form. You fill it out and hand it to the clerk. This is what MCPS is now.

Parents who think kids will magically just improve and reach their potential on their own with no instruction or motivation are fooling themselves or just don't care whether their kids do well later on academically.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Education is too important to be left to the educators alone - Private or Public, push your kids so that they can achieve their true potential.

Push all you want for the limited time you have in the evening.

They are in school for 6 hours a day and when they remove the motivation to recieve true letter grades, and graded homework, and teach well below a child's capability the educators are not doing their job.

The title of this thread was underachieving kids, scholastically my kids are overachievers and I have never pushed them. The one in the HGC is doing okay, but the others are losing all motivation to learn because the work is brain numbing, they say they spend alot of time stting with nothing to do.

I am having to do supplementation at home for the first time ever.

You can't push when they are not recieving a good basic foundational education in school.

This is not just about grades. This is about what kind of person you want your child to be. Do you want them to be motivated by just grades, or money later in life, or the intrinsic value of trying your best.

My DC sucks at soccer, but DC likes it. Never makes a goal, but we keep telling DC to try DC's best. If during the game, DC did the best DC could, even it meant messing up a few times, we tell DC we were proud. Same for school work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Education is too important to be left to the educators alone - Private or Public, push your kids so that they can achieve their true potential.

Push all you want for the limited time you have in the evening.

They are in school for 6 hours a day and when they remove the motivation to recieve true letter grades, and graded homework, and teach well below a child's capability the educators are not doing their job.

The title of this thread was underachieving kids, scholastically my kids are overachievers and I have never pushed them. The one in the HGC is doing okay, but the others are losing all motivation to learn because the work is brain numbing, they say they spend alot of time stting with nothing to do.

I am having to do supplementation at home for the first time ever.

You can't push when they are not recieving a good basic foundational education in school.

I don't understand this at all. Of course you can push. You can push if they're learning nothing in school, you can push if they're learning something in school, you can push if they're learning a whole lot in school.

Also, I don't want my child to be motivated to learn by letter grades. I really, truly don't. If the only reason my child learns or works on something is to get an A, that's a big problem, and it will be an even bigger problem when she arrives at the non-school parts of her life, where there aren't any As.

Anonymous wrote:Education is too important to be left to the educators alone - Private or Public, push your kids so that they can achieve their true potential.

Push all you want for the limited time you have in the evening.

They are in school for 6 hours a day and when they remove the motivation to recieve true letter grades, and graded homework, and teach well below a child's capability the educators are not doing their job.

The title of this thread was underachieving kids, scholastically my kids are overachievers and I have never pushed them. The one in the HGC is doing okay, but the others are losing all motivation to learn because the work is brain numbing, they say they spend alot of time stting with nothing to do.

I am having to do supplementation at home for the first time ever.

You can't push when they are not recieving a good basic foundational education in school.