Anonymous wrote:Remarkably, everyone who responds to this has a straight A student with a natural work ethic who gets straight A's at a magnet program, and it's nothing they did, their children are just superior. Don't believe me? You don't have to ask them, they will tell you again.

I have a bright, lazy kid who squeaked into a magnet program off the wait list and has straight... B's. With the occasional A and C. You probably think my kid is just there to make yours look good. I don't care, I just want them to have classes that are hard and engaging. It has occurred to me more than once, watching my kid and others like them, that engaging underachievers is not easy. I wonder how many other kids didn't make the cut but would enjoy the challenge.

Anonymous wrote:My kid in this "specific ethnic communities" is not smarter than anyone else, and he is most at average.

However, his work ethic is at the top ! He has never been in any class outside MCPS, and he has a a lot free tutors from the internet, they are free and accessible to anyone.

Before Covid, his summers were all about volunteer work, this summer he started to work as a lifeguard working over 40 hours a week !

He is a straight A student at Blair Magnet.

Anonymous wrote:My kid in this "specific ethnic communities" is not smarter than anyone else, and he is most at average.

However, his work ethic is at the top ! He has never been in any class outside MCPS, and he has a a lot free tutors from the internet, they are free and accessible to anyone.

Before Covid, his summers were all about volunteer work, this summer he started to work as a lifeguard working over 40 hours a week !

He is a straight A student at Blair Magnet.

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DP.. and so what if they do study extra harder to get into a competitive magnet?

I used to think like you, but I realized that when a parent hires a coach for a kid to get better in athletics, no one bats an eye, but if they do this for academics, then it's considered terrible. Why? IMO, academics is more important than athletics.

And before you think I hired a tutor for my kids, I have never done so. My DC is in a test in magnet.

Plenty of people bat an eye.

really? How many posts are there on this forum about people making negative comments about hiring private coaches for some sport vs about people hiring tutors for kids who aren't behind academically?

This isn't a sports forum.

so, if you go into the sports forum, how many people do you think make negative comments about parents hiring private coaches for their kids?

Vs the school forum, and how many people like the PP you cut out of the thread who make negative comments about kids who study hard to get into a magnet?

It’s not just studying hard if only a small group of students have access to an expert at getting students into magnets. It’s like saying the group of people building a house without the blueprints don’t want to work as hard as the other group that was given the plans.

^^ This, all the way. It's not based upon natural ability. There are a lot of people especially in specific ethnic communities that spend tons on tutors and then act like their kids are just naturally smarter than everyone else. Far from the truth.

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DP.. and so what if they do study extra harder to get into a competitive magnet?

I used to think like you, but I realized that when a parent hires a coach for a kid to get better in athletics, no one bats an eye, but if they do this for academics, then it's considered terrible. Why? IMO, academics is more important than athletics.

And before you think I hired a tutor for my kids, I have never done so. My DC is in a test in magnet.

Plenty of people bat an eye.

really? How many posts are there on this forum about people making negative comments about hiring private coaches for some sport vs about people hiring tutors for kids who aren't behind academically?

This isn't a sports forum.

so, if you go into the sports forum, how many people do you think make negative comments about parents hiring private coaches for their kids?

Vs the school forum, and how many people like the PP you cut out of the thread who make negative comments about kids who study hard to get into a magnet?

It’s not just studying hard if only a small group of students have access to an expert at getting students into magnets. It’s like saying the group of people building a house without the blueprints don’t want to work as hard as the other group that was given the plans.

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Anonymous wrote:Does MCPS have a school similar to TJ in Virginia? What school would that be?

No. They have magnet programs embedded in different schools. The top three in demand are Blair, Richard Montgomery, and Poolesville. But there are many more.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/high/

Are they any good? Is it a difficult process to get in? I had a foster child this year who went to an engineering magnet middle school and I was shocked at how easy her classes were and how bad her teachers were.

Blair magnet is a rough equivalent of TJ. Probably, slightly less rigorous but equally difficult to get in. RM magnet is humanities so can't be compared to TJ.
Don't know much about Poolesville.

No, Blair is definitely more difficult to get in and is honestly a bit more rigorous than TJ

Although smaller Blair has a higher SAT average, Intel scholars, NMSF, members of USA Math & Physics Olympiads and beats the stuffing out of TJ on It's Academic just for fun.

The smaller is the key part. Blair picks the roughly 100 great students out of a similar sized county and TJ picks hundreds every year. They get to dip a lower in the pool due to being lager. That will always dilute your scores. The same effect why Blair has one of the lower SAT scores in the county despite having the program embedded to boost scores and perceptions. The larger school simply drowns out the statistics but one can speculate how low they would rank without importing those almost 100 kids assuming a few make it in form the IB naturally. While Takoma middle puts more kids in the program than any other middle, most of those kids are out of bounds too in the middle magnet except for the 25 set aside seats which were created because local kids were getting squeezed out of the local program by higher testing W kids.

