Need Help Picking a School in Denver Area (St. Mary's: home, neighborhood)

[jnd]

PLEASE help. I would appreciate some info on a good choice of a Denver middle school for my 6th grade son transitioning from a 5th grade Cherry Creek public elementary school soon. The concern is, he is very intelligent & has received a very good elementary education in CCSD however though athletic -
middle school may be a little too soon in starting for him in the 6th grade. Researching schools like Denver Christian, St. Mary's Academy, Kent Day School. If anyone has any expereince with any of these schools & their curriculum they teach, or any other good schools to reccomend, PLEASE help. TY.

[blobbin]

Do you mean Denver as in DPS? Morey Middle School has a good reputation, especially the HGT program.

For any parents out there who like to rank schools by the district I had a funny conversation with a friend new to the area who is subbing. Her opinion of most of the CCSD schools she has worked in was very low. She pointed out that on average the quality of the teachers was pretty low and they tended to be lazy. Her take was an interesting one, they don't have to work hard because they mostly get students with a stable home life and educated parents.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

My husband was a middle school teacher in the CCSD, and your friend's comment is extremely offensive. All of the teachers, including my husband, worked very, very hard to provide a good quality education. His day did not end when school ended; in fact he worked several hours most week nights and at least one day on the weekends. He was very involved in extra curricular activities, which many of his fellow teacher did too. Student's performance is very dependent upon the parents being involved in the school, but the student do not teach themselves. Tell your friend to get a full-time job and she won't think that any teacher anywhere is lazy!!!

[shukertj]

What is your neighborhood middle school? Are you considering sending your son there, and if not, why not?

[blobbin]

My husband was a middle school teacher in the CCSD, and your friend's comment is extremely offensive. All of the teachers, including my husband, worked very, very hard to provide a good quality education. His day did not end when school ended; in fact he worked several hours most week nights and at least one day on the weekends. He was very involved in extra curricular activities, which many of his fellow teacher did too. Student's performance is very dependent upon the parents being involved in the school, but the student do not teach themselves. Tell your friend to get a full-time job and she won't think that any teacher anywhere is lazy!!!

The fact that people might be lazy is offensive? Yet you then tell someone to get a full-time job and that is not offensive? You don't think this person desires a full-time job? I don't mean to be rude about it but the number of hours you work does not equate to efficacy. I could put in 100 hour weeks attempting to be a teacher and could still really suck at it.

From a logical perspective I agree with my friend. It is much easier to be a lazy educator in a district where kids in general have two parents and a stable income. Lazy to me is people who fool themselves into thinking that you can evaluate schools on a district wide basis. These are the places that skate by on good numbers with bad educators.

If "All of the teachers" as you claim really did work hard they would be a fantastic standout statistic. I'm not certain of your world, but in mine 80 percent of the people coast and feed off of the work that 20 percent of us do. When I do government work that percentage changes closer to 95 and 5.