Resorting to "Yelp", as it seems a reputable site, and I can stay anonymous. My daughter is a junior at Robinson, happens to be in the IB Program, and I have been extremely disappointed with almost every aspect of her experience (with the exception of the IB program parent organizations, which are great). I don't know where to start. Let's start with drop off in the morning. In contrast to every other school I am familiar with, there is not a staffer to be seen as students stream in from all access points on to the school grounds, cars and trucks pull in from all directions -- just a mess. Policy safety officer has his car parked between two crossing lanes, chats with passers by and the occasional teacher. Message sent to students and parents: "this place is chaos, get used to it, we're not going to do anything about it." Even the way the school staff and administration dress for work is distressing. They look like they're about to change the oil in their car, or mow the lawn.
My daughter probably just had bad luck this year, or it was a bad year for IB teachers, but her math teacher was a nutball. Mysterious physical ailments, left before the start of Christmas break, came back for a few days and then either went out on disability, retired, or was fired. Other teachers are lax-to-derelict in terms of posting things on Edline, so it's really tough to keep up with what's going on. Finally, and this is my primary regret, although some of the classes load the kids up with homework, in truth the IB curriculum, at least at Robinson, isn't all that rigorous. She would have been far better off at Plant, in my view. My son has declined to do the IB program next year--he said what perhaps we should have known: "Dad, the Robinson IB program sucks. They're just trying to get different kids into a bad school in a bad neighborhood." Full disclosure: our daughter made the decision to do the IB program despite our reservations.
I'd be interested in other points of view. read more
