Why am I paying for private when Wilson HS (DCPS) admits are this good?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are private schools "select[ing] for smart students" and
"accepting only rich kids who are mediocre at best academically or intellectually" a consistent narrative?

My 2 cents: the smartest, most creative, most ultimately successful kids are likely to be in publics, because top creativity and intellectual capacity do not correlate to working in jobs with salaries that support private school tuitions.

Top publics in intellectual areas (NW DC, college towns) have some of those very top kids, plus lots of really motivated and smart kids, plus everyone else.

Private schools have a lot of extremely privileged kids who are motivated and smart; and also a lot of average kids with moneyed parents who will be "successful" in terms of the researched variables.

So basically: the fact that privates have some smart, motivated kids does not mean that publics do not. And the fact that some smart, motivated kids attend privates does not mean that they are all smart and motivated.

Huh? What you're saying doesn't make any sense. It sounds like you have a few select jobs in mind. However, one could name very high-salary jobs that require "top creativity and intellectual capacity."

Newsflash: there are smart and motivated, smart and unmotivated, not very smart but motivated, and not very smart and unmotivated kids in every k-12 school.

Top creativity and intellect = physics professor; playwrite; investigative journalist; principal investigator at NIH, etc etc. None of those generally make enough to send kids to private (maybe with the right spouse you could). The kind of jobs that give throw-away private school tuition money are lobbyist, investment banker, law partner ... none of those are very intellectual. Smart, motivated, bright, sure. But not creative & intellectual.

You are literally cherry-picking jobs, applying your definition of "top creativity and intellect" to them, and generalizing about their salaries.

There are myriad critical thinking problems with your post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the engines of creativity and thought and public service come from public schools

Although my kids are in private, I went to one of the top public schools in this area and have no freaking clue what you mean by this.

I work in a federal government analytic job that requires ample amounts of creativity and intellectual thought. My colleagues and I come from a mix of public and private school.

How does that fit into PP's weird world view?

[Anonymous]

A large percentage of folks that I know in academia are actually from rich families and attended private schools -- they had the luxury and privilege of pursuing an academic career precisely because they had an safety net of not having to worry about money when it came to their careers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A large percentage of folks that I know in academia are actually from rich families and attended private schools -- they had the luxury and privilege of pursuing an academic career precisely because they had an safety net of not having to worry about money when it came to their careers.

Also, there's a narrative among some rich families that one should go into public service. Ex: the Kennedys, Roosevelts, and other semi-dynastic American political families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at Deal and we’re about to pay $$ for a big3 school instead of Wilson. However, this week is DCPS spring break and many people I know are taking their kids around to accepted schools to make their college decisions. These kids from Wilson were accepted at Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Michigan, UCLA, NYU, Vassar, Pomona, Cornell, Brown, Oberlin and Swarthmore. Typical smart white kids. Nothing out of the ordinary. And this is just the handful of kids I know from my block and/or siblings of kids from our DCPS elementary. So why am I paying for private next year again? I’ve found Deal to be uneven at best but it doesn’t seem to make one bit of difference (if college admission is the end game).

Community, safety, small classes, hands on learning, small advisory groups, few behavioral issues - nothing like in public, beautiful campus and buildings, resources, and reinforcement of our values are what we are looking for in private. Top of the list my child is not worried about being jumped in the bathroom anymore because they posed off the wrong group of kids.

Parent of a Wilson senior here: WTH are you talking about??? Oh wait, now I remember. This is the lie you tell yourself to feel better about dropping tens of thousands of dollars for private.

#GoTigers!

I’m grateful I don’t have to worry about my kid getting jumped by kids in the bathroom yes kids worry about this and my kid also doesn’t need to worry about their peers overdosing while at school and watching the ambulance come. Also our school doesn’t keep kids in the school that were caught on video gang attacking someone on the subway. There’s a video of it and they were allowed to stay in school. Safety first.

I'm interested to know why you're so grateful for this. Don't you think your kid would be a better human being if they were exposed to some of these real life issues and behavior? What good is shielding them from the real world? Do you value real world knowledge and empathy as part of an education?

