Anonymous
04/02/2018 11:37
Subject: Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?
Anonymous wrote:It is rare to find a school that can over come discrepancies in parental income and education. Those are the two most important factors in student success. Not class size, curriculum, money spent, teacher education level...
Is 2.0 perfect no. Will the replacement be..no. Is there a curriculum that has been rated very successful for all different types of kids? That is have not heard of and I would assume it would get a lot of publicity.
Agree. The population of MCPS has been changing over the years. Would the old curriculum serve the needs of all the current students better than 2.0? I don't know. I do know that 2.0 has issues, and some of the standards are pretty tough. I'm glad to hear that MCPS does an audit every so often of their curriculum, and that they are willing to get a better one (though that remains to be seen). My older DC was a 2.0 guinea pig, and I'm not sure the younger one will see the benefit (if there is one) from the new curriculum since they are phasing it in like they did with 2.0. I'm not sure if it will catch up with my now 4th grader in time.
Anonymous
04/02/2018 11:36
Subject: Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?
Anonymous wrote:It is rare to find a school that can over come discrepancies in parental income and education. Those are the two most important factors in student success. Not class size, curriculum, money spent, teacher education level...
Is 2.0 perfect no. Will the replacement be..no. Is there a curriculum that has been rated very successful for all different types of kids? That is have not heard of and I would assume it would get a lot of publicity.
That's the thing. This audit found that Curriculum 2.0 is not great and MCPS should change it. This audit did not, as far as I know, look at the previous curriculum. But I know from anecdotal experience that the previous curriculum also had its problems, and DCUM hated it also. Ideally the next curriculum will be better, but it won't be perfect, and there's a pretty good chance that DCUM will hate it, too.
Anonymous
04/02/2018 11:35
Subject: Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?
Anonymous wrote:It is rare to find a school that can overcome discrepancies in parental income and education. Those are the two most important factors in student success. Not class size, curriculum, money spent, teacher education level...
Is 2.0 perfect no. Will the replacement be..no. Is there a curriculum that has been rated very successful for all different types of kids? That is have not heard of and I would assume it would get a lot of publicity.
The problem was that the MCPS curriculum was trying to teach to the lowest levels of achievers. It failed everyone in the process. Good, robust curriculum is easily available on the market. However, that will mean that many students will fail testing. They will probably need to be taught differently. That will require money. See how that works?
The only thing MCPS can do now is have different curriculum for different students. This means differentiation in classrooms and creating cohorts of like ability students. 2.0 is not just imperfect, it is at the bottom of the heap in terms of curriculum. We need textbooks, we need to follow the units in the textbooks, we need the students to do all the assignements in the textbooks and then be tested on it. Seriously, this is not rocket surgery!
Anonymous
04/02/2018 11:35
Subject: Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
Then congrats -- you have a system you love.
Some of us want to confront the reality that MCPS has serious problems. Since you love it, you don't have to participate. Sit back and enjoy the school system you have.
Confront it, how? And once you've confronted it, then what?
Exactly. Many who supplemented and were invested in their kids education at home, were doing so because they had "confronted" the shitty curriculum, the smoke and mirror testing, the terrible assignments many years ago. These were the parents who were the "difficult" parents who raised their voices in meetings, volunteered and auditioned the classrooms, looked at the material that was handed to their students, were aware of what the curriculum was, were looking at the textbooks, were supplementing for their students, were speaking up on listservs, were bringing opportunities to the school.
So, those of us who confronted it and did something about it are feeling great because our kids are ahead. You snoozed and expect someone else to advocate for you then you get what you get.
MCPS has provided an infrastructure that has many resources inbuilt in it. You have to educate yourself and then work with the scaffolding that has been provided by MCPS and build on that. No one is going to do it for you. And if you want to organize and mobilize people IRL instead of this forum then more power to you. However, you will probably just do nothing.
So many assumptions here. Critical thinking is clearly not your strong suit.
I'm actively involved in advocating for the kids of this system. You know nothing about me.