This is where all the prepping accusations come from (because how dare a kids read a book prior to a test, cheaters) and why the East county wants to consider local peer group for admissions to tip the scales in the local favor. Funny part it is a quiet self own to all people who claim to have bought cheaper houses to get a more “better” peer group but turn around and want considerations for not having better peers for their kids.

Wrong, idiot.

Delusional striver. Blair is a joke to everyone outside the DCC. It is the cheap side of town, anyone can go there, most don’t want to.

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Anonymous wrote:I know we've moved on, but I wanted to talk about the sports vs. academics question.

The difference between the two comes down to why sports teams exist vs. why magnet programs exist.

Sports teams exist to win games. For that reason, it makes sense to assemble a team made up of the best prepared players, regardless of whether they are relying on natural talent, or expensive private coaching, or both.

The point of a public school magnet program is not to "win games." It is to nurture talent. That's actually a fundamentally different goal. If you are looking for raw talent, particularly raw talent that might otherwise be missed, then extensive coaching not only undermines the endeavor, but is something the district should rigorously try to guard against. The point is the uncover kids who might otherwise not see their talent realized, and to help them grow into their potential.

what's to say that kids who get tutored aren't having their "natural" talent cultivated, but just outside of school?

My kid has natural musical talent. Should I only just rely on the school to cultivate the kid's musical ability? Is it unfair that the 1st chair in the school orchestra also gets a lot of outside private music instruction? How will a kid who has natural talent but doesn't get outside tutoring ever be 1st chair with this unfair competition?

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Anonymous wrote:I know we've moved on, but I wanted to talk about the sports vs. academics question.

The difference between the two comes down to why sports teams exist vs. why magnet programs exist.

Sports teams exist to win games. For that reason, it makes sense to assemble a team made up of the best prepared players, regardless of whether they are relying on natural talent, or expensive private coaching, or both.

The point of a public school magnet program is not to "win games." It is to nurture talent. That's actually a fundamentally different goal. If you are looking for raw talent, particularly raw talent that might otherwise be missed, then extensive coaching not only undermines the endeavor, but is something the district should rigorously try to guard against. The point is the uncover kids who might otherwise not see their talent realized, and to help them grow into their potential.

what's to say that kids who get tutored aren't having their "natural" talent cultivated, but just outside of school?

My kid has natural musical talent. Should I only just rely on the school to cultivate the kid's musical ability? Is it unfair that the 1st chair in the school orchestra also gets a lot of outside private music instruction? How will a kid who has natural talent but doesn't get outside tutoring ever be 1st chair with this unfair competition?

Anonymous wrote:I know we've moved on, but I wanted to talk about the sports vs. academics question.

The difference between the two comes down to why sports teams exist vs. why magnet programs exist.

Sports teams exist to win games. For that reason, it makes sense to assemble a team made up of the best prepared players, regardless of whether they are relying on natural talent, or expensive private coaching, or both.

The point of a public school magnet program is not to "win games." It is to nurture talent. That's actually a fundamentally different goal. If you are looking for raw talent, particularly raw talent that might otherwise be missed, then extensive coaching not only undermines the endeavor, but is something the district should rigorously try to guard against. The point is the uncover kids who might otherwise not see their talent realized, and to help them grow into their potential.

Anonymous wrote:I know we've moved on, but I wanted to talk about the sports vs. academics question.

The difference between the two comes down to why sports teams exist vs. why magnet programs exist.

Sports teams exist to win games. For that reason, it makes sense to assemble a team made up of the best prepared players, regardless of whether they are relying on natural talent, or expensive private coaching, or both.

The point of a public school magnet program is not to "win games." It is to nurture talent. That's actually a fundamentally different goal. If you are looking for raw talent, particularly raw talent that might otherwise be missed, then extensive coaching not only undermines the endeavor, but is something the district should rigorously try to guard against. The point is the uncover kids who might otherwise not see their talent realized, and to help them grow into their potential.

Anonymous wrote:The magnet kids go back home and tell stories about how ghetto the local kids are and the crazy stuff they have seen. Don’t believe me? Take a Blair kids word for it. Blair is so proud of the program but it was given to them because the school was consider a lost cause other wise
https://medium.com/@samanthaxcody/magnet-programs-segregation-and-the-anti-blackness-of-the-asian-model-minority-myth-7790df0fb00a" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> https://medium.com/@samanthaxcody/magnet-programs-segregation-and-the-anti-blackness-of-the-asian-model-minority-myth-7790df0fb00a