The October Wall: Why Good Students Start Missing Work in Middle School
Every fall, in the same two weeks, bright middle schoolers start missing work. Here is what changed, and what to do before the report card.
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How to Email a Teacher So You Become One of Their Favorite Families
As teachers, we are going to help your child no matter what kind of email you write. What the email changes is not whether we help. It changes how we feel when your name shows up in the inbox.
How to Actually Get a Grade Changed (Without Annoying Your Teacher)
A May playbook for parents of middle and upper school students. Most students wait until June to have the grade conversation. By June it is over. The gradebook is almost closed and the teacher has heard the same appeal from a dozen students that week. The window that actually matters...
The Hidden Economics of a $55,000 Tuition: Where Your Money Actually Goes
Parents receive the annual report on giving. The handwritten thank-you cards from the Head of School. The polished newsletter explaining how a recent capital campaign will "transform the student experience." What parents almost never receive is a straight answer about where the tuition itself goes, and why...
How Schools Actually Decide Who Gets Into Advanced Math
If you're the parent of a middle schooler, the course assignment email for next year either just landed in your inbox or it will soon. And for a lot of families, that email raises a question that's hard to answer from the outside: how did the...
What "Executive Function" Actually Means: The Phrase That Defines the Jump from Lower School to Middle School
If your child is finishing 4th or 5th grade, there's a phrase about to enter your life that you'll hear constantly for the next few years: executive function. Teachers will use it. Learning specialists will use it. The middle school orientation packet will use it. And...
The Parent Playbook for Changing a Math Placement (Without Burning Bridges)
The placement decision came back, and your child is not in the advanced math class. As their parent, you believe that they should be. The question now is what to actually do about it. There is a path forward. Schools build appeal processes for a reason, and the summer between...
The Last Six Weeks (Why May Is When Good Kids Get in Trouble)
Why does a child who has held it together since September suddenly get written up in the second week of May? The answer is not mysterious, and it is not a behavior problem in the way parents usually mean that phrase. It is the calendar. The school year is ending,...
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The October Wall: Why Good Students Start Missing Work in Middle School
Every fall, in the same two weeks, bright middle schoolers start missing work. Here is what changed, and what to do before the report card.
Ask This, Not That (A Guide for Parents Who Have Already Lost the Car Ride)
Some questions get a great response while others get a shrug. Here's the questioning guide for parents.
How to Email a Teacher So You Become One of Their Favorite Families
As teachers, we are going to help your child no matter what kind of email you write. What the email changes is not whether we help. It changes how we feel when your name shows up in the inbox.
Why Nobody Invites Your Kid Over (and the Text That Fixes It)
The Text That Never Gets Sent Why nobody invites your kid over, and a simple thing that fixes it. Here is a pattern we see in a lot of middle school families. The kid has friends. Real ones, since kindergarten. He's happy to see them every morning and...
How to Read the Year-End Comments (and the Summer Conversation That Follows)
By the second week of June, most families have a report card in hand, and somewhere in it, usually near the top, sits a sentence like "a pleasure to have in class." It reads as a compliment, and often it is one. Sometimes it is the polite thing...
Bridge the Gap This Summer: Why You Should Read Your Child's Assigned Books
"Children are made readers on the laps of their parents." Emilie Buchwald. While your middle or high schooler may be long past sitting on your lap, the sentiment remains true: parental involvement is the cornerstone of building lifelong readers. Summer is officially here, and with it comes the...