Anonymous
04/02/2018 11:31
Subject: Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
I INVESTED money in land near downtown Bethesda, which has appreciated and will continue to do so. The schools are good as well!
for how much longer?
I've been in the system for over 20 years as a teacher. born in Mo Co - spent my entire lifetime in this county
Don't depend on Bethesda "holding out" for much longer.
Long enough. My oldest who needs lots of help, has indeed received lots of help from MCPS, for which we are incredibly grateful, and will be out in a few years. My youngest can deal with whatever they throw at her
My son received services early on, but through Infants and Toddlers. So 2.0 wasn't a factor. However, as a rising 4th grader, he was part of the 2.0 roll out. You really don't know the effects until you move into another system, which is happening shortly for us.
So while you say your youngest can deal, I think that's a very sad statement to make about educating your child.
Learning isn't about "dealing." It's about being challenged to master material that will help a person to function in society.
We moved from having total autonomy over guides and instructional practices to having no control over what to present to a classroom of children each learning at a different pace.
Someone mentioned that "ignorance is bliss" with regard to parental awareness. I should be amazed at this lack of awareness, but I'm not, as I do realize that many parents barely touch the surface when conversing with their own children. Superficial discussions at best . . .
how sad
Ha ha ha! You don't me, and yet you assume so much? I have probably thought more about educating my children than you. We prioritize education and work a lot at home. My youngest is not only a hard worker, but very competent. MCPS can go downhill, it will not affect her.
I have criticized MCPS for years on these boards, over specific things (overuse of tech in primary years, absence of textbooks, poor writing preparation in middle and high school, less-than-rigorous selection of electives instructors, etc), but overall, I take exception to painting this public school system in he disastrous light that some do. It's not a lost cause. It's actually a good system. As a scientist, I appreciate the STEM emphasis and the wealth of possible coursework in high school, I find writing to be quite ambitious at the elementary school level, and I love how American schools in general encourage public speaking and personal growth. As a foreigner, I can tell you that it's quite different from other education philosophies (rote, head down, listen to the teacher destroy your self-esteem).
No system will be perfect. MCPS works fine, as long as you remember that education ALWAYS begins at home.
Yes, Yes, Yes. Some of these posters are primarily committed to getting everyone to agree that MCPS is the pits. the energy is not focused on improvement , it is aimed at only saying it sucks in 200 different threads a day.
The amount of vitriol and the amount of time they spend spewing it they could have moved, planned, financed a new charter school and recruited all the other MCPS parents to sign up.
Then congrats -- you have a system you love.
Some of us want to confront the reality that MCPS has serious problems. Since you love it, you don't have to participate. Sit back and enjoy the school system you have.
See, that is your problem. Your vision is skewed. Just because some of us realizing that endless complaining on the Internet is not improving the system does not translate into us loving the system . I do not LOVE it, I have similar issues as the PP to whom I was responding. But I have enough common sense to know that just posting complaints on DCUM is not going to improve it. You are looming for an Amen corner, not a strategy for getting more of what our kids need.
lol.. love this.
Anonymous
04/02/2018 11:30
Subject: Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?
Anonymous wrote:With the recent news about the failure of 2.0, I wonder what we did when we bought our house to send our kids to MCPS.
My kids fall smack dab in the wave of 2.0. They are 13 and 14. They got a heavy dose of 2.0 and any changes that are planned won’t gelp them one bit.
It has been years of complaining, tutoring, frustration and a stint at a private school that we couldn’t afford.
The only upside for me is if they fix the schools (I can’t imagine it getting any worse), my property value will probably improve.
I feel as if my kids were cheated and as a parent, I was exhausted.
My distrust will persist because these public servants betrayed us.
We bought because we liked the house, location for zipping around, the pool community and the schools. I was HS 1997 so not affected by NKLB, but Common Core C2.0 sounds like NKLM on steroids and public school today is a totally different animal than in the 1980s and 1990s.
