WALCO
MALVERN, AR 72104

With two children enrolled and one through Plainfield Elementary School, I can say I have been happy overall with the way the school and the teachers operate. I feel my children are receiving the amount of attention required for their needs. However, I do have children that aren't challenged enough. The school is great when it comes to education of 90% of the students. If your child is 'gifted' or the least bit intellectually advanced, or should your child require special attention for learning disabilities, the school seems to lack here. I do not have any direct interaction regarding learning disabilities, but have heard it is improving.

It's a good place, I'm new thoguh

I will start off with the staff. The teachers in particular are not fit to be so. Many of the teachers are not very good at actually teaching you the material and helping you learn, they are more focused on making you teach yourself. They do not integrate students learning into the material with things that may help students learn, such as activities and interactive learning. Most of the time you will find them reading off of a slide show or neglecting your child by simply telling them to read pages out of a book and practice themselves. It is highschool, not college. You should not be expected to teach yourself anything, especially since high school is required by law. They also are mostly extremely unorganized, making it hard to turn in work properly/at the right times or plan. A lot of teachers also seem to be on a power trip, with a lot of them being very disrespectful towards many students. I have seen this with others and myself. The guidance counselors were also terrible, with little help for anyone with mental health issues or any issues related to schooling such as college advising. They are terrible to the special education students, often times being very rude to them and neglecting them with help. One time a special education student came out of the public bathroom completely naked and there was no teacher there to supervise. The principles definitely target students. The minute a student gets in trouble once, they are automatically labelled a "bad kid", and they become targeted forever. Targeted as in given more and more disciplinary actions for little things other kids would not get in trouble for, and being picked on for very minute issues. This school focuses a lot on keeping kids in trouble instead of asking why they seem to be in so much "trouble". They love disciplining students like it's their hobby. Most teachers seem to find lots of joy in writing you up. I have seen this with so many other kids, as well as myself. I achieved straight A's throughout the entirety of my high school career. I was never a bad kid, and neither were my peers. We all went on to be very successful people with stable careers and college educations. They pick and pick until you explode, and it is not fair to drag children away from their important learning experience to focus on their flaws. This is what Pen Argyl School District does. I felt I never got the best learning experience I could have due to the inability of the teachers to teach and the targeting.