If you want your children to have lives, don't send them to St. Albans, or Sidwell!!!!

[Anonymous]

It sounds like such a revelation on this forum that St. Albans and Sidwell are pressure cookers. I had a child at St. Albans and found that it was nothing but an ultra-competitive, stiff environment for wealthy, glib kids. I immediately evicted him from the environment and placed him at Georgetown Prep. He loves it. Its atmosphere is calming. As for Sidwell, the construction haunts the School, much like its stuffy ambience.

[Anonymous]

Georgetown Prep is hardly a lax environment--it's a pressure cooker too. I know someone who removed their DC for that very reason. The boy complained that it was very rigid and full of stuffy, rich kids. Just goes to show you that there are negative stereotypes about all schools...

[Anonymous]

Is this for real?

Why do people who are not interested or vested in private schools bother to spend time in this forum?

[Anonymous]

"If you want your children to have reasoned judgment based on observation and not personal prejudices, don't make vast generalizations about two schools you don't like!!!!"

[Anonymous]

And if you want spare your kids competition as they get older, for God's sake don't send them to a school like Harvard or MIT --- Montgomery College will be a much better fit for them ...

[Anonymous]

And if you want your kids to be unemployable as adults, make sure they are never exposed to high standards or evil competition as children!!!!

[Anonymous]

It makes me wonder if parents who have time to come up w/these posts, actually have lives themselves, let alone a career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It makes me wonder if parents who have time to come up w/these posts, actually have lives themselves, let alone a career.

It makes me wonder if parents who have time to comment on posts like these have lives either.

Seriously, what are you contributing to this discussion with that comment? The thread is a boilerplate statement on two schools which will ruin your children's lives if you send them there. So some people respond, pointing out the lunacy of the statement.

Then you come along and give us the original, "People have way too much time on their hands". Maybe not. They may just be bright and can "think up" these responses without jeopardizing their high paying jobs.

[Anonymous]

I don't like some parent poisoning two schools (one which their child never even attended). Not sure their son (if they even have one) was even at St. Albans as I cannot remember anyone leaving for Prep in the last few years. Every so often you get someone leaving for a co-ed school, for boarding school, or someone who cannot hack the academic work at the upper school. I've been there a long time and cannot remember anyone leaving for Prep. But maybe it happened, and even if it did, why come here and try to talk smack about two schools?

Make a nice thread about how your son loves Prep, or exactly what he did not like about St Albans but don;t just smear a school because you feel like it. What is most likely is you did not even get into Sidwell or STA and may have sour grapes.

The boys at STA are not all wealthy or glib. But you would know that if you were there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And if you want spare your kids competition as they get older, for God's sake don't send them to a school like Harvard or MIT --- Montgomery College will be a much better fit for them ...

I went to MC then to Dartmouth, I did'nt notice any difference, what is wrong with MC for two years?

[Anonymous]

The OP's choice of title for his/her post strongly suggests that an academically demanding school such as St. Albans or Sidwell would not be a good fit for her son or her family. These two schools are highly selective in admissions, but self-selection plays a big factor there in who applies and who matriculates.

It's not that you should avoid St. Albans and Sidwell if you "want your children to have lives." Rather, it's that you should avoid St. Albans and Sidwell if you actually believe that an academically rigorous curriculum precludes "having lives."

[Anonymous]

people have such angst on this forum about getting into these schools as if it's the end all be all. I don't think it's the end of the world for someone to point out, they don't work for everyone and you are buying - at least to some extent - a certain kind of lifestyle for your children. ANd that's from someone who went to all these types of schools, harvard college etc. etc. There are downsides.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:people have such angst on this forum about getting into these schools as if it's the end all be all. I don't think it's the end of the world for someone to point out, they don't work for everyone and you are buying - at least to some extent - a certain kind of lifestyle for your children. ANd that's from someone who went to all these types of schools, harvard college etc. etc. There are downsides.

This is a perfectly lucid evaluation. The thread title, however, simply fuels unnecessary debate. The schools may be competitive, it may be you're buying a lifestyle, parents may be overly concerned with college exmissions, that may be true in other schools as well. Fine. But let's start to discuss these things more critically than just throwing out a blanket assault on 2 schools.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, you can have high academic standards without oppressive workloads. And even kids who have the intelligence, drive, and interest to excel academically at Sidwell may find it grueling. Basically, it's hard to do college level work (reading, writing) when you have a high school class schedule (30+ hours a week in class vs. 8-15). And that's before we get to extracurriculars and some semblance of a home life.

[Anonymous]

I would take it one step further. If you don't want your child in a competitive environment, then don't apply to competitive schools. If you want your child in a non-competitive environment, then apply to non-competitive schools. It's really that simple. No one is forcing people to apply to schools like Sidwell, STA/NCS, GDS or Maret--those schools have way more applicants than they could possibly handle.

Anonymous wrote:The OP's choice of title for his/her post strongly suggests that an academically demanding school such as St. Albans or Sidwell would not be a good fit for her son or her family. These two schools are highly selective in admissions, but self-selection plays a big factor there in who applies and who matriculates.

It's not that you should avoid St. Albans and Sidwell if you "want your children to have lives." Rather, it's that you should avoid St. Albans and Sidwell if you actually believe that an academically rigorous curriculum precludes "having lives."