We really wanted to like our local ES but just could not get comfortable with the principal, curriculum or class sizes in each room. Still like the house location then, and you can get to a variety of private or catholic schools on the route to our DC offices! But MCPS has been a disappointment, as has shelling out $80k/year for two kids in private. But we'd rather have them have that money now for a decent K-8/12 education than later in life.
Anonymous
04/02/2018 11:29
Subject: Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
Then congrats -- you have a system you love.
Some of us want to confront the reality that MCPS has serious problems. Since you love it, you don't have to participate. Sit back and enjoy the school system you have.
Confront it, how? And once you've confronted it, then what?
Exactly. Many who supplemented and were invested in their kids education at home, were doing so because they had "confronted" the shitty curriculum, the smoke and mirror testing, the terrible assignments many years ago. These were the parents who were the "difficult" parents who raised their voices in meetings, volunteered and auditioned the classrooms, looked at the material that was handed to their students, were aware of what the curriculum was, were looking at the textbooks, were supplementing for their students, were speaking up on listservs, were bringing opportunities to the school.
So, those of us who confronted it and did something about it are feeling great because our kids are ahead. You snoozed and expect someone else to advocate for you then you get what you get.
MCPS has provided an infrastructure that has many resources inbuilt in it. You have to educate yourself and then work with the scaffolding that has been provided by MCPS and build on that. No one is going to do it for you. And if you want to organize and mobilize people IRL instead of this forum then more power to you. However, you will probably just do nothing.
Anonymous
04/02/2018 11:29
Subject: Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?
It is rare to find a school that can over come discrepancies in parental income and education. Those are the two most important factors in student success. Not class size, curriculum, money spent, teacher education level...
Is 2.0 perfect no. Will the replacement be..no. Is there a curriculum that has been rated very successful for all different types of kids? That is have not heard of and I would assume it would get a lot of publicity.
Is 2.0 perfect no. Will the replacement be..no. Is there a curriculum that has been rated very successful for all different types of kids? That is have not heard of and I would assume it would get a lot of publicity.
Anonymous
04/02/2018 11:23
Subject: Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
I INVESTED money in land near downtown Bethesda, which has appreciated and will continue to do so. The schools are good as well!
for how much longer?
I've been in the system for over 20 years as a teacher. born in Mo Co - spent my entire lifetime in this county
Don't depend on Bethesda "holding out" for much longer.
Long enough. My oldest who needs lots of help, has indeed received lots of help from MCPS, for which we are incredibly grateful, and will be out in a few years. My youngest can deal with whatever they throw at her
My son received services early on, but through Infants and Toddlers. So 2.0 wasn't a factor. However, as a rising 4th grader, he was part of the 2.0 roll out. You really don't know the effects until you move into another system, which is happening shortly for us.
So while you say your youngest can deal, I think that's a very sad statement to make about educating your child.
Learning isn't about "dealing." It's about being challenged to master material that will help a person to function in society.
We moved from having total autonomy over guides and instructional practices to having no control over what to present to a classroom of children each learning at a different pace.
Someone mentioned that "ignorance is bliss" with regard to parental awareness. I should be amazed at this lack of awareness, but I'm not, as I do realize that many parents barely touch the surface when conversing with their own children. Superficial discussions at best . . .
how sad
Ha ha ha! You don't me, and yet you assume so much? I have probably thought more about educating my children than you. We prioritize education and work a lot at home. My youngest is not only a hard worker, but very competent. MCPS can go downhill, it will not affect her.
I have criticized MCPS for years on these boards, over specific things (overuse of tech in primary years, absence of textbooks, poor writing preparation in middle and high school, less-than-rigorous selection of electives instructors, etc), but overall, I take exception to painting this public school system in he disastrous light that some do. It's not a lost cause. It's actually a good system. As a scientist, I appreciate the STEM emphasis and the wealth of possible coursework in high school, I find writing to be quite ambitious at the elementary school level, and I love how American schools in general encourage public speaking and personal growth. As a foreigner, I can tell you that it's quite different from other education philosophies (rote, head down, listen to the teacher destroy your self-esteem).
