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Sidwell vs. other Quaker schools?
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Anonymous
Have you read the Sidwell admissions threads? Many generational or birth-right Quakers as they are called were not accepted at Sidwell this year. Many of the "true" members of Bethesda and Washington, DC Quaker meeting have ties to Sandy Spring Friends School. |
Anonymous
Agree as parent of Sidwell student. |
Anonymous
My daughter is a mult-generational "birth-right" Quaker. Despite very good test scores, great recommendations, etc. she was rejected from Sidwell. We are going to Sandy Spring Friends school in the fall and couldn't be happier. We find it to be much truer to Quaker values and a much better fit for our family and for our daughter. It really is sad that Sidwell has move so far away from its Quaker roots. I have spoken to many Quakers from DC and Montgomery county who feel the same and who have not even bothered to submit an application to Sidwell for their child--as they do not feel it is a "true" Quaker school. |
Anonymous
| PP, I'm disappointed that you choose to sit in judgment of whether or not the Quaker values that I and others follow are sufficiently true. I hope you find the peace and integrity you seek elsewhere. |
Anonymous
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I'm not Quaker and I don't have a child at any of these schools, but I think PP was saying the institution doesn't reflect her Quaker values, not that Quakers who send their children there aren't true Quakers.
Again, I don't have a dog in this fight but I'm surprised none of the Quakers here have reacted to the dismissive phrase of OP that Quaker schools appeal to her because it is not that religious. When i went through the private school app process I was struck by how much more religious Sidwell was than the Cathedral schools. Sidwell teaches Quakerism as part of its curriculum; the Cathedral schools (where one of my children go) do not teach church doctrine in the curriculum. I would be very comfortable sending my kids to Sidwell, but it seems disrespectful to me that so many parents think of Quakerism as religion-light. |
Anonymous
| The Northwest Current is carrying an article about a Sidwell kid who went with her mom to Burkina Faso over spring break, and is now starting an e-ngo based on this experience. I didn't know whether to be amazed, or appalled by the way that this manages to combine that pesky community service requirement with conspicuous consumption. |
Anonymous
Because condescension like yours is a Quaker value? |
Anonymous
She accused the PP of lying - of having no integrity right now. Really nice! |
Anonymous
| I think that it's odd that all Quakers would expect to be automatically accepted to Sidwell even with a good package. It is still a competitive school Quaker or not and therefore cannot accept everyone. It has long been a diverse student body and not just a Quaker-only school. I don't see how rejections of the whole student even if Quaker could make them less Quaker per se. Sounds more like sour grapes. Sure being Quaker might be more appealing to them the same way that legacy, sib, teacher, or other might make you go to a different pile, but it won't get you in. There are just too many applicants these days. I'm not sure that they have to take every Quaker who applies just to show how true to Quaker values they are. |
Anonymous
Well said. Sidwell receives more applications than any private school in the D.C. metropolitan area for a very limited number of spots. While I imagine that the bulk of Sidwell applicants are well qualified, the reality is that they can't admit everyone.
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Anonymous
Sure, Sidwell is entitled to take whomever it wants, but that's not what we're discussing here. We're discussing whether Sidwell has created an identity as a "Quaker" school or as a "something else" school. A PP said she has a highly qualified DC who was turned down. Sidwell choose to let in lots of other equally qualified kids. If these other kids were diversity, especially low-income diversity, then that's totally in keeping with Quaker values and I don't think anybody can criticize. But we all know that Sidwell has a surfeit of rich and powerful families, whose kids were probably equally qualified as PP's kid, but were accepted over PP's kid. It doesn't seem really Quaker to court the rich potential donors and political appointees to the extent that Sidwell appears to do (see my question below). And as a dem, I like the Obama folks as much as the next person. So what is Sidwell then? A Quaker missionary school to the rich and powerful? I doubt it. It's a school that chooses to accept the kids of the rich and powerful over equally qualified kids like PP's. Does anybody know the ratio of Quaker families to high-ranking politicos at Sidwell? |
Anonymous
| Is the question whether Sidwell has an "identity" as a school for the rich and powerful vs. an identity as a Quaker school? Or is the question about the vibe/values that are instilled in the kids at the school. Either way, as the ratio of actual Quakers to the number of rich & powerful goes down, the identity and the claim about Quaker values both suffer. |
Anonymous
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For the poster whose daughter was not offered admission, did you speak with Josh Wolman, the AD, afterwards. I have a son (I'm Quaker) who was not offered admission when we applied, and I found my discussion with Josh Wolman to be very helpful.
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Anonymous
| My DC was rejected from Sidwell even with fantastic grades and we are not Quaker. I totally believe that Quakers should be accepted over DC, even "less qualified" (whatever that means) students. Like everyone I hate the ass-licking of the rich and powerful but i would respect Sidwell more if they took more Quakers. Otherwise it just seems disingenuous to hold themselves out as Quaker school. Quakers created that school to educate their children and the fact that everyone else seems to want in shouldn't harm the kids for whom the school was created. |
Anonymous
| How many Quaker kids, on average, are in each class at Sidwell? |