Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am OUTRAGED AND OFFENDED at the trash talk about Hardy. It is a DCPS jewel! If it isn't for you, then STFU. Don't try to gentrify Hardy. It will not happen.

Is this the angry WTU rep/teacher??

Do NOT make fun. This woman knows when you are sleeping; she knows when you're awake. She knows if you're a g-e-n-t-r-i-f-i-e-r, so stay home for goodness' sake!

Anonymous wrote:Just who IS this mythological, super-avenging teacher? Over the years on this board, s/he has been accorded powers much greater than the title, "Teacher." Can we have a name? Initials? Concerned parents might want to investigate before sending their kids to this alleged tyrant.

Well put, pp!

Anonymous wrote:I am OUTRAGED AND OFFENDED at the trash talk about Hardy. It is a DCPS jewel! If it isn't for you, then STFU. Don't try to gentrify Hardy. It will not happen.

Is this the angry WTU rep/teacher??

Anonymous wrote:I am OUTRAGED AND OFFENDED at the trash talk about Hardy. It is a DCPS jewel! If it isn't for you, then STFU. Don't try to gentrify Hardy. It will not happen.

Too late, at the rate the numbers are changing it will be flipped in five years if not in two.

Anonymous wrote:

I am not sure precisely what these parents are talking about either.[/b] But we asked them directly rather than listening to them volunteer about their experiences at Hardy. All started this year. All said they felt the school was too focused on discipline and not on education. It may be the first few weeks or it may be what we have all heard about the difference between EOTP and WOTP ES's sometimes - that at Mann you would almost NEVER hear a member of the school staff (teacher, principal, security guard) raise their voice at a child while last year there was an EOTP parent complaining (or maybe it was two years ago) about teachers screaming at kids.... at a DCPS not a charter.

All I know is these three families were sold on Hardy by Ms. Pride (the Hardy principal) and perhaps also Ms. Whisnant (and I hope they take the time to go back and tell her how they feel, because only she can judge whether they are outliers and I do believe she will always do right by Mann kids - although why she does not push Latin and BASIS for those very few for whom one school would be a paradise (and probably the other a disaster), I do not know. Anyway, these families were convinced and therefore did not apply to private schools and only one applied to Latin/Basis. All wanted out as of two weeks ago, and were tremendously shocked by what they expected versus what they have experienced.

I just felt in the interests of honesty (and because I do have a much younger child who is not yet at Mann and by the time this child gets to Hardy I am sure there will be nothing to worry about) that people should hear a different perspective. I was shocked based on all I had read on this board. Because based on all my reading here, if I had a 4th grader, I would seriously be thinking about Hardy. Until these recent conversations with families whose kids we know and whose judgement we trust. So I thought in the interests of honesty it was the right thing to do to post their feelings as well............. FWIW.............

Can you shed more light on this post PP? Surely no one would go to Hardy expecting it to be a grown-up version of their neighborhood middle school, not yet anyway, would they?? The school is still rough around the edges based on the DCPS numbers. And it is clearly not yet a neighborhood school, even if some of our neighborhood kids (i.e., Ward 2/3, etc.) go there.

Yes please expand as I have spoken with several of the parents from Mann as well as Stoddert with children at Hardy and all of them have been extremely happy.

In regards to the foul language piece......really!

I am OUTRAGED AND OFFENDED at the trash talk about Hardy. It is a DCPS jewel! If it isn't for you, then STFU. Don't try to gentrify Hardy. It will not happen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just who IS this mythological, super-avenging teacher? Over the years on this board, s/he has been accorded powers much greater than the title, "Teacher." Can we have a name? Initials? Concerned parents might want to investigate before sending their kids to this alleged tyrant.

Yeah. This mighty woman keeps coming up out of nowhere. Is she the reason Hardy keeps replacing English teachers? Didn't they just get new ones within the last week or two? (Or am I mistaking them for another school?)

Yes, I have wondered about this all-powerful teacher-vigilante for years now, able to bend the will of DCPS yet also be impervious to discipline for making so much noise? How is she so privileged in getting away with it, when teachers are dropping left and right when they so much as raise a pinky against Henderson or anyone else in management? Inquiring minds must know.

She's the WTU building rep. Nobody wanted to mess with her.