No system will be perfect. MCPS works fine, as long as you remember that education ALWAYS begins at home.
Yes, Yes, Yes. Some of these posters are primarily committed to getting everyone to agree that MCPS is the pits. the energy is not focused on improvement , it is aimed at only saying it sucks in 200 different threads a day.
The amount of vitriol and the amount of time they spend spewing it they could have moved, planned, financed a new charter school and recruited all the other MCPS parents to sign up.
Then congrats -- you have a system you love.
Some of us want to confront the reality that MCPS has serious problems. Since you love it, you don't have to participate. Sit back and enjoy the school system you have.
DP.. where did that ^PP state she *loved* MCPS? You make it seem like you either have to completely hate MCPS or completely love it. There's no in between?
^PP is stating that if you hate MCPS *that* much, it would behoove you to spend your time and energy in driving to make changes to MCPS the way you want it to be instead of expending all that energy posting on this forum.
I get that people want to vent on here, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But, I hope you spend more time contacting the BoE and organizing to make changes rather than spending useless time on this forum venting, because that certainly won't change anything except make you more frustrated.
Someone did try to organize over the weekend, but the petition was taken down. I encourage people to contact the BoE and organize. Every time someone has brought up organizing, they've gotten zero traction on here. It's really sad.
Anonymous
04/02/2018 11:23
Subject: Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
I INVESTED money in land near downtown Bethesda, which has appreciated and will continue to do so. The schools are good as well!
for how much longer?
I've been in the system for over 20 years as a teacher. born in Mo Co - spent my entire lifetime in this county
Don't depend on Bethesda "holding out" for much longer.
Long enough. My oldest who needs lots of help, has indeed received lots of help from MCPS, for which we are incredibly grateful, and will be out in a few years. My youngest can deal with whatever they throw at her
My son received services early on, but through Infants and Toddlers. So 2.0 wasn't a factor. However, as a rising 4th grader, he was part of the 2.0 roll out. You really don't know the effects until you move into another system, which is happening shortly for us.
So while you say your youngest can deal, I think that's a very sad statement to make about educating your child.
Learning isn't about "dealing." It's about being challenged to master material that will help a person to function in society.
We moved from having total autonomy over guides and instructional practices to having no control over what to present to a classroom of children each learning at a different pace.
Someone mentioned that "ignorance is bliss" with regard to parental awareness. I should be amazed at this lack of awareness, but I'm not, as I do realize that many parents barely touch the surface when conversing with their own children. Superficial discussions at best . . .
how sad
Ha ha ha! You don't me, and yet you assume so much? I have probably thought more about educating my children than you. We prioritize education and work a lot at home. My youngest is not only a hard worker, but very competent. MCPS can go downhill, it will not affect her.
I have criticized MCPS for years on these boards, over specific things (overuse of tech in primary years, absence of textbooks, poor writing preparation in middle and high school, less-than-rigorous selection of electives instructors, etc), but overall, I take exception to painting this public school system in he disastrous light that some do. It's not a lost cause. It's actually a good system. As a scientist, I appreciate the STEM emphasis and the wealth of possible coursework in high school, I find writing to be quite ambitious at the elementary school level, and I love how American schools in general encourage public speaking and personal growth. As a foreigner, I can tell you that it's quite different from other education philosophies (rote, head down, listen to the teacher destroy your self-esteem).
No system will be perfect. MCPS works fine, as long as you remember that education ALWAYS begins at home.
Yes, Yes, Yes. Some of these posters are primarily committed to getting everyone to agree that MCPS is the pits. the energy is not focused on improvement , it is aimed at only saying it sucks in 200 different threads a day.
The amount of vitriol and the amount of time they spend spewing it they could have moved, planned, financed a new charter school and recruited all the other MCPS parents to sign up.
Then congrats -- you have a system you love.
