This weekend I had a conversation about some of the GT policy doings around the county. Disheartening on one hand, but on the other hand I was alerted that the Humanities magnet is now has its 2008-2009 scope and sequence posted to the school’s website. Amazing. You may recall that this information had never been publicly available until my November post, Magnet Mystery Revealed, when I posted the 2007-2008 scope and sequence that I scanned and uploaded. I like to think I maybe had a little bit to do with the new openness.
Why was this secrecy an issue? Well, a) people applying to the program might be interested to know some details, but b) much more importantly parents around the county had a right to see what a real GT curriculum looks like and then compare it to the meager offerings available to GT kids left behind in home schools (many would say all kids. And no, that is not/was not ever a legitimate grounds for eliminating the magnets). MCPS claims that the new middle school curriculum that they are rolling out with much fanfare addresses this (maybe this accounts for the posting). We’ll see. Curriculum is just one part of what I view as a three-legged stool: high level, engaging curriculum; skilled teaching; and (importantly) grouping with academic peers who possess the same level of focus and and readiness to learn. It’s the peer group issue that is crucial. And no, I don’t think that kids reading three versions/levels of the same book, at vastly varying different points on the learning spectrum, can truly engage in meaningful discussion at the same level of sophistication.
