Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You also discount the effect of child burnout. Many students who are pushed by their parents at a young age develop depression, anxiety, and stress. I cannot imagine that a child that is prepped and driven by their parents wouldn't feel pressure to perform. I don't want that type of life for my 8 year old.

All of those burned out students hanging around outside the Kumon center in Vienna. We won't even go to the yogurt or cupcake stores next door anymore. It is just too scary and sad to see all of those traumatized kids with their thousand yard stares and with their tiger mom mothers trailing behind them waving Kumon test packets at them while babbling in strange foreign languages. A lot of the kids will probably end up in prison or worse after they grow up. Surely they wont be going to any good schools or even getting any jobs in STEM fields. If only their parents would stop the cheating and scamming...

"...while babbling in strange foreign languages"...wow. WTH?

Its parody. WTF with you?

It may be a parody, but there is some truth to the sentiment that children that are pressed to much by their parents tend to crack. Going to Kumon twice a week is not what people are referencing. [b]It is the parents that make young children do two hours a night of homework - think more like the Amy [/b]Chua (sp ?)
book. If gaining acceptance and continuing to perform well required that type of work, then I think it is too much pressure for an elmentary aged kid.

Where in the hell are you coming up with this? Is this an epidemic in our County? What percentage of kids are being forced to study for 2 hours a night against their will? Should we insist on an investigation into this by FF County? Have you interviewed these kids and confirmed their servitude status? How many do you personally know? How deep does this go?

My kids practice sports 2 hours a day 4 days week. Do they also fall into this class? Maybe, just maybe, most of the kids who go to Kumon like it, they have friends there, they enjoy learning. Maybe the kids whose parents work with them for several hours a day are developing kids with good study habits who will be achievers in life. Just think, some of those kids might actually rather read a book (even non-fiction!) for two hours rather than watching cartoons on TV or playing video games, and it may actually be a positive outlet for them to unwind. People are very quick to judge others parenting decisions, and other culture's accepted norms as negative. Do with your own as you see fit, butt out of the others' business.

Anonymous wrote:

I'm personally very against extensive prepping and having kids pressured and burned out.
Also sorry about your kid(s) not making AAP.

Why do posters like you always assume that the other posters kids are not in AAP? Really, I'd like to know...

Ummm, My kid is in AAP and has been for 3 years now and she loves it.

Seems to me you assume more than me about others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You also discount the effect of child burnout. Many students who are pushed by their parents at a young age develop depression, anxiety, and stress. I cannot imagine that a child that is prepped and driven by their parents wouldn't feel pressure to perform. I don't want that type of life for my 8 year old.

All of those burned out students hanging around outside the Kumon center in Vienna. We won't even go to the yogurt or cupcake stores next door anymore. It is just too scary and sad to see all of those traumatized kids with their thousand yard stares and with their tiger mom mothers trailing behind them waving Kumon test packets at them while babbling in strange foreign languages. A lot of the kids will probably end up in prison or worse after they grow up. Surely they wont be going to any good schools or even getting any jobs in STEM fields. If only their parents would stop the cheating and scamming...

"...while babbling in strange foreign languages"...wow. WTH?

Its parody. WTF with you?

It may be a parody, but there is some truth to the sentiment that children that are pressed to much by their parents tend to crack. Going to Kumon twice a week is not what people are referencing. It is the parents that make young children do two hours a night of homework - think more like the Amy Chua (sp ?) book. If gaining acceptance and continuing to perform well required that type of work, then I think it is too much pressure for an elmentary aged kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You also discount the effect of child burnout. Many students who are pushed by their parents at a young age develop depression, anxiety, and stress. I cannot imagine that a child that is prepped and driven by their parents wouldn't feel pressure to perform. I don't want that type of life for my 8 year old.

All of those burned out students hanging around outside the Kumon center in Vienna. We won't even go to the yogurt or cupcake stores next door anymore. It is just too scary and sad to see all of those traumatized kids with their thousand yard stares and with their tiger mom mothers trailing behind them waving Kumon test packets at them while babbling in strange foreign languages. A lot of the kids will probably end up in prison or worse after they grow up. Surely they wont be going to any good schools or even getting any jobs in STEM fields. If only their parents would stop the cheating and scamming...

"...while babbling in strange foreign languages"...wow. WTH?

Its parody. WTF with you?

Anonymous wrote:

You also discount the effect of child burnout. Many students who are pushed by their parents at a young age develop depression, anxiety, and stress. I cannot imagine that a child that is prepped and driven by their parents wouldn't feel pressure to perform. I don't want that type of life for my 8 year old.