Some of us want to confront the reality that MCPS has serious problems. Since you love it, you don't have to participate. Sit back and enjoy the school system you have.
See, that is your problem. Your vision is skewed. Just because some of us realizing that endless complaining on the Internet is not improving the system does not translate into us loving the system . I do not LOVE it, I have similar issues as the PP to whom I was responding. But I have enough common sense to know that just posting complaints on DCUM is not going to improve it. You are looming for an Amen corner, not a strategy for getting more of what our kids need.
Anonymous
04/02/2018 11:21
Subject: Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
I INVESTED money in land near downtown Bethesda, which has appreciated and will continue to do so. The schools are good as well!
for how much longer?
I've been in the system for over 20 years as a teacher. born in Mo Co - spent my entire lifetime in this county
Don't depend on Bethesda "holding out" for much longer.
Long enough. My oldest who needs lots of help, has indeed received lots of help from MCPS, for which we are incredibly grateful, and will be out in a few years. My youngest can deal with whatever they throw at her
My son received services early on, but through Infants and Toddlers. So 2.0 wasn't a factor. However, as a rising 4th grader, he was part of the 2.0 roll out. You really don't know the effects until you move into another system, which is happening shortly for us.
So while you say your youngest can deal, I think that's a very sad statement to make about educating your child.
Learning isn't about "dealing." It's about being challenged to master material that will help a person to function in society.
We moved from having total autonomy over guides and instructional practices to having no control over what to present to a classroom of children each learning at a different pace.
Someone mentioned that "ignorance is bliss" with regard to parental awareness. I should be amazed at this lack of awareness, but I'm not, as I do realize that many parents barely touch the surface when conversing with their own children. Superficial discussions at best . . .
how sad
Ha ha ha! You don't me, and yet you assume so much? I have probably thought more about educating my children than you. We prioritize education and work a lot at home. My youngest is not only a hard worker, but very competent. MCPS can go downhill, it will not affect her.
I have criticized MCPS for years on these boards, over specific things (overuse of tech in primary years, absence of textbooks, poor writing preparation in middle and high school, less-than-rigorous selection of electives instructors, etc), but overall, I take exception to painting this public school system in he disastrous light that some do. It's not a lost cause. It's actually a good system. As a scientist, I appreciate the STEM emphasis and the wealth of possible coursework in high school, I find writing to be quite ambitious at the elementary school level, and I love how American schools in general encourage public speaking and personal growth. As a foreigner, I can tell you that it's quite different from other education philosophies (rote, head down, listen to the teacher destroy your self-esteem).
No system will be perfect. MCPS works fine, as long as you remember that education ALWAYS begins at home.
Yes, Yes, Yes. Some of these posters are primarily committed to getting everyone to agree that MCPS is the pits. the energy is not focused on improvement , it is aimed at only saying it sucks in 200 different threads a day.
The amount of vitriol and the amount of time they spend spewing it they could have moved, planned, financed a new charter school and recruited all the other MCPS parents to sign up.
Then congrats -- you have a system you love.
Some of us want to confront the reality that MCPS has serious problems. Since you love it, you don't have to participate. Sit back and enjoy the school system you have.
DP.. where did that ^PP state she *loved* MCPS? You make it seem like you either have to completely hate MCPS or completely love it. There's no in between?
^PP is stating that if you hate MCPS *that* much, it would behoove you to spend your time and energy in driving to make changes to MCPS the way you want it to be instead of expending all that energy posting on this forum.
I get that people want to vent on here, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But, I hope you spend more time contacting the BoE and organizing to make changes rather than spending useless time on this forum venting, because that certainly won't change anything except make you more frustrated.
Anonymous
04/02/2018 11:19
Subject: Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?
Anonymous wrote:
Then congrats -- you have a system you love.
Some of us want to confront the reality that MCPS has serious problems. Since you love it, you don't have to participate. Sit back and enjoy the school system you have.
Confront it, how? And once you've confronted it, then what?