Sorry, but whenever I hear the WTU it seems that WTF would be a more apt acronym!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's not focus on individual teachers in this thread, OK? Hardy is much bigger and let's hope better than that to focus on one teacher.

By the way, I was talking with a middle school parent this weekend who sent a child to Basis rather than Hardy. One concern mentioned was that a family they knew that did send their child to Hardy started swearing around the house. Swearing wasn't part of the family's vocabulary at all - it was something the child had picked up from other kids at Hardy. Maybe that's a minor thing to some but it's a sign of the morals and values of some kids at the school and their families. Parents who swear around their kids and who permit their kids to swear are, frankly, not kids/families I want my kids around.

Yes, kids are going to hear that eventually but ... in middle school??

focusing on Hardy as a former Mann parent with children elsewhere - we know of one transfer so far and one family who wishes they could. They both say the focus is on discipline not education - don't know precisely what that means - but they definitely feel deceived and shortchanged about Hardy the way it was marketed to Mann parents..................

As a CURRENT Mann parent actively discussing middle school options, I don't know what you're talking about. I trust what you say, but this is fairly opposite what I've been hearing from current Hardy parents that were (and often still are) at Mann.

I am not sure precisely what these parents are talking about either. But we asked them directly rather than listening to them volunteer about their experiences at Hardy. All started this year. All said they felt the school was too focused on discipline and not on education. It may be the first few weeks or it may be what we have all heard about the difference between EOTP and WOTP ES's sometimes - that at Mann you would almost NEVER hear a member of the school staff (teacher, principal, security guard) raise their voice at a child while last year there was an EOTP parent complaining (or maybe it was two years ago) about teachers screaming at kids.... at a DCPS not a charter.

All I know is these three families were sold on Hardy by Ms. Pride (the Hardy principal) and perhaps also Ms. Whisnant (and I hope they take the time to go back and tell her how they feel, because only she can judge whether they are outliers and I do believe she will always do right by Mann kids - although why she does not push Latin and BASIS for those very few for whom one school would be a paradise (and probably the other a disaster), I do not know. Anyway, these families were convinced and therefore did not apply to private schools and only one applied to Latin/Basis. All wanted out as of two weeks ago, and were tremendously shocked by what they expected versus what they have experienced.

I just felt in the interests of honesty (and because I do have a much younger child who is not yet at Mann and by the time this child gets to Hardy I am sure there will be nothing to worry about) that people should hear a different perspective. I was shocked based on all I had read on this board. Because based on all my reading here, if I had a 4th grader, I would seriously be thinking about Hardy. Until these recent conversations with families whose kids we know and whose judgement we trust. So I thought in the interests of honesty it was the right thing to do to post their feelings as well............. FWIW.............

PS kids learn bad language everywhere although the type of bad language may vary based on the particular environment, our kids while at Mann were telling "your Mama" jokes, only some of which were funny. And there was absolutely no way to prevent the older ones from contaminating the younger ones, and if you tell them how bad it is they only do it more. Usually they either have the good judgement not to be heard around their parents or are so innocent that they think the parents will be amused. The key, as with all things, is not to let your shock show - or they will realize how powerful the language is for whatever reason.............. And then after a while, to explain why that particular word or joke is not funny/unacceptable/will reflect badly on your entire family/will make other parents not allow their kids to invite you over for playdates if they ever hear you talk that way..............

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ About 10% of the population has some sort of learning disability - ranging from a physical disability like deafness to ADHD, dyslexia, autism spectrum disorders, dysgraphia, speech and language disorders. Look at the school profile page and see what the percentage of special education kids is at Hardy. Some DC schools have a larger percentage, approaching 20%.

But please keep in mind that the ways a teacher with special education credentials teaches can be helpful to typical learners as well. Most special eduction happens in the regular classroom. And special education teachers may not just be working with students identified as having a learning disability.

I had a kid at Deal with a 504 plan. When I was in a meeting trying to figure out some of the accommodation issues they told me fully 1/3 of the students at Deal had some level of "paperwork" type plan that was supposed to be implemented. High rates of special education may just mean pretty interventionist parents.

Students with 504 plans don't show up as students with disabilities on the profile pages. Only ones with IEPs are counted for those totals. IEPs are significantly harder to obtain and generally indicative of more profound disabilities.

