As a STEM professional, I use stats daily.
I haven't used calculus since 1998.

At our high school, there are two stats teachers. One is great and the other is horrible. Having a 50-50 chance of the bad teacher scares a lot of people away.

Anonymous wrote:If people are so disappointed in our public schools, no one’s stopping you from sending your kid to private, (like you’re comparing it to overseas by the way), or working in the PTA or with the school board to improve your local school.

Lolol!

1. It'd impossible to get in a private right now, because those are the only organizations to care about educating kids
2. PTA is useless in terms of improving education
3. Have you tried working with the school boards? They don't even believe in educating kids.

If people are so disappointed in our public schools, no one’s stopping you from sending your kid to private, (like you’re comparing it to overseas by the way), or working in the PTA or with the school board to improve your local school.

I’m a state department brat too. I went to excellent (private) international schools that the us government paid for. When I came back to FCPS in end of high school, it was less rigorous academically.

That said, FCPS is still a great school system, especially for a public school system, for how big and diverse it is, and compared to other school systems nationwide

We’re not going to change any of that without some sweeping national changes on education and its importance, and that’s not the point of this post or thread.

Anonymous wrote:It's kinda interesting how involved parents get. I'm pretty hands off and have let my oldest son make all his own choices. He's headed into 10th and is taking AP Calc and AP German. He manages his own schedule and time. If he over commits that's a lesson he will learn. I've just alwsys let him explore what he's wanted and it's worked out well. Gotta say though, I'm not terribly impressed with the rigors of American public schools. We spent the first 11 years of his life in Germany in their public system and it's pitifully easy here.

I don’t understand why people who are so hands off are posting on this board. It is inconsistent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's kinda interesting how involved parents get. I'm pretty hands off and have let my oldest son make all his own choices. He's headed into 10th and is taking AP Calc and AP German. He manages his own schedule and time. If he over commits that's a lesson he will learn. I've just alwsys let him explore what he's wanted and it's worked out well. Gotta say though, I'm not terribly impressed with the rigors of American public schools. We spent the first 11 years of his life in Germany in their public system and it's pitifully easy here.

Typical DCUM parent. Always finding a way to sneak for humble brag along with pulling the other person down.

I think the poster reveals how awful the american public school system is. We are a state dept family and one of the enormous benefits is my kids have an an excellent education. We are back in the states and I have to Green the schools here as compared to outside the country are pretty abysmal. Obviously you all have no Fram of reference so this fact upsets and you are taking isneaybtok personal.

I really wish we were deployed right now because at leat my kids would be sitting in a classroom right now in a country that values education!

AP Stat is very different than other math courses- you don’t really solve problems or find numerical answers. Everything is done on the calculator, it’s more about interpreting the data and justifying your response using that data. AP Psych is more memorization but is definitely the easier AP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's kinda interesting how involved parents get. I'm pretty hands off and have let my oldest son make all his own choices. He's headed into 10th and is taking AP Calc and AP German. He manages his own schedule and time. If he over commits that's a lesson he will learn. I've just alwsys let him explore what he's wanted and it's worked out well. Gotta say though, I'm not terribly impressed with the rigors of American public schools. We spent the first 11 years of his life in Germany in their public system and it's pitifully easy here.

Typical DCUM parent. Always finding a way to sneak for humble brag along with pulling the other person down.

Yep. There's always one. But I try to remind myself it's not "typical". Most of you all are supportive and helpful - on this thread an others. So thanks to the rest of you!

If he's not a math kid, I highly recommend taking AP Psych, esp if he's interested in psychology. DD was also deciding between psych and stat sophomore year and she chose psych and loved it! Was also taking honors math at the time and apush and ap language.

OP, AP psychology is considered a filler AP that kids usually take to boast GPA. AP stat will show that he may not be at the highest math level (AP Calc BC) but is still curious and interested in challening himself.

He can review the AP stat material during the summer (khan academy has a course as well as EDX and coursera). That way it will be easy to grasp the material during the school year and would not have to put in as much effort. Since he was already planning to Precalc over the summer, this should be a good option for him.

Anonymous wrote:It's kinda interesting how involved parents get. I'm pretty hands off and have let my oldest son make all his own choices. He's headed into 10th and is taking AP Calc and AP German. He manages his own schedule and time. If he over commits that's a lesson he will learn. I've just alwsys let him explore what he's wanted and it's worked out well. Gotta say though, I'm not terribly impressed with the rigors of American public schools. We spent the first 11 years of his life in Germany in their public system and it's pitifully easy here.

Typical DCUM parent. Always finding a way to sneak for humble brag along with pulling the other person down.

Anonymous wrote:I went to a state college, so not sure of this is the same an higher tier colleges; but general stats was usually taught by a foreign grad/post grad student and they were impossible to understand. This made the material a lot more difficult to work through.

+1 Any advanced math they can take in HS is very useful. HS teachers know how to teach a lot better than foreign grad students who just write on a white board for 45 minutes. A lot of majors require statistics or have it as an optional/elective class, so a background in it from HS is going to be very useful. AP Psych would be easier and probably more interesting ... AP Stats is more useful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's kinda interesting how involved parents get. I'm pretty hands off and have let my oldest son make all his own choices. He's headed into 10th and is taking AP Calc and AP German. He manages his own schedule and time. If he over commits that's a lesson he will learn. I've just alwsys let him explore what he's wanted and it's worked out well. Gotta say though, I'm not terribly impressed with the rigors of American public schools. We spent the first 11 years of his life in Germany in their public system and it's pitifully easy here.

You must realize that not all kids are exactly like yours right?

Or that wasn't the question asked.

If you cannot be helpful, or be nice, maybe you need to keep your mouth shut?

Anonymous wrote:It's kinda interesting how involved parents get. I'm pretty hands off and have let my oldest son make all his own choices. He's headed into 10th and is taking AP Calc and AP German. He manages his own schedule and time. If he over commits that's a lesson he will learn. I've just alwsys let him explore what he's wanted and it's worked out well. Gotta say though, I'm not terribly impressed with the rigors of American public schools. We spent the first 11 years of his life in Germany in their public system and it's pitifully easy here.

I will agree that this year is pretty easy, but in normal years, FCPS and MCPS have pretty rigorous curriculum paths. (And I'm sure you know that, but you are a little bored and just want to stir the pot for fun.)