Anonymous
04/02/2018 11:16
Subject: Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
I INVESTED money in land near downtown Bethesda, which has appreciated and will continue to do so. The schools are good as well!
for how much longer?
I've been in the system for over 20 years as a teacher. born in Mo Co - spent my entire lifetime in this county
Don't depend on Bethesda "holding out" for much longer.
Long enough. My oldest who needs lots of help, has indeed received lots of help from MCPS, for which we are incredibly grateful, and will be out in a few years. My youngest can deal with whatever they throw at her
My son received services early on, but through Infants and Toddlers. So 2.0 wasn't a factor. However, as a rising 4th grader, he was part of the 2.0 roll out. You really don't know the effects until you move into another system, which is happening shortly for us.
So while you say your youngest can deal, I think that's a very sad statement to make about educating your child.
Learning isn't about "dealing." It's about being challenged to master material that will help a person to function in society.
We moved from having total autonomy over guides and instructional practices to having no control over what to present to a classroom of children each learning at a different pace.
Someone mentioned that "ignorance is bliss" with regard to parental awareness. I should be amazed at this lack of awareness, but I'm not, as I do realize that many parents barely touch the surface when conversing with their own children. Superficial discussions at best . . .
how sad
Ha ha ha! You don't me, and yet you assume so much? I have probably thought more about educating my children than you. We prioritize education and work a lot at home. My youngest is not only a hard worker, but very competent. MCPS can go downhill, it will not affect her.
I have criticized MCPS for years on these boards, over specific things (overuse of tech in primary years, absence of textbooks, poor writing preparation in middle and high school, less-than-rigorous selection of electives instructors, etc), but overall, I take exception to painting this public school system in he disastrous light that some do. It's not a lost cause. It's actually a good system. As a scientist, I appreciate the STEM emphasis and the wealth of possible coursework in high school, I find writing to be quite ambitious at the elementary school level, and I love how American schools in general encourage public speaking and personal growth. As a foreigner, I can tell you that it's quite different from other education philosophies (rote, head down, listen to the teacher destroy your self-esteem).
No system will be perfect. MCPS works fine, as long as you remember that education ALWAYS begins at home.
Yes, Yes, Yes. Some of these posters are primarily committed to getting everyone to agree that MCPS is the pits. the energy is not focused on improvement , it is aimed at only saying it sucks in 200 different threads a day.
The amount of vitriol and the amount of time they spend spewing it they could have moved, planned, financed a new charter school and recruited all the other MCPS parents to sign up.
Then congrats -- you have a system you love.
Some of us want to confront the reality that MCPS has serious problems. Since you love it, you don't have to participate. Sit back and enjoy the school system you have.
Anonymous
04/02/2018 11:06
Subject: Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
I INVESTED money in land near downtown Bethesda, which has appreciated and will continue to do so. The schools are good as well!
for how much longer?
I've been in the system for over 20 years as a teacher. born in Mo Co - spent my entire lifetime in this county
Don't depend on Bethesda "holding out" for much longer.
Long enough. My oldest who needs lots of help, has indeed received lots of help from MCPS, for which we are incredibly grateful, and will be out in a few years. My youngest can deal with whatever they throw at her
My son received services early on, but through Infants and Toddlers. So 2.0 wasn't a factor. However, as a rising 4th grader, he was part of the 2.0 roll out. You really don't know the effects until you move into another system, which is happening shortly for us.
So while you say your youngest can deal, I think that's a very sad statement to make about educating your child.
Learning isn't about "dealing." It's about being challenged to master material that will help a person to function in society.
We moved from having total autonomy over guides and instructional practices to having no control over what to present to a classroom of children each learning at a different pace.
Someone mentioned that "ignorance is bliss" with regard to parental awareness. I should be amazed at this lack of awareness, but I'm not, as I do realize that many parents barely touch the surface when conversing with their own children. Superficial discussions at best . . .
how sad
Ha ha ha! You don't me, and yet you assume so much? I have probably thought more about educating my children than you. We prioritize education and work a lot at home. My youngest is not only a hard worker, but very competent. MCPS can go downhill, it will not affect her.
