Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Cooper has any unique problems, just very typical adolescent friend drama.

Cooper is unique in that it has no sports or community building activities whatsoever. Sure, you can go to movie club after school and sit quietly and watch a movie but that is not what I mean.

Most schools that I, my children and people I know, have gone to have made a concerted effort to integrate the kids and make them feel welcome and part of a community. There is one field trip at the very end of the year. There is one sports day, at the very end of the year. There is nothing else.

There is recess for the first time this year but for most of the kids, that still means sitting inside.

There is a short 30 minute lunch, inside. But don't talk too loudly or you will get detention. Half the year, PE is health class - which means sitting inside.

There is also no PTA - just a PTO whose entire job is to raise money for band instruments. Parents aren't really welcome on campus.

It's like a factory where kids who have lots of energy are made to sit inside all day long, moving from class to class with just 5 minutes in between. It's a dark building and most kids don't go outside most days. It is the most miserable school experience I have ever encountered in my 20 years of having kids in school.

Anonymous wrote:Like I said, the boys are surviving. It is bad for girls. Boys don’t have friend groups or drama. Boys and girls do not social together nicely either like in elementary schools. The school is not a healthy environment for girls. You are fine if you are a boy attending this school.

Anonymous wrote:This thread is so interesting because all the negative comments are so so true. I have a girl graduating top of the class. She is very mature, cool and not one of the studious or nerdy ones. But like her cool, athletic and intelligent peers, as I recently learned, each of them hated their experience at Cooper Middle School as much as she did. They are all so happy it is almost over, counting the days. Nobody wanted to go to any of the end of the year events or spend any more time with anybody at school. Can you imagine most wanted nothing to do with the school dance or the class field trip to the amusement park? Most want to forget, break off forever and move on. As parents we have been so beyond disappointed with the middle school experience for girls and with this school and the current 8th grade. It has left such a bad taste in our mouth to say the least. Though I hear Langley HS will be different as the kids will change, we are too weary and doubtful of that at least for the first year since it’s the same kids from this class. Will the high school be able to instill a better, kinder, friendly, inclusive, and respectful culture if the middle school couldn’t at all? We are going to have to change to a private school just to really avoid the same environment. It has been upsetting seeing the drama and social aspect affect our daughter, who came home sad because she hated every day lunch time, because of the friend groups. The cliques that don’t let you in and your own friend group that is actually mean to you. You will suffer from your friend group that treats you like crap because they are so insecure and when they are not around totally excluded because you are not part of the other groups. You have no control of your schedule and will end up at different lunch than those few friends you truly want to be with. That is supposed to be the most enjoyed time of the day! But it is horrible….We are so disgusted with the incredibly immature, insecure and mean girls, the extremely rude and racist environment among the boys culture. What kind of parents do they have? The dirty mouths of the kids in the hallway, worse than what you see in rated R movies. They do not and cannot control anything. The 3 values you see on the wall of the front office tell you the issues they are trying to solve but are failing badly. Values are something that are actually adopted and in practice and reinforced all the time, and they don’t have any assemblies at all to preach them, so they don’t have these yet as values. Rather they should call them “current problems” we need to solve asap.

Anonymous wrote:This thread is so interesting because all the negative comments are so so true. I have a girl graduating top of the class. She is very mature, cool and not one of the studious or nerdy ones. But like her cool, athletic and intelligent peers, as I recently learned, each of them hated their experience at Cooper Middle School as much as she did. They are all so happy it is almost over, counting the days. Nobody wanted to go to any of the end of the year events or spend any more time with anybody at school. Can you imagine most wanted nothing to do with the school dance or the class field trip to the amusement park? Most want to forget, break off forever and move on. As parents we have been so beyond disappointed with the middle school experience for girls and with this school and the current 8th grade. It has left such a bad taste in our mouth to say the least. Though I hear Langley HS will be different as the kids will change, we are too weary and doubtful of that at least for the first year since it’s the same kids from this class. Will the high school be able to instill a better, kinder, friendly, inclusive, and respectful culture if the middle school couldn’t at all? We are going to have to change to a private school just to really avoid the same environment. It has been upsetting seeing the drama and social aspect affect our daughter, who came home sad because she hated every day lunch time, because of the friend groups. The cliques that don’t let you in and your own friend group that is actually mean to you. You will suffer from your friend group that treats you like crap because they are so insecure and when they are not around totally excluded because you are not part of the other groups. You have no control of your schedule and will end up at different lunch than those few friends you truly want to be with. That is supposed to be the most enjoyed time of the day! But it is horrible….We are so disgusted with the incredibly immature, insecure and mean girls, the extremely rude and racist environment among the boys culture. What kind of parents do they have? The dirty mouths of the kids in the hallway, worse than what you see in rated R movies. They do not and cannot control anything. The 3 values you see on the wall of the front office tell you the issues they are trying to solve but are failing badly. Values are something that are actually adopted and in practice and reinforced all the time, and they don’t have any assemblies at all to preach them, so they don’t have these yet as values. Rather they should call them “current problems” we need to solve asap.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Cooper has any unique problems, just very typical adolescent friend drama.

