My child went to a Potomac elementary school and starting middle school...considered the best in the county, no? Yet her writing skills are still not where they should be for someone at her grade level despite the consistent A's in English classes. We are moving to a private hopefully next year so that she can get the basic education that is needed to prepare for college. It's not all about math, as MCPS appears to believe. You can be the greatest engineer or scientist, but if you can't communicate effectively, you will not reach the highest success. I am afraid that is what is happening right now in many public schools. Frightening.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids in MoCo aren't being taught how to write. It's a shame. Such useful skill to have, especially if you get very good at it.

They're not? No child in all of MCPS is being taught how to write, in any of the MCPS schools? I wonder how you know that.

Anonymous wrote:Are the kids in HGCs and magnets being taught how to write?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have 2 in private and 1 in public and I have to say that the differences are vast and significant. While we have had great teachers in both private and MCPS, the quality of what is being taught is far better at private.

Which is why people are willing to pay for their kids to attend private. So for all those people who keep asking me why we are spending all that money on private, you now have your answer.

If you want to spend all that money on private school, that is your choice, and none of my business.

Yes it is my choice...and you seem upset enough about it to respond. That is what I mean!! People with kids in public school get all in a tizzy when they find out someone is leaving to go to private. Some sort of insecurity or perhaps a realization that they should do the same.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have 2 in private and 1 in public and I have to say that the differences are vast and significant. While we have had great teachers in both private and MCPS, the quality of what is being taught is far better at private.

Which is why people are willing to pay for their kids to attend private. So for all those people who keep asking me why we are spending all that money on private, you now have your answer.

If you want to spend all that money on private school, that is your choice, and none of my business.

Anonymous wrote:Kids in MoCo aren't being taught how to write. It's a shame. Such useful skill to have, especially if you get very good at it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have 2 in private and 1 in public and I have to say that the differences are vast and significant. While we have had great teachers in both private and MCPS, the quality of what is being taught is far better at private.

Which is why people are willing to pay for their kids to attend private. So for all those people who keep asking me why we are spending all that money on private, you now have your answer.

Anonymous wrote:We have 2 in private and 1 in public and I have to say that the differences are vast and significant. While we have had great teachers in both private and MCPS, the quality of what is being taught is far better at private.

Anonymous wrote:I haven't been in a Starbucks in years, and I'm not sure what you are trying to say with that comment, pp. Are you trying to imply that I'm lazy? I assure I am not. I have a demanding job and value education. I attended catholic school and received an excellent education. Sadly, I can't afford private school for my handful of kids. I have a fifth grader who is in the 2.0 guinea pig class, and I'm terrified about making the transition to middle school. Simply put: mcps does not prepare students with the basic skills to be a successful student. Elementary students never have to study to prepare for a test, and yet they are magically expected to do that for multiple subjects once they enter MS. In private school, you learn those skills from the get go. Mcps doesn't formally teach vocabulary, and yet it has it's own category on report cards. Grammar was a subject when I was in school; in mcps, "grammar" is a worksheet completed independently during the reading block when your kid isn't meeting with the teacher for 15 minutes of reading group.

I don't mind helping my kids with homework. But I am beyond annoyed that I have to teach my kids basic foundational skills that should be taught in school.

Anonymous wrote:

My child went to a Potomac elementary school and starting middle school...considered the best in the county, no? Yet her writing skills are still not where they should be for someone at her grade level despite the consistent A's in English classes. We are moving to a private hopefully next year so that she can get the basic education that is needed to prepare for college. It's not all about math, as MCPS appears to believe. You can be the greatest engineer or scientist, but if you can't communicate effectively, you will not reach the highest success. I am afraid that is what is happening right now in many public schools. Frightening.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did sentence diagramming in jr high (circa 1980). I don't think it has anything to do with how I write today. I think lots of reading just makes things intuitive. I just know when something sounds wrong..though I can not explain the technical reasons why.

Junior high school? That is really late. I remember doing it in 4/5th grade only.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Diagramming a sentence is not the only thing in grammar and my child has learned sentence structure without actual diagramming. But she did not learn it in public school. As a matter of fact, she only learned simple spelling there. Most of reading in ES was jut reading/comprehension. Never how to structure a sentence. Types of sentences, types of grammar like: action, linking, helping verbs (regular and irregular), adverbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, subjects, predicates, prepositions, conjunctions, etc... She also didn't get vocabulary words (defining a word, putting it correctly in a sentence and knowing the type of word it was) until private school too. The other thing I noticed was difference was actual writing. Knowing how to write a letter, how to start and end a paragraph, when to shift to a new paragraph. Conclusions of a short story, etc... I am telling you, she was absolutely behind after leaving public school. MCPS has too much focus on reading comprehension because they have to handle so many non-English students. Lots of busy work instead of teaching to the class.

That's interesting, because my kids in MCPS have had parts of speech, vocabulary, letter-writing, paragraph-writing, and short-story writing. What MCPS school was your daughter in, and when?