I have criticized MCPS for years on these boards, over specific things (overuse of tech in primary years, absence of textbooks, poor writing preparation in middle and high school, less-than-rigorous selection of electives instructors, etc), but overall, I take exception to painting this public school system in he disastrous light that some do. It's not a lost cause. It's actually a good system. As a scientist, I appreciate the STEM emphasis and the wealth of possible coursework in high school, I find writing to be quite ambitious at the elementary school level, and I love how American schools in general encourage public speaking and personal growth. As a foreigner, I can tell you that it's quite different from other education philosophies (rote, head down, listen to the teacher destroy your self-esteem).
No system will be perfect. MCPS works fine, as long as you remember that education ALWAYS begins at home.
Yes, Yes, Yes. Some of these posters are primarily committed to getting everyone to agree that MCPS is the pits. the energy is not focused on improvement , it is aimed at only saying it sucks in 200 different threads a day.
The amount of vitriol and the amount of time they spend spewing it they could have moved, planned, financed a new charter school and recruited all the other MCPS parents to sign up.
Anonymous
04/02/2018 11:03
Subject: Did you waste your money buying a house to get access to MCPS?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
I INVESTED money in land near downtown Bethesda, which has appreciated and will continue to do so. The schools are good as well!
for how much longer?
I've been in the system for over 20 years as a teacher. born in Mo Co - spent my entire lifetime in this county
Don't depend on Bethesda "holding out" for much longer.
Long enough. My oldest who needs lots of help, has indeed received lots of help from MCPS, for which we are incredibly grateful, and will be out in a few years. My youngest can deal with whatever they throw at her
My son received services early on, but through Infants and Toddlers. So 2.0 wasn't a factor. However, as a rising 4th grader, he was part of the 2.0 roll out. You really don't know the effects until you move into another system, which is happening shortly for us.
So while you say your youngest can deal, I think that's a very sad statement to make about educating your child.
Learning isn't about "dealing." It's about being challenged to master material that will help a person to function in society.
We moved from having total autonomy over guides and instructional practices to having no control over what to present to a classroom of children each learning at a different pace.
Someone mentioned that "ignorance is bliss" with regard to parental awareness. I should be amazed at this lack of awareness, but I'm not, as I do realize that many parents barely touch the surface when conversing with their own children. Superficial discussions at best . . .
how sad
Ha ha ha! You don't me, and yet you assume so much? I have probably thought more about educating my children than you. We prioritize education and work a lot at home. My youngest is not only a hard worker, but very competent. MCPS can go downhill, it will not affect her.
I have criticized MCPS for years on these boards, over specific things (overuse of tech in primary years, absence of textbooks, poor writing preparation in middle and high school, less-than-rigorous selection of electives instructors, etc), but overall, I take exception to painting this public school system in he disastrous light that some do. It's not a lost cause. It's actually a good system. As a scientist, I appreciate the STEM emphasis and the wealth of possible coursework in high school, I find writing to be quite ambitious at the elementary school level, and I love how American schools in general encourage public speaking and personal growth. As a foreigner, I can tell you that it's quite different from other education philosophies (rote, head down, listen to the teacher destroy your self-esteem).
No system will be perfect. MCPS works fine, as long as you remember that education ALWAYS begins at home.
You certainly are limited. As a teacher, I am aware of the fact that schooling BEGINS at home. However, there are many disadvantaged students who don't have supportive families. Your limited lens prevents you from acknowledging that.
As someone who is first gen, I can assure you that in my parents' country, kids learn the basics. Therefore, despite the paths they take, they can function - unlike many of our students who graduate illiterate.
So while this country should be designed to educate "the masses," as Jefferson stated, we do a poor job of this. So you can live in your elitist bubble or you can become a true citizen who also cares about those children who struggle.
You love how we encourage "personal growth," eh? the irony . . .