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How is to not be Jewish at GDS?
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Anonymous
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14:28
the difference in the posters question is she doesn't understand why a secular school seems to have so many jewish kids and why the school seems to celebrate jewish holidays. It is the underlying tone that has an antisemitic feel to it. entirely different being jewish at a catholic school. you chose the religious environment that is not the same as yours and knew that catholic holidays would be celebrated. |
Anonymous
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``the difference in the posters question is she doesn't understand why a secular school seems to have so many jewish kids and why the school seems to celebrate jewish holidays. It is the underlying tone that has an antisemitic feel to it.''
I guess i don't feel it since she single out Christians and christmas holidays too. It's a difficult question to ask but not one i feel offense at. However, you never really know what motivates people. |
Anonymous
Quakers--though some disagree--tend to fall under the Protestant umbrella because most early Quakers considered themselves Christians, but rejected certain practices and rituals, including infant baptism. Like many other Anabaptists, they also adopted beliefs of what became known as the historic Peace Churches (Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, etc.) Of course, you are not going to find Sidwell advertising itself as a Christian, much less Protestant, school, but make no mistake that Quakers are generally considered to be Christian, Anabpatist Protestants. |
Anonymous
| Quakers are Christians and my sense is they find it awfully offensive when people treat it as not a religion. When we toured Sidwell I found it more religious tan the Cathedral schools (I'm the Jewish parent who has a child at one) because they teach Quakerism as part of the curriculum, while the Cathedral schools do not teach church doctrine as part of the curriculum. |
Anonymous
| I congratulate the poster for setting off a nice string that is going to inevitably lead to more and more virulent disagreements about the merits of schools, their philosophies, their parents and their kids. |
Anonymous
For what its worth, OP's post didn't strike me as antisemitic. We, too, were looking for a school that was truly a-religious (that is, that teaches all of the major religions equally if they teach them at all) and were struck by the fact that even the non-denominational schools are, in fact, Judeo-Christian in their orientation. (We are atheists). We wound up at an overtly Christian school that genuinely celebrates/welcomes religious diversity and have been happy with our choice. The kids are in the Christmas pageant and go to weekly chapel but have not felt discriminated against or marginalized by the fact that their parents are godless heathens 
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Anonymous
| Not anti-semitic. If you celebrate Eid, you might be wondering "are my kids welcome?" FWIW, we are not Jewish (or anything else), and find the school great on all fronts. Deals in a very up-front way with religions, just as it does with many other things. I'd not worry. |
Anonymous
| OP - thank you for all replies. I just wanted to add that when we toured Sidwell and Cathedral schools