Anonymous wrote:^^ About 10% of the population has some sort of learning disability - ranging from a physical disability like deafness to ADHD, dyslexia, autism spectrum disorders, dysgraphia, speech and language disorders. Look at the school profile page and see what the percentage of special education kids is at Hardy. Some DC schools have a larger percentage, approaching 20%.

But please keep in mind that the ways a teacher with special education credentials teaches can be helpful to typical learners as well. Most special eduction happens in the regular classroom. And special education teachers may not just be working with students identified as having a learning disability.

I had a kid at Deal with a 504 plan. When I was in a meeting trying to figure out some of the accommodation issues they told me fully 1/3 of the students at Deal had some level of "paperwork" type plan that was supposed to be implemented. High rates of special education may just mean pretty interventionist parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just who IS this mythological, super-avenging teacher? Over the years on this board, s/he has been accorded powers much greater than the title, "Teacher." Can we have a name? Initials? Concerned parents might want to investigate before sending their kids to this alleged tyrant.

Yeah. This mighty woman keeps coming up out of nowhere. Is she the reason Hardy keeps replacing English teachers? Didn't they just get new ones within the last week or two? (Or am I mistaking them for another school?)

Yes, I have wondered about this all-powerful teacher-vigilante for years now, able to bend the will of DCPS yet also be impervious to discipline for making so much noise? How is she so privileged in getting away with it, when teachers are dropping left and right when they so much as raise a pinky against Henderson or anyone else in management? Inquiring minds must know.

She's the WTU building rep. Nobody wanted to mess with her.

She's also a very good teacher! My (white) DC had her and had an excellent year in her class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just who IS this mythological, super-avenging teacher? Over the years on this board, s/he has been accorded powers much greater than the title, "Teacher." Can we have a name? Initials? Concerned parents might want to investigate before sending their kids to this alleged tyrant.

Yeah. This mighty woman keeps coming up out of nowhere. Is she the reason Hardy keeps replacing English teachers? Didn't they just get new ones within the last week or two? (Or am I mistaking them for another school?)

Yes, I have wondered about this all-powerful teacher-vigilante for years now, able to bend the will of DCPS yet also be impervious to discipline for making so much noise? How is she so privileged in getting away with it, when teachers are dropping left and right when they so much as raise a pinky against Henderson or anyone else in management? Inquiring minds must know.

She's the WTU building rep. Nobody wanted to mess with her.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just who IS this mythological, super-avenging teacher? Over the years on this board, s/he has been accorded powers much greater than the title, "Teacher." Can we have a name? Initials? Concerned parents might want to investigate before sending their kids to this alleged tyrant.

Yeah. This mighty woman keeps coming up out of nowhere. Is she the reason Hardy keeps replacing English teachers? Didn't they just get new ones within the last week or two? (Or am I mistaking them for another school?)

Yes, I have wondered about this all-powerful teacher-vigilante for years now, able to bend the will of DCPS yet also be impervious to discipline for making so much noise? How is she so privileged in getting away with it, when teachers are dropping left and right when they so much as raise a pinky against Henderson or anyone else in management? Inquiring minds must know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's not focus on individual teachers in this thread, OK? Hardy is much bigger and let's hope better than that to focus on one teacher.

By the way, I was talking with a middle school parent this weekend who sent a child to Basis rather than Hardy. One concern mentioned was that a family they knew that did send their child to Hardy started swearing around the house. Swearing wasn't part of the family's vocabulary at all - it was something the child had picked up from other kids at Hardy. Maybe that's a minor thing to some but it's a sign of the morals and values of some kids at the school and their families. Parents who swear around their kids and who permit their kids to swear are, frankly, not kids/families I want my kids around.

Yes, kids are going to hear that eventually but ... in middle school??

focusing on Hardy as a former Mann parent with children elsewhere - we know of one transfer so far and one family who wishes they could. They both say the focus is on discipline not education - don't know precisely what that means - but they definitely feel deceived and shortchanged about Hardy the way it was marketed to Mann parents..................

As a CURRENT Mann parent actively discussing middle school options, I don't know what you're talking about. I trust what you say, but this is fairly opposite what I've been hearing from current Hardy parents that were (and often still are) at Mann.