Cooper is unique in that it has no sports or community building activities whatsoever. Sure, you can go to movie club after school and sit quietly and watch a movie but that is not what I mean.

Most schools that I, my children and people I know, have gone to have made a concerted effort to integrate the kids and make them feel welcome and part of a community. There is one field trip at the very end of the year. There is one sports day, at the very end of the year. There is nothing else.

There is recess for the first time this year but for most of the kids, that still means sitting inside.

There is a short 30 minute lunch, inside. But don't talk too loudly or you will get detention. Half the year, PE is health class - which means sitting inside.

There is also no PTA - just a PTO whose entire job is to raise money for band instruments. Parents aren't really welcome on campus.

It's like a factory where kids who have lots of energy are made to sit inside all day long, moving from class to class with just 5 minutes in between. It's a dark building and most kids don't go outside most days. It is the most miserable school experience I have ever encountered in my 20 years of having kids in school.

Maybe some of this is due to the school currently being under renovation? At some point they'll be done.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Cooper has any unique problems, just very typical adolescent friend drama.

Cooper is unique in that it has no sports or community building activities whatsoever. Sure, you can go to movie club after school and sit quietly and watch a movie but that is not what I mean.

Most schools that I, my children and people I know, have gone to have made a concerted effort to integrate the kids and make them feel welcome and part of a community. There is one field trip at the very end of the year. There is one sports day, at the very end of the year. There is nothing else.

There is recess for the first time this year but for most of the kids, that still means sitting inside.

There is a short 30 minute lunch, inside. But don't talk too loudly or you will get detention. Half the year, PE is health class - which means sitting inside.

There is also no PTA - just a PTO whose entire job is to raise money for band instruments. Parents aren't really welcome on campus.

It's like a factory where kids who have lots of energy are made to sit inside all day long, moving from class to class with just 5 minutes in between. It's a dark building and most kids don't go outside most days. It is the most miserable school experience I have ever encountered in my 20 years of having kids in school.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think Cooper has any unique problems, just very typical adolescent friend drama.

Anonymous wrote:This thread is so interesting because all the negative comments are so so true. I have a girl graduating top of the class. She is very mature, cool and not one of the studious or nerdy ones. But like her cool, athletic and intelligent peers, as I recently learned, each of them hated their experience at Cooper Middle School as much as she did. They are all so happy it is almost over, counting the days. Nobody wanted to go to any of the end of the year events or spend any more time with anybody at school. Can you imagine most wanted nothing to do with the school dance or the class field trip to the amusement park? Most want to forget, break off forever and move on. As parents we have been so beyond disappointed with the middle school experience for girls and with this school and the current 8th grade. It has left such a bad taste in our mouth to say the least. Though I hear Langley HS will be different as the kids will change, we are too weary and doubtful of that at least for the first year since it’s the same kids from this class. Will the high school be able to instill a better, kinder, friendly, inclusive, and respectful culture if the middle school couldn’t at all? We are going to have to change to a private school just to really avoid the same environment. It has been upsetting seeing the drama and social aspect affect our daughter, who came home sad because she hated every day lunch time, because of the friend groups. The cliques that don’t let you in and your own friend group that is actually mean to you. You will suffer from your friend group that treats you like crap because they are so insecure and when they are not around totally excluded because you are not part of the other groups. You have no control of your schedule and will end up at different lunch than those few friends you truly want to be with. That is supposed to be the most enjoyed time of the day! But it is horrible….We are so disgusted with the incredibly immature, insecure and mean girls, the extremely rude and racist environment among the boys culture. What kind of parents do they have? The dirty mouths of the kids in the hallway, worse than what you see in rated R movies. They do not and cannot control anything. The 3 values you see on the wall of the front office tell you the issues they are trying to solve but are failing badly. Values are something that are actually adopted and in practice and reinforced all the time, and they don’t have any assemblies at all to preach them, so they don’t have these yet as values. Rather they should call them “current problems” we need to solve asap.

Anonymous wrote:Like I said, the boys are surviving. It is bad for girls. Boys don’t have friend groups or drama. Boys and girls do not social together nicely either like in elementary schools. The school is not a healthy environment for girls. You are fine if you are a boy attending this school.

Anonymous wrote:Just wanted to post that 100 kids in a gym class is pretty typical for FCPS. They have different teachers but share the same space. It's usually broken down into four teachers but sometimes they are all sharing that same gym space.

Anonymous wrote:Like I said, the boys are surviving. It is bad for girls. Boys don’t have friend groups or drama. Boys and girls do not social together nicely either like in elementary schools. The school is not a healthy environment for girls. You are fine if you are a boy attending this school.