Tell me about Whitman

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The high school and middle school administrators need to work together more effectively. Problems don't suddenly sprout in high school. The leadership of the two schools have to collaborate, and students at the two schools have to collaborate, in more personal ways.

Yep. Many of Whitman's problems start at Pyle...and continue at Whitman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming my DS will not get into any privates just because it’s almost impossible right now, we are turning to our inbounds HS, Whitman. I hear only great things. My DS is a very good student with some LD, great athlete who will no doubt make the team of his sport and may even play varsity freshman year. He’s super quiet. How will he do at Whitman? He’s never been in such a huge school. His current school is tiny. But he’s looking forward to HS.

I think Whitman is one of those schools with all the racial incidents. It's very segregated and is often jokingly referred to as "whiteman".

It just has a bunch of overly sensitive liberal kids that make a big deal about minor stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming my DS will not get into any privates just because it’s almost impossible right now, we are turning to our inbounds HS, Whitman. I hear only great things. My DS is a very good student with some LD, great athlete who will no doubt make the team of his sport and may even play varsity freshman year. He’s super quiet. How will he do at Whitman? He’s never been in such a huge school. His current school is tiny. But he’s looking forward to HS.

I think Whitman is one of those schools with all the racial incidents. It's very segregated and is often jokingly referred to as "whiteman".

It is not segregated you moron. There's hardly any kids of color in the school, that would be impossible.
Really I don't understand why posters who have no kids at the school and probably don't even live in the Whitman cluster feel the need to spread total BS on this site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming my DS will not get into any privates just because it’s almost impossible right now, we are turning to our inbounds HS, Whitman. I hear only great things. My DS is a very good student with some LD, great athlete who will no doubt make the team of his sport and may even play varsity freshman year. He’s super quiet. How will he do at Whitman? He’s never been in such a huge school. His current school is tiny. But he’s looking forward to HS.

Whitman is better than any private school in the area

Then why do so many families in the Whitman sending area send their kids to private schools at significant expense?

Are these people dumb?

In our Potomac neighborhood we see Landon, Prep, Gonzaga, Bullis, St Albans, Holton, etc. jackets and sweatshirts in abundance. And some Whitman ones, too.

Status, needs, class, vanity and there are fools born every day.

So these scores of well-educated, well-off families are status seeking, vain or stupid or some combination of these things.

They are plunking down over $120,000 per kid so they don’t have to go to Whitman for free.

These seem like pretty smart people to me. They couldn’t believe that these private schools are better environment, could they?

The kids from Potomac and Bethesda neighborhoods that are zoned to Whitman make up a large chunk of the students at these private schools.

We aren’t talking about just a handful. It’s been pointed out that if the athletes from these neighborhoods went to Whitman instead of Prep, Landon, Gonzaga, Bullis, St Johns, etc., Whitman would be a MoCo powerhouse.

I think this is called “voting with your feet”.

Some don't agree with the propaganda pushed by MCPS. If you are conservative MCPS is not where you want your kids to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming my DS will not get into any privates just because it’s almost impossible right now, we are turning to our inbounds HS, Whitman. I hear only great things. My DS is a very good student with some LD, great athlete who will no doubt make the team of his sport and may even play varsity freshman year. He’s super quiet. How will he do at Whitman? He’s never been in such a huge school. His current school is tiny. But he’s looking forward to HS.

I think Whitman is one of those schools with all the racial incidents. It's very segregated and is often jokingly referred to as "whiteman".

I went to Whitman in the mid to late 2000s, and even my friends from WJ called Whitman "Whiteman," and some of my classmates at Whitman seriously though that B-CC, WJ, and RM were "kind of ghetto" schools. Whitman really is a bubble for most of the kids who go there. They go to a school with almost no poor kids in an elite and affluent bubble, and many matriculate to elite colleges with people who have the same upbringing as them, they get elite jobs, and they repeat the cycle when they have kids. The only kids who I saw break out of that bubble were the ones who went to schools like UMD, UMBC, Towson, and other in-state publics who interacted with many kids from the same places in MD their parents sheltered them from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The high school and middle school administrators need to work together more effectively. Problems don't suddenly sprout in high school. The leadership of the two schools have to collaborate, and students at the two schools have to collaborate, in more personal ways.

I don't disagree but I think that's unlikely to happen because the two principals are far from friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming my DS will not get into any privates just because it’s almost impossible right now, we are turning to our inbounds HS, Whitman. I hear only great things. My DS is a very good student with some LD, great athlete who will no doubt make the team of his sport and may even play varsity freshman year. He’s super quiet. How will he do at Whitman? He’s never been in such a huge school. His current school is tiny. But he’s looking forward to HS.