All of those burned out students hanging around outside the Kumon center in Vienna. We won't even go to the yogurt or cupcake stores next door anymore. It is just too scary and sad to see all of those traumatized kids with their thousand yard stares and with their tiger mom mothers trailing behind them waving Kumon test packets at them while babbling in strange foreign languages. A lot of the kids will probably end up in prison or worse after they grow up. Surely they wont be going to any good schools or even getting any jobs in STEM fields. If only their parents would stop the cheating and scamming...

"...while babbling in strange foreign languages"...wow. WTH?

I'm personally very against extensive prepping and having kids pressured and burned out.
Also sorry about your kid(s) not making AAP.

Why do posters like you always assume that the other posters kids are not in AAP? Really, I'd like to know...

Ummm, My kid is in AAP and has been for 3 years now and she loves it.

Anonymous wrote:

You also discount the effect of child burnout. Many students who are pushed by their parents at a young age develop depression, anxiety, and stress. I cannot imagine that a child that is prepped and driven by their parents wouldn't feel pressure to perform. I don't want that type of life for my 8 year old.

All of those burned out students hanging around outside the Kumon center in Vienna. We won't even go to the yogurt or cupcake stores next door anymore. It is just too scary and sad to see all of those traumatized kids with their thousand yard stares and with their tiger mom mothers trailing behind them waving Kumon test packets at them while babbling in strange foreign languages. A lot of the kids will probably end up in prison or worse after they grow up. Surely they wont be going to any good schools or even getting any jobs in STEM fields. If only their parents would stop the cheating and scamming...

I'm personally very against extensive prepping and having kids pressured and burned out.
Also sorry about your kid(s) not making AAP.

You also discount the effect of child burnout. Many students who are pushed by their parents at a young age develop depression, anxiety, and stress. I cannot imagine that a child that is prepped and driven by their parents wouldn't feel pressure to perform. I don't want that type of life for my 8 year old.

All of those burned out students hanging around outside the Kumon center in Vienna. We won't even go to the yogurt or cupcake stores next door anymore. It is just too scary and sad to see all of those traumatized kids with their thousand yard stares and with their tiger mom mothers trailing behind them waving Kumon test packets at them while babbling in strange foreign languages. A lot of the kids will probably end up in prison or worse after they grow up. Surely they wont be going to any good schools or even getting any jobs in STEM fields. If only their parents would stop the cheating and scamming...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What if the child doesn't prep, and has high scores, and wants a rich learning environment, not to just crank out a bunch of work to prove how advanced s/he is? Then where do they go?

AAP is not much work. It is very creative and project based.

I'm PP, and my understanding is this varies considerably from school to school and teacher to teacher. Have friends who found that (creative and project based) not to be the case at all. In fact, one of the kids in gen ed had a richer, more project based experience. With the possible exception of the Latin component & compacted math, there didn't seem to be a big difference in the depth or scope of the work, if a gen ed kid with a good teacher chooses to "go deep."

It was also clear that parents had a heavy hand in their kids' work. No doubt that's going to bring a rash of responses from people swearing they don't do their kids' work, and I'm sure many do not. That doesn't mean there aren't others who do. That's what AAP seems to create, even if it's not the intention.

We are Asians and we did not prep (1 in AAP, and one in Gen Ed) . We both graduated from FCPS and considered ourselves very involved in our kids education. I guess I missed the Test Prep memo that was sent out to all the Asian parents ?

Seriously though, perhaps FCPS should be more honest on their official stance to make it "fair" for everyone, especially those who are not in the know and let the parents decide. It should read something like this:

"Sample questions are practiced by students as part of the test preparation. The best test preparation is a good night's sleep and a healthy breakfast. But some parents may feel more comfortable practicing the sample questions with their child at home before the test. Sample tests are commercially available."

The prep and studying before the munchkin got sick and took the test doesn't count.

The irony is 99% of all these gifted and precious 99.9 percentilers will attend the bottom half all community colleges and universities should they get to that level.

Anonymous wrote:98 percentile. No prep. Worse yet, DC was sick the day they did the practice test and missed the practice test, and was still getting over the cold next day when he took the test. We did not know there was a practice round. No matter. We did not make a fuss. With his 99 percentile in NNAT he was already in the pool so no pressure on CogAt.

"Worse yet"...what does that mean?

98 percentile. No prep. Worse yet, DC was sick the day they did the practice test and missed the practice test, and was still getting over the cold next day when he took the test. We did not know there was a practice round. No matter. We did not make a fuss. With his 99 percentile in NNAT he was already in the pool so no pressure on CogAt.

Yup, and we are talking liars and cheeters -- not tigers.

Because the public school curricula and tests are non demanding does not mean parents do not prepare their children -- even if the preparation is at a much higher level or bar. To say, parents are not preparing their children is ludicrous when it comes to the low bar evaluation when in fact most children are over prepared!

I guess you'll are cheaters