[Anonymous]

Real world knowledge and empathy are possible only from being jumped by kids in the bathroom, watchinig ambulances take away their peers who ODed, or seeing gangs attacking others on the subway?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at Deal and we’re about to pay $$ for a big3 school instead of Wilson. However, this week is DCPS spring break and many people I know are taking their kids around to accepted schools to make their college decisions. These kids from Wilson were accepted at Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Michigan, UCLA, NYU, Vassar, Pomona, Cornell, Brown, Oberlin and Swarthmore. Typical smart white kids. Nothing out of the ordinary. And this is just the handful of kids I know from my block and/or siblings of kids from our DCPS elementary. So why am I paying for private next year again? I’ve found Deal to be uneven at best but it doesn’t seem to make one bit of difference (if college admission is the end game).

Community, safety, small classes, hands on learning, small advisory groups, few behavioral issues - nothing like in public, beautiful campus and buildings, resources, and reinforcement of our values are what we are looking for in private. Top of the list my child is not worried about being jumped in the bathroom anymore because they posed off the wrong group of kids.

Parent of a Wilson senior here: WTH are you talking about??? Oh wait, now I remember. This is the lie you tell yourself to feel better about dropping tens of thousands of dollars for private.

#GoTigers!

I’m grateful I don’t have to worry about my kid getting jumped by kids in the bathroom yes kids worry about this and my kid also doesn’t need to worry about their peers overdosing while at school and watching the ambulance come. Also our school doesn’t keep kids in the school that were caught on video gang attacking someone on the subway. There’s a video of it and they were allowed to stay in school. Safety first.

Oh FFS. Have you ever set foot in Wilson? We get it - you send your kid to private and don't care for public. Your posts are reaching a level of unwarranted hysteria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Real world knowledge and empathy are possible only from being jumped by kids in the bathroom, watchinig ambulances take away their peers who ODed, or seeing gangs attacking others on the subway?

Well, duh, of course not. That's not my point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Real world knowledge and empathy are possible only from being jumped by kids in the bathroom, watchinig ambulances take away their peers who ODed, or seeing gangs attacking others on the subway?

Well, duh, of course not. That's not my point.

Then make your point more precisely, because the prior post suggests that not being exposed to these kinds of events somehow means being shielded from the real world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Real world knowledge and empathy are possible only from being jumped by kids in the bathroom, watchinig ambulances take away their peers who ODed, or seeing gangs attacking others on the subway?

Well, duh, of course not. That's not my point.

Then make your point more precisely, because the prior post suggests that not being exposed to these kinds of events somehow means being shielded from the real world.

First of all, yes, not being exposed to this type of event is being shielded from the real world. Second, my real point is that I want to know why you (or whoever the PP is) is so GRATEFUL that their kid doesn't have to be exposed to this. It's just an interesting way to phrase it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the engines of creativity and thought and public service come from public schools

Although my kids are in private, I went to one of the top public schools in this area and have no freaking clue what you mean by this.

I work in a federal government analytic job that requires ample amounts of creativity and intellectual thought. My colleagues and I come from a mix of public and private school.

How does that fit into PP's weird world view?

I mean it's fine. My point is that people who think that public high schools aren't filled with the best and the brightest are deluding themselves (to justify paying the tuition, maybe?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First of all, yes, not being exposed to this type of event is being shielded from the real world. Second, my real point is that I want to know why you (or whoever the PP is) is so GRATEFUL that their kid doesn't have to be exposed to this. It's just an interesting way to phrase it.

I'm not the PP who used the word grateful, but your view of what constitutes real world exposure is awfully narrow.

There are plenty of other ways to understand and experience the real world, and yet somehow you don't think they apply to private school kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all, yes, not being exposed to this type of event is being shielded from the real world. Second, my real point is that I want to know why you (or whoever the PP is) is so GRATEFUL that their kid doesn't have to be exposed to this. It's just an interesting way to phrase it.

I'm not the PP who used the word grateful, but your view of what constitutes real world exposure is awfully narrow.

There are plenty of other ways to understand and experience the real world, and yet somehow you don't think they apply to private school kids.

I agree, there are many ways to experience the real world. I myself attended private school and was exposed to: kids whose parents who were absent/abusive/distant, eating disorders, suicide, drug use, to name a few. I just think public school kids have a leg up on being exposed to people very different from them and I don't think that's a bad thing. That's all I'm saying.

[Anonymous]

Fine, but witnessing crime is only one of a zillion different ways of being exposed to people very different from you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Real world knowledge and empathy are possible only from being jumped by kids in the bathroom, watchinig ambulances take away their peers who ODed, or seeing gangs attacking others on the subway?

We transferred to private because the kids were seeing this every single day.

No, they weren’t. This is a prime example is why people with zero experience of something (here, public schools) should just stop posting.