Whitman is better than any private school in the area

Then why do so many families in the Whitman sending area send their kids to private schools at significant expense?

Are these people dumb?

In our Potomac neighborhood we see Landon, Prep, Gonzaga, Bullis, St Albans, Holton, etc. jackets and sweatshirts in abundance. And some Whitman ones, too.

Status, religion, legacy, smaller class just to name a few. My children did a few years at St Anselms and we were terribly disappointed. Was eye opening and not better and in some ways worse than public. Especially considering we were paying (dumping) $30,000+ per child and not getting the value.

Interesting what you say about St Anselms because we experienced the same thing but god forbid anyone say that. My child did a few years there as well and pulled him out. It was profoundly disappointing and the headmaster who left after just 2 years was horrible. Many concerns-one was
regarding an abusive teacher. His superior and a head of staff was aware prior to it being brought up, agreed with the allegation and did nothing. Still employed as a teacher there. Countless other concerns.
Sad, because it could be a phenomenal school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming my DS will not get into any privates just because it’s almost impossible right now, we are turning to our inbounds HS, Whitman. I hear only great things. My DS is a very good student with some LD, great athlete who will no doubt make the team of his sport and may even play varsity freshman year. He’s super quiet. How will he do at Whitman? He’s never been in such a huge school. His current school is tiny. But he’s looking forward to HS.

I think Whitman is one of those schools with all the racial incidents. It's very segregated and is often jokingly referred to as "whiteman".

It just has a bunch of overly sensitive liberal kids that make a big deal about minor stuff.

Like kids running around in blackface or all the antisemitic stuff? Many of us don't consider that minor and consider a symptom of a toxic culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming my DS will not get into any privates just because it’s almost impossible right now, we are turning to our inbounds HS, Whitman. I hear only great things. My DS is a very good student with some LD, great athlete who will no doubt make the team of his sport and may even play varsity freshman year. He’s super quiet. How will he do at Whitman? He’s never been in such a huge school. His current school is tiny. But he’s looking forward to HS.

I think Whitman is one of those schools with all the racial incidents. It's very segregated and is often jokingly referred to as "whiteman".

It just has a bunch of overly sensitive liberal kids that make a big deal about minor stuff.

Like kids running around in blackface or all the antisemitic stuff? Many of us don't consider that minor and consider a symptom of a toxic culture.

CRT everywhere and engaging in alternative lifestyles is what I'm referring to.

[Anonymous]

Whitman is a sausage factory. You enter, data is shown to you, you're immediately tested on it - hurrah you got an A and then you move on. Its about creating high grades and WGPAs it's not about educating your kid in any way at all, information, analysis, retention of details is not required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming my DS will not get into any privates just because it’s almost impossible right now, we are turning to our inbounds HS, Whitman. I hear only great things. My DS is a very good student with some LD, great athlete who will no doubt make the team of his sport and may even play varsity freshman year. He’s super quiet. How will he do at Whitman? He’s never been in such a huge school. His current school is tiny. But he’s looking forward to HS.

Whitman is better than any private school in the area

Then why do so many families in the Whitman sending area send their kids to private schools at significant expense?

Are these people dumb?

In our Potomac neighborhood we see Landon, Prep, Gonzaga, Bullis, St Albans, Holton, etc. jackets and sweatshirts in abundance. And some Whitman ones, too.

Vanity.

If by "vanity" you mean a realization that Whitman has been trading on its reputation from 25 years ago for a while now, its recent acceptance results for top colleges have been pedestrian and no longer are even the best among MCPS high schools, and that MCPS is such a train wreck now that it's only going to get worse in years to come, then I agree 100%.

Look, Whitman is a good school. But it's not the best-in-class public school that it once was. To seriously wonder why families would choose to send their kids to some of the best private schools in the DMV over Whitman means you're either in denial and want to make yourself feel better about your personal decision, or you have no ability or desire to understand why it's not for everyone.

But it's still better than any private school acceptance results in the DMV.

LOL - such a farce. This thread is just full of people making stuff up to justify their choices. You're telling me that none of the private schools in the DMV had any kids at all accepted to Harvard last year? Because Whitman only had 1 kid in the class of 2021 accepted. Or maybe you'll tell me that Harvard isn't the right data point and to look at other colleges. And we'll go around and around and around. The fact is that Whitman is certainly better than SOME private school acceptance results in the DMV, but not all, and it's not even close.

It's not a farce. Show me a DMV private school that has better college acceptance result. I am waiting.

