Another piece on entitled parents in independent schools and Sidwell by The Atlantic

[Anonymous]

Stop sounding so reasonable.

[Anonymous]

I would point out that it was an earlier poster who has crowed about "GDS surpassing Sidwell". We've all seen those comments intermittently on this thread. Both schools are excellent and different. But those comments are always coming from one side and reveal a complex.

[Anonymous]

Flanagan's schtick is getting pretty tired, but, that said, as a Sidwell parent I have to agree that she's spot on in identifying the ugly trend toward admins caving to big donors and high-profile parents. Not news, but true.

[Anonymous]

Does it extends to administrative pressure to changing grades? If so, why haven't teachers, students and parents organized?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that GDS is constantly comparing itself to SFS says a lot. I never hear it the other way around.

Correct. GDS has always been for wannabe Sidwell kids / families.
* cue the, "We turned down Sidwell for GDS!!"

Neither one sends very many to the Ivy league, especially given how many legacies there are. So maybe both are perfectly fine, but nothing special schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that GDS is constantly comparing itself to SFS says a lot. I never hear it the other way around.

Correct. GDS has always been for wannabe Sidwell kids / families.
* cue the, "We turned down Sidwell for GDS!!"

Neither one sends very many to the Ivy league, especially given how many legacies there are. So maybe both are perfectly fine, but nothing special schools.

Citation with respect to GDS? Not surprising you don’t have one because you don’t know what your talking about. GDS has an enviable Ivy record among the Big 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fun article from a strong writer about a topic that's already been hashed to death. She's good enough to make it more than a just-kill-me-now topic. This should serve as a warning to the rest of us: Sidwell-type parents, in true Trumpian fashion, aren't just going to let their kids' "birthright" slip from their hands as a new generation of motivated public school kids challenge the legacy system. They want their own little Ivankas and Tiffanys and Jareds to go to Harvard, too!

It's hilarious that you manage to blame this all on Trump, when Obama was the one who sent his daughters to Sidwell and (one, anyway) to Harvard.

You have reading comprehension issues. That’s not blaming it on the orange one, but pointing out that certain entitled Sidwell parents have more in common with him than they’d like to admit.

+1. Thank's PP for pointing out the comprehension problem.

I also thought it was "hilarious" that the poster trying to bash Obama and defend Trump didn't even understand the post he was citing. Idiot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that GDS is constantly comparing itself to SFS says a lot. I never hear it the other way around.

Correct. GDS has always been for wannabe Sidwell kids / families.
* cue the, "We turned down Sidwell for GDS!!"

Neither one sends very many to the Ivy league, especially given how many legacies there are. So maybe both are perfectly fine, but nothing special schools.

Citation with respect to GDS? Not surprising you don’t have one because you don’t know what your talking about. GDS has an enviable Ivy record among the Big 3.

Yet still no one envies. Wonder why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does it extends to administrative pressure to changing grades? If so, why haven't teachers, students and parents organized?

Are you talking about organizing around a union or organizing together to address the problem? If you mean the former, most independent schools in the area do not let their teachers join unions. If you mean the latter, teachers at these schools are on annual contracts and can be fired at will. Trying to organize against the administration is perilous for many reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that GDS is constantly comparing itself to SFS says a lot. I never hear it the other way around.

Correct. GDS has always been for wannabe Sidwell kids / families.
* cue the, "We turned down Sidwell for GDS!!"

Neither one sends very many to the Ivy league, especially given how many legacies there are. So maybe both are perfectly fine, but nothing special schools.

Citation with respect to GDS? Not surprising you don’t have one because you don’t know what your talking about. GDS has an enviable Ivy record among the Big 3.

k

GDS isn’t actually a big three so your point is moot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does it extends to administrative pressure to changing grades? If so, why haven't teachers, students and parents organized?

Are you talking about organizing around a union or organizing together to address the problem? If you mean the former, most independent schools in the area do not let their teachers join unions. If you mean the latter, teachers at these schools are on annual contracts and can be fired at will. Trying to organize against the administration is perilous for many reasons.

Talking about addressing a fundamental problem in academic integrity which one poster has suggested and other posters seem to imply is true. If the administration is favoring a few donors and violating academic standards, parents, students and teachers would have reason to reach a consensus to deal with this problem. If these suggestions are true, I have to imagine that the periodic accreditation process, faculty bodies, and reasonable administrators would be appropriate avenues to address the problem. It does not need to amount to a pay for play fraud on colleges to be a significant issue. Sidwell is clearly a great school with a great tradition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does it extends to administrative pressure to changing grades? If so, why haven't teachers, students and parents organized?

Are you talking about organizing around a union or organizing together to address the problem? If you mean the former, most independent schools in the area do not let their teachers join unions. If you mean the latter, teachers at these schools are on annual contracts and can be fired at will. Trying to organize against the administration is perilous for many reasons.

Talking about addressing a fundamental problem in academic integrity which one poster has suggested and other posters seem to imply is true. If the administration is favoring a few donors and violating academic standards, parents, students and teachers would have reason to reach a consensus to deal with this problem. If these suggestions are true, I have to imagine that the periodic accreditation process, faculty bodies, and reasonable administrators would be appropriate avenues to address the problem. It does not need to amount to a pay for play fraud on colleges to be a significant issue. Sidwell is clearly a great school with a great tradition.

Come on. You all know how it works. To try to pretend any of this is a surprise is what makes you either naive or just stupid.

[Anonymous]

I would have given this article more credit if it wasn't written by Caitlin Flanagan. But since she wrote it, it's hard to take it seriously. She doesn't have a good track record.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that GDS is constantly comparing itself to SFS says a lot. I never hear it the other way around.

Correct. GDS has always been for wannabe Sidwell kids / families.
* cue the, "We turned down Sidwell for GDS!!"

Neither one sends very many to the Ivy league, especially given how many legacies there are. So maybe both are perfectly fine, but nothing special schools.

Citation with respect to GDS? Not surprising you don’t have one because you don’t know what your talking about. GDS has an enviable Ivy record among the Big 3.

Look unless your school is sending large numbers of kids to the Ivy League, it's not that different from hundreds if not thousands of public schools across this country (let alone the Big 3). If only one or two kids are getting into Harvard each year, then, well, you're not spectacular. Good? Yes. Spectacular? No. (And, again, we should expect private schools to send lots of kids to the Ivy league, if only because so many of their parents are alumni, which, we all know, is a very big advantage in the admissions process).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that GDS is constantly comparing itself to SFS says a lot. I never hear it the other way around.

Correct. GDS has always been for wannabe Sidwell kids / families.
* cue the, "We turned down Sidwell for GDS!!"

Neither one sends very many to the Ivy league, especially given how many legacies there are. So maybe both are perfectly fine, but nothing special schools.

Citation with respect to GDS? Not surprising you don’t have one because you don’t know what your talking about. GDS has an enviable Ivy record among the Big 3.

Look unless your school is sending large numbers of kids to the Ivy League, it's not that different from hundreds if not thousands of public schools across this country (let alone the Big 3). If only one or two kids are getting into Harvard each year, then, well, you're not spectacular. Good? Yes. Spectacular? No. (And, again, we should expect private schools to send lots of kids to the Ivy league, if only because so many of their parents are alumni, which, we all know, is a very big advantage in the admissions process).

Exactly. DC parents need to broaden their worldview. There are schools in Boston and New York who send 15-17 kids out of 50 to Harvard...every single year. I've lived in all three of these cities (DC, NY, Boston), and DC has to have the most insecure parents of them all. And that's saying something.