Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More effort has to be devoted to establishing charter schools in Montgomery County. Charter schools can be the "private schools" for those who can't afford private school. The schools could benefit from retired professionals (doctors, lawyers, engineers) who have a passion for teaching (not career) and are willing to teach for little of no pay to give back to the community. These retired professionals have wisdom, knowledge and practical experience that no public school could match.

Wanted: people with no practical experience in teaching, who are willing to work for little or no pay.

Really?

Have you seen the students who pursue "teaching degrees?" - not the top of the talent pool. I know many professionals with experience teaching who actually understand the subjects they teach. Yeah, I wouldn't mind have a retired doctor teaching my kid biology or an engineer teaching physics or a lawyer teaching civics. The talent is out there - just need to tap into it. Is EVERY retired professional a potential teacher? - absolutely not, but the talent is out there.

Hmmm, being the brain trust that you think you are-- you do understand there's a difference between being knowledgable in a subject and actually being able to teach that subject to a group of students, right?

My son's school has a music teacher with a degree from Harvard. He's played with symphonies around the world. A world-class musician. But it doesn't matter because he cannot gain control of the students or figure out how to actually teach those wonderful musical skills he's learned. When you walk past that music room it looks and sounds like a zoo. That's why it's called the "art of teaching". It doesn't matter how renowned you are in a subject-if you don't know how to teach then nothing will get taught.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry but differentiation is non-existent in 2.0. The math "enrichment" is a joke. Reading is the ONLY area where kids are allowed to work in abilities but high readers end up solely on their own with very little, if any teacher involvement.

MCPS is all about baseline now. K-3 is basically a waiting room for many kids while the rest of the county catches up. Its terrible.

I'm sorry that things are like that are your child's MCPS school. They are not like that at my child's MCPS school.

Oh of course: your child's school is perfect.

We are in Bethesda and decided against our in bound school- Wood Acres. Just wasn't impressed after visiting. The school seemed crowded and the classes I watched were not well supervised. For example, in one class I visited, the only adult in the room was a parent attempting (poorly I might add) to teach a grammar lesson on pronouns. In another class, a teacher was working with one child at a table while the entire rest of the class were broken into groups and to work independently. The kids were not working, but were completely goofing around. The teacher did nothing to try and bring the class under control. I could go on, but don't want to beat a dead horse.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More effort has to be devoted to establishing charter schools in Montgomery County. Charter schools can be the "private schools" for those who can't afford private school. The schools could benefit from retired professionals (doctors, lawyers, engineers) who have a passion for teaching (not career) and are willing to teach for little of no pay to give back to the community. These retired professionals have wisdom, knowledge and practical experience that no public school could match.

Wanted: people with no practical experience in teaching, who are willing to work for little or no pay.

Really?

I'm guessing you aren't big on that whole volunteer thing, huh?

You're asking people to volunteer 6-7 hours a day (and more for correcting homework) for five days a week. Doesn't seem realistic. Most volunteer jobs are 1-2 days a week, maybe for a few hours at a time.

Interesting thread.

For those of you who chose private over your local MCPS option and are happy, would you mind posting the private your DS attends, whether this is ES, MS or HS, and (if you're comfortable) the MCPS cluster you passed on. I'm trying to get some perspective on whether most of you are comparing BCC/Whitman/Churchill to DC and Bethesda schools like Sidwell, NCS/STA, GDS, Maret, Norwood et al or whether people are referring to smaller or lesser known privates in upper MC and Potomac in relation to MCPS schools further north.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More effort has to be devoted to establishing charter schools in Montgomery County. Charter schools can be the "private schools" for those who can't afford private school. The schools could benefit from retired professionals (doctors, lawyers, engineers) who have a passion for teaching (not career) and are willing to teach for little of no pay to give back to the community. These retired professionals have wisdom, knowledge and practical experience that no public school could match.

Wanted: people with no practical experience in teaching, who are willing to work for little or no pay.

Really?

I'm guessing you aren't big on that whole volunteer thing, huh?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More effort has to be devoted to establishing charter schools in Montgomery County. Charter schools can be the "private schools" for those who can't afford private school. The schools could benefit from retired professionals (doctors, lawyers, engineers) who have a passion for teaching (not career) and are willing to teach for little of no pay to give back to the community. These retired professionals have wisdom, knowledge and practical experience that no public school could match.

Wanted: people with no practical experience in teaching, who are willing to work for little or no pay.

Really?

Have you seen the students who pursue "teaching degrees?" - not the top of the talent pool. I know many professionals with experience teaching who actually understand the subjects they teach. Yeah, I wouldn't mind have a retired doctor teaching my kid biology or an engineer teaching physics or a lawyer teaching civics. The talent is out there - just need to tap into it. Is EVERY retired professional a potential teacher? - absolutely not, but the talent is out there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How exactly have the teachers unions hurt MCPS? The complaints I hear most often are curriculum 2.0 and AFAIK the union had nothing to do with that-- is that wrong? Likewise, I would think the union would be happy if more teachers got hired-- it's not their fault if class sizes are large (which seems at least partly because the county didn't anticipate the great recession and the migration of kids from private to public).

Actually, I think it's a case of the county didn't plan well. They allowed the housing to be built, much of it high density condos, townhouses and apartments, but didn't plan for the growth in school populations. I also think they anticipated that the increased tax revenue from these new properties would pay for the needed improvements in infrastructure--including schools--to accommodate the growth. Obviously, that didn't happen and now their in a hole with overcrowded schools with no easy way to get out of it. And to be fair to the current MCPS and county council, these were issues many years in the making thought the responsibility lies with those in now in charge.

i don't think they realized our county was a welcome mat for illegal aliens either. That has added to numbers they can not plan for. Huge issue

I am telling you we have the same issues (overcrowding, poor curriculum, lack of diligence) in wealthier parts of the county.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How exactly have the teachers unions hurt MCPS? The complaints I hear most often are curriculum 2.0 and AFAIK the union had nothing to do with that-- is that wrong? Likewise, I would think the union would be happy if more teachers got hired-- it's not their fault if class sizes are large (which seems at least partly because the county didn't anticipate the great recession and the migration of kids from private to public).

Actually, I think it's a case of the county didn't plan well. They allowed the housing to be built, much of it high density condos, townhouses and apartments, but didn't plan for the growth in school populations. I also think they anticipated that the increased tax revenue from these new properties would pay for the needed improvements in infrastructure--including schools--to accommodate the growth. Obviously, that didn't happen and now their in a hole with overcrowded schools with no easy way to get out of it. And to be fair to the current MCPS and county council, these were issues many years in the making thought the responsibility lies with those in now in charge.

i don't think they realized our county was a welcome mat for illegal aliens either. That has added to numbers they can not plan for. Huge issue

Anonymous wrote:More effort has to be devoted to establishing charter schools in Montgomery County. Charter schools can be the "private schools" for those who can't afford private school. The schools could benefit from retired professionals (doctors, lawyers, engineers) who have a passion for teaching (not career) and are willing to teach for little of no pay to give back to the community. These retired professionals have wisdom, knowledge and practical experience that no public school could match.

Wanted: people with no practical experience in teaching, who are willing to work for little or no pay.

Really?

Anonymous wrote:More effort has to be devoted to establishing charter schools in Montgomery County. Charter schools can be the "private schools" for those who can't afford private school. The schools could benefit from retired professionals (doctors, lawyers, engineers) who have a passion for teaching (not career) and are willing to teach for little of no pay to give back to the community. These retired professionals have wisdom, knowledge and practical experience that no public school could match.

No way I'd ever send my kid to this school-- sounds like a disaster. I don't think I've ever met a retired professional with a passion for teaching and I certainly don't want a school made up of retired people being asked to teach for little or no money.

Anonymous wrote:More effort has to be devoted to establishing charter schools in Montgomery County. Charter schools can be the "private schools" for those who can't afford private school. The schools could benefit from retired professionals (doctors, lawyers, engineers) who have a passion for teaching (not career) and are willing to teach for little of no pay to give back to the community. These retired professionals have wisdom, knowledge and practical experience that no public school could match.

BINGO!! But isn't the county fighting this?

Anonymous wrote:The illegal Central America population has tripled since 2006 and it is only increasing. So much of the budget goes to helping these students that shouldn't even be here. They also have dumbed down the curriculum and testing for them. The middle of the road legal students have the worst time. Advance students are also held back. Students that don't even speak English absorb so much of one teacher's time. It has gotten out of control. MCPS is only going to get worse.

Yes...BUT...I experienced similar things to PP, in several "great" elementary schools, just PRIOR to 2.0 implementation (my eldest escaped it). There were no (or few) issues with non-native speakers. Advanced classes. Yet teachers did not take the time to correct spelling and grammatical errors. What's worse is that letters from the principal contained spelling and grammatical mistakes. There is simply not a culture of excellence.

More effort has to be devoted to establishing charter schools in Montgomery County. Charter schools can be the "private schools" for those who can't afford private school. The schools could benefit from retired professionals (doctors, lawyers, engineers) who have a passion for teaching (not career) and are willing to teach for little of no pay to give back to the community. These retired professionals have wisdom, knowledge and practical experience that no public school could match.

I don't know my mcps 5 the grader did a science experiment..wrote A lab report with graphed data and conclusions. She has math tests. I wish there was more feedback on writing. We do feel we need to supplement there. Not worth 1000s of dollars though.