Sure - here you go: https://www.polarislist.com/best-high-schools-in-maryland

Whitman is not even tops among high schools in MCPS, let alone among all DMV private schools. Sidwell, St. Albans and GDS all have as many or more kids going to the 3 schools that this site uses than Whitman over the past 5 years and they all have senior classes that are one fourth the size (one sixth the size at St. Albans).

Again, it's not even close.

Is that literally just tracking admissions to 3 schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming my DS will not get into any privates just because it’s almost impossible right now, we are turning to our inbounds HS, Whitman. I hear only great things. My DS is a very good student with some LD, great athlete who will no doubt make the team of his sport and may even play varsity freshman year. He’s super quiet. How will he do at Whitman? He’s never been in such a huge school. His current school is tiny. But he’s looking forward to HS.

Whitman is better than any private school in the area

Then why do so many families in the Whitman sending area send their kids to private schools at significant expense?

Are these people dumb?

In our Potomac neighborhood we see Landon, Prep, Gonzaga, Bullis, St Albans, Holton, etc. jackets and sweatshirts in abundance. And some Whitman ones, too.

Vanity.

If by "vanity" you mean a realization that Whitman has been trading on its reputation from 25 years ago for a while now, its recent acceptance results for top colleges have been pedestrian and no longer are even the best among MCPS high schools, and that MCPS is such a train wreck now that it's only going to get worse in years to come, then I agree 100%.

Look, Whitman is a good school. But it's not the best-in-class public school that it once was. To seriously wonder why families would choose to send their kids to some of the best private schools in the DMV over Whitman means you're either in denial and want to make yourself feel better about your personal decision, or you have no ability or desire to understand why it's not for everyone.

But it's still better than any private school acceptance results in the DMV.

LOL - such a farce. This thread is just full of people making stuff up to justify their choices. You're telling me that none of the private schools in the DMV had any kids at all accepted to Harvard last year? Because Whitman only had 1 kid in the class of 2021 accepted. Or maybe you'll tell me that Harvard isn't the right data point and to look at other colleges. And we'll go around and around and around. The fact is that Whitman is certainly better than SOME private school acceptance results in the DMV, but not all, and it's not even close.

It's not a farce. Show me a DMV private school that has better college acceptance result. I am waiting.

Sure - here you go: https://www.polarislist.com/best-high-schools-in-maryland

Whitman is not even tops among high schools in MCPS, let alone among all DMV private schools. Sidwell, St. Albans and GDS all have as many or more kids going to the 3 schools that this site uses than Whitman over the past 5 years and they all have senior classes that are one fourth the size (one sixth the size at St. Albans).

Again, it's not even close.

Is that literally just tracking admissions to 3 schools?

+1. Complete joke rankings. Even if those were the only 3 important schools - it doesn’t account for legacy admissions and the advantage that full pay students have.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I currently have a student at Whitman and I have great concern regarding drug dealing and usage by the students. It is also my opinion that there is a lack of consequences. There are students who identify as gang members, sell drugs, carry weapons and post all of this on Instagram. A teacher at Whitman commented that little could be done by the school to address this drug issue and that since the pandemic, there has been a spike in freshman drug activity and a blatant disregard about potential consequences.

Look, everyone, a comment that only enhances the sterling reputation of Whitman!!

No wonder 25% to 30% of the parents in the Whitman district send their kids to private schools.

Many do so for status, but yes some do because they value private over public.

I'm one of those parents. I pulled my kids out after elementary school, and before the pandemic. I don't think every private school is better than every public school, or that there's one right choice for all children, but regardless, MCPS was a mess even back then, and we wanted out of the whole system, not Pyle or Whitman in particular.

I think it depends on the parents mostly. Some expect the school system to raise their kids while others who take an active role int heir children's lives seem to do better in public.

Don’t worry, we have insane helicopter parents in private schools too

[Anonymous]

The issue I have with Whitman is--too big, classes too large, lousy sports, the kids are overly woke.

[Anonymous]

I have kids at Whitman and I’ve been very happy. I grew up in the area so knew the options pretty well. The kids in our neighborhood attend Whitman and local privates and parents I know all seem pretty satisfied. As a Whitman parent, I think the positives are motivated students, good teachers, course selection, social opportunities, and value. The cons are size, pressure, and uneven instruction. For our family, the pros far outweigh the cons. Our kids haven’t reported a drug problem at Whitman but they could be insulated by their high achieving peer groups. I know from parents at privates that drugs are rampant there too. Drugs are everywhere - it’s silly to think a high tuition will protect your kids.