Argyle Middle School

"My new and updated review after spending 3 years of my life here. Let's go through this, shall we? TECHNOLOGY: You would think for a tech magnet they could do better here. I originally came here for the technology program. In fifth grade, the former principal told me that I would be fluent in 5 different programming languages by the time I left the school. Nearly all of those "programming languages" were made for preschoolers (believe me, I spoke to an MIT professor about this), and should have no place in a middle school education. The only "real programming" I ever did was in 8th grade, when we learned Java for a short period of time. I think 7th graders are doing some script-based programming now, but the entire curriculum is pretty lame. However, the STEAM day in eighth grade is quite good, but that's only one day. BUILDING: The building here has so many problems. One bathroom has had no sink for my entire school career and nobody has ever gotten close to trying to fix it. Many of the classrooms have NO windows, which makes my eyes hurt a lot. TEACHERS: Some of the teachers here are actually really good and care about their students while still challenging you (looking at you, Mr. Fauntroy, Ms. Early, Mr. Baldwin, Mr. Erfe, Ms. Penn, etc.) However, there are a handful of truly awful teachers who do not care about their students here that the administration does nothing about. They absolutely refuse to fire ANY teachers, no matter how bad they get. ADMINISTRATION: They don't do anything. For all I can tell, our Student Activism Committee has done more for the school in the past year than they have. They spend all our money on bad chromebooks and televisions and accent walls and then we don't have any money left to fix the ACTUAL PROBLEMS with our school. However, the counselors are quite good so props to them. STUDENTS: On one hand, a lot of the kids here do not care about school and decide to ruin it for everyone else, making some classes truly horrible. On the other hand, there are some students here who work really hard and are an inspiration to me each and every day. If you're lucky, you get to be in classes with the smart kids, but it's usually a mix, and the mediocre teachers spend half the class yelling at the rowdy kids. However, I haven't noticed to much bullying at Argyle, but I'm not really a social type so I'm not sure if I would completely know. TL;DR, this is an okay (?) school to go to if it's convenient for you, but otherwise you REALLY SHOULDN'T, especially if you're a smart kid and you have other opportunities. I mean, I turned down the Eastern magnet in order to come here and learn about modern technology. Needless to say, it was probably a bad decision. DO NOT COME HERE JUST FOR THE MAGNET."

"I’ve been at Argyle for 3 years and although it’s not too bad, it’s still pretty horrible. They force kids into advanced classes in attempts to make them magically understand everything, however it ultimately backfires and frustrates them. Which means we have plenty of kids who just “don’t try” and teachers who aren’t willing to give them the help they need. A large amount of our teachers treat us like pets claiming that we need to be “trained”. We literally have to ask permission to stand up. We have a horrible dress code and even worse security guards who scream at us for allegedly showing too much skin. We only have a few good teachers. Barely any of the staff members care about our mental wellbeing. But it’s whatever. Don’t send your kids here if they’re pure and innocent, this place can really change them. That’s all. Have a nice day :)"

"I'm now in eighth grade. I had to make another Google account just to update y'all. This school, through and through, is terrible. The teachers do not know much or anything about the subjects they teach. The only classes where I've learned or done anything substantial this year are in English, Geometry, and Science, and even some of those claims are generous. To elaborate, I'm being taught content I already know just because other kids are behind. I come to school to learn, and since I'm not learning, I'm wasting my time. I'm thankful for my Geometry teacher because his class challenges me and helps me grow. I can't say the same for ANY other class or teacher in this school. I love English, but my teacher is either told to teach this content at a really low level, or she opts to dumb it down herself. She seems nice, but she's not in control of her class, and the work is substandard to the work level of most of my classmates. I love politics, so I thought I'd love US History. I couldn't be more wrong. The same issue from English is present in that class. Not to mention that my teacher is, at times, condescending and accepts poor work from other students and gives me worse grades. Not to mention that his grading speed is absolutely glacial, and he often prioritizes less important things over his students. My science teacher is nice, and I'm thankful to have her as my teacher. Regardless, her class is demanding in terms of the quantity of work, but rarely challenges me. Every once in a while, I'll get a project (like our quarterly RFP assignments) that challenges me, and I appreciate it. But for the most part, like all the others here, it's a paper class. In my web development class, my teacher assigns an overwhelming amount of work in a short period of time. This might be okay for kids who don't really try and who do the bare minimum, but for kids like me and my friends, it creates stress. In my computer science class, I am challenged, and the workload is intense, but the teacher makes it better. Mr. Fauntroy is the OG. Even with the tough work, I'm able to get good grades in that class. PE/Health is fine. No comments there. I absolutely hate my art class. The teacher yells at everyone over absolutely nothing and she has no control over the class. To put this in perspective, I had Google Classroom open while I was doing an art assignment. She came over and said something to the tune of, "that doesn't look like work for my class." IT'S GOOGLE CLASSROOM. So there are all my classes addressed. Now let's get into the nitty-gritty. The computers (both desktops and Chromebooks) are outdated and beaten to death. Keys are missing from the keyboards, trackpads are ripped up, pixels on the screens are destroyed, and some desktop accessories are missing altogether, like keyboards, mice, or speakers. Even some small things piss me off. Sometimes, teachers "forget" to hole-punch papers. They also create stress for people who don't have internet access at home, because then they have to do work for other classes in class. But I understand where the stress teachers share is coming from. The students here are misbehaving lunatics who don't put forth any effort. Other students are always asking me to do their work for them while they kick back and listen to music. Students are always asking me for Argyle Bucks (rewards for good behavior) so they can go to recess or something. As for security, we only have two guards at our school. Students share lockers with up to five or six other people, and we have had multiple threats of violence just this year. Fights are commonplace and, aptly, dangerous. That's all I can think of for right now."

"The school itself it okay. They have a lot of good programs as it is a magnet school and most of the teachers are very helpful. However, parents don't be mislead . . . the fighting in this school is criminal! My son is seemingly always being picked on by other kids. They have tried to take his shoes, pushed him into lockers, and of course tried to fight him. While not all of the kids are troublesome, enough are so as to make my son wish he didn't have to go there. Consider yourselves warned ... I wish I would have know before I let my little boy go there(:"

"I love my school. I am a sixth grade student who goes there. In my 7 weeks going there, there have been no fights. The computers work too! It's great. I have also learned a boatload. It's a great school and what I've learned from, it's improved a lot."