Anonymous wrote:So the last 3 pages or so are from the same tired poster who pulled her kid out of Langley and into private school and life seemed rosey. Until she learned that underprivileged kids and URMs have an edge over her kid in college admissions? Now she advocates those kids not be given an advantage and her kid penalized? And also brags that there's zero SAT prep in her house cause that's now how they roll?

+1000. This is one BITTER woman with lots of time on her hands. Anytime Langley is mentioned, brace yourself for the bitterness that's about to be unleashed. She seems to be getting more bitter with time. Before it was mainly directed at Langley, now it's minority kids. Hopefully she'll get some help before we get to the next group. Also, she keeps saying a lot of kids speak to her. I would keep my kid as far away from her as possible because at some point this very negative, poor me mentality will rub off on them. Kids who are already stressed should not be exposed to someone who is in effect fueling their sense of despair by teaching them that everything is stacked against them. Not healthy at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the super early start times are not helping our kids mental health. Children should not be getting up at 5:30AM to go to school.

Dr Garza needs to wake up and change the school schedule.

I think staying up too late at night does not help our kids' mental health.

Sounds like the perspective of the working parent who wants to ship the kid out ASAP in the morning so she can get to her cubicle by 8:30. Teenagers have different sleep patterns, so the start times need to be changed back to what they used to be. Anyone in the know will tell you the later start times in APS are a selling point there.

Anonymous wrote:I think the super early start times are not helping our kids mental health. Children should not be getting up at 5:30AM to go to school.

Dr Garza needs to wake up and change the school schedule.

I think staying up too late at night does not help our kids' mental health.

I think the super early start times are not helping our kids mental health. Children should not be getting up at 5:30AM to go to school.

Dr Garza needs to wake up and change the school schedule.

No offense, but I did not sign them up for sports, activities, jobs, etc... My job is to teach my subject. My students and I are pretty open with each other, because again, they have no reason to lie. Yes, they do have lots of activities, but I assign things way an advance so that they can plan around those activities. For example, a reading that should take them maybe 45 minutes to read and take notes on, is not due the next day, nor the day after that...they usually have 5-7 days to get it done. Some have figured out how to organize and prioritize their time. The ones that stay up all night? Those are the ones who have not. What benefit do you see in telling the teacher that you stayed up all night doing a reading that was due that day? There is no extra credit or brownie points for this. All I can control is the time I have with them in class. They choose to (or not) come for help after school. They choose to (or not) email me when they are stuck or have questions. I try to touch base with them on a personal level when I can. I make phone calls home when Junior is passing out (is he sick? over scheduled? depressed?). Now, what else exactly would you like me to do? Follow them home, sit and watch them do the work? I am supposed to be preparing them for college. They have to learn on their own (and maybe with guidance at home from their parents) how to prioritize their time. No college professor is going to do that for them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only kids I know staying up that late are the ones who procrastinated.

How would you know that?

Because the kids tell me. They are very open about it. Some also can't really hide it since they are doing the reading I assigned them 5-7 days prior during announcements.

Other kids admit to staying up late doing an assignment that should take them 30 minutes because they are chatting with their friends online and playing games while they are doing it. Again, not conjecture - they tell me this. I don't take off points on how they get me the work, I grade the quality of the product, there is no reason for them not to be honest. Of course, I point out that they could have just focused for those 30 minutes and done a better job, which would have earned them a better grade, and then socialized, but all I can do is advise this. I can't force them to change their habits at home.

You're a teacher in deep denial if you think your students don't fib. Typically, most are masters at letting you hear whatever you want to hear. They've learned your game all too well.

We have yet to hear what you imagine is the daily and weekly life of your students (who don't get too much hw). How much sleep do you think they're getting? Sports? All other activities, plus travel time and meals.

No one dares to even speculate how it all realistically gets done.

Anonymous wrote:I'm so annoyed by this important discussion being derailed by misinformation about teacher tenure. Teachers did not cause these kids' deaths by suicide. Depression did.

There is NO teacher tenure in Virginia. None. People are profoundly misinformed. Teachers reach continuing contract status after 3 years, but they are still subject tho the same evaluation and observation cycles, it's just that the summarize evaluation is every three yard rather than every year. Still, the system can out a teacher on admin leave for malfeasance, and can fire a teacher with due process by documenting deficiencies and giving the teacher an opportunity to improve. It doesn't actually take much to document and fire a teacher.

In addition, many principals have the power to pressure a tea her to resign by threatening their teaching license. It's done all the time when principals want a teacher out ASAP.

This is 11:33, and not once did I suggest "tenure" or "unions" were responsible for the lack of accountability that can exist within FCPS. That is largely besides the point.

To be clear, we've had generally good experiences with FCPS, but the one bad experience we had was appalling, in that a teacher ridiculed our child in front of other students, rebuffed our efforts to meet when it was clear our child was struggling in her class, provided no additional resources or materials to supplement her classroom instruction, and did not show up when he went to her class after hours as directed for additional help. When we complained, we were told to wait a semester and regaled with tales of how some students who had this teacher did very well and got 5s on AP exams. Only after we made it clear we were prepared to pull our child out of the school if he was not reassigned, and then file a lawsuit, did he get a new teacher, at which point his grade improved from an F to a B+. As this was finally happening, school counselors and administrators finally opened us in private conversations and told us that this teacher was the subject of more complaints than any other teacher in the school and that they were eagerly awaiting the day when this woman would retire or die, because they knew the principal - who was a big cheerleader for the school - would not lift a finger. So please don't suggest that teachers in FCPS are uniformly held to rigorous professional standards, because that is not always the case.

What is an example of homework in AP classes? I ask because outside of reading and studying, my child has NO homework in any of her AP classes. That's how it should be, I think..

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only kids I know staying up that late are the ones who procrastinated.

How would you know that?

Because the kids tell me. They are very open about it. Some also can't really hide it since they are doing the reading I assigned them 5-7 days prior during announcements.

Other kids admit to staying up late doing an assignment that should take them 30 minutes because they are chatting with their friends online and playing games while they are doing it. Again, not conjecture - they tell me this. I don't take off points on how they get me the work, I grade the quality of the product, there is no reason for them not to be honest. Of course, I point out that they could have just focused for those 30 minutes and done a better job, which would have earned them a better grade, and then socialized, but all I can do is advise this. I can't force them to change their habits at home.

Sounds like business as usual. Please don't tell us you're a LHS teacher.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the last 3 pages or so are from the same tired poster who pulled her kid out of Langley and into private school and life seemed rosey. Until she learned that underprivileged kids and URMs have an edge over her kid in college admissions? Now she advocates those kids not be given an advantage and her kid penalized? And also brags that there's zero SAT prep in her house cause that's now how they roll?

By moving out of publics, you avoid quotas. Quotas are tied to state funding and other forms of politics. Since my kid is going to go to the college she wants, the college she likes best, for us, the admissions issue doesn't really matter. It does, however, on a political whole.

Again, you are assuming this is strictly personal. It's really a political issue to me.

If you think every qualified kid from Potomac, Flint Hill, O'Connell, [insert any non-public HS name here], gets into UVA, W&M, VaTech, JMU, etc, then you are very wrong. There are always limits when more qualified kids apply than there are college seats to fill.

Of course they don't! But they don't have the politics of quotas working against them either.

How is "politics of quotas" different from "We don't enough space to accept every qualified kid. We want our freshman class to be diverse at every level. We won't fill our class with kids from NOVA and DC privates. And yes, we'll give an edge to the poor kid or URM"? The first you abhor and the second you accept with an "Of course!"

Quotas are very specific to individual schools, i.e. UVA will take only X number from Langley, but Y number from Herndon. That's driven by the state and funding. What the college itself chooses to do with diversity can be more personal to them - each college will approach that differently.

Wrong, wrong! It's based on size of school. If you are in a high SES school your competition for spots us harder. Better to be a big fish in a small pond than one of many.

In other words --Langley gets same #, but there's more competition due to the number with similar credentials .

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the last 3 pages or so are from the same tired poster who pulled her kid out of Langley and into private school and life seemed rosey. Until she learned that underprivileged kids and URMs have an edge over her kid in college admissions? Now she advocates those kids not be given an advantage and her kid penalized? And also brags that there's zero SAT prep in her house cause that's now how they roll?

By moving out of publics, you avoid quotas. Quotas are tied to state funding and other forms of politics. Since my kid is going to go to the college she wants, the college she likes best, for us, the admissions issue doesn't really matter. It does, however, on a political whole.

Again, you are assuming this is strictly personal. It's really a political issue to me.

If you think every qualified kid from Potomac, Flint Hill, O'Connell, [insert any non-public HS name here], gets into UVA, W&M, VaTech, JMU, etc, then you are very wrong. There are always limits when more qualified kids apply than there are college seats to fill.

Of course they don't! But they don't have the politics of quotas working against them either.

How is "politics of quotas" different from "We don't enough space to accept every qualified kid. We want our freshman class to be diverse at every level. We won't fill our class with kids from NOVA and DC privates. And yes, we'll give an edge to the poor kid or URM"? The first you abhor and the second you accept with an "Of course!"

Quotas are very specific to individual schools, i.e. UVA will take only X number from Langley, but Y number from Herndon. That's driven by the state and funding. What the college itself chooses to do with diversity can be more personal to them - each college will approach that differently.

Wrong, wrong! It's based on size of school. If you are in a high SES school your competition for spots us harder. Better to be a big fish in a small pond than one of many.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only kids I know staying up that late are the ones who procrastinated.

How would you know that?

Because the kids tell me. They are very open about it. Some also can't really hide it since they are doing the reading I assigned them 5-7 days prior during announcements.

Other kids admit to staying up late doing an assignment that should take them 30 minutes because they are chatting with their friends online and playing games while they are doing it. Again, not conjecture - they tell me this. I don't take off points on how they get me the work, I grade the quality of the product, there is no reason for them not to be honest. Of course, I point out that they could have just focused for those 30 minutes and done a better job, which would have earned them a better grade, and then socialized, but all I can do is advise this. I can't force them to change their habits at home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only kids I know staying up that late are the ones who procrastinated.

How would you know that?

NP here, but the PP did specifically say that this observation was limited to kids she personally knows. So, presumably, if she knows the kid or parents well enough that she is aware of the kid in question's sleep habits she is also aware of their typical work habits. I agree that observation of a small sample of kids known to you personally will never produce any sort of blanket, "this is the way it is" conclusion that applies to all kids, but it can certainly highlight trends.

She can't even know .5% of the population.

She is wrong about kids procrastinating is the reason for too much homework.

Anonymous wrote:The only kids I know staying up that late are the ones who procrastinated.

I think the only thing you know is that *you* aren't part of the problem. I think you need to think again.

"Business as usual" would be appalling, under the circumstances.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only kids I know staying up that late are the ones who procrastinated.

How would you know that?

NP here, but the PP did specifically say that this observation was limited to kids she personally knows. So, presumably, if she knows the kid or parents well enough that she is aware of the kid in question's sleep habits she is also aware of their typical work habits. I agree that observation of a small sample of kids known to you personally will never produce any sort of blanket, "this is the way it is" conclusion that applies to all kids, but it can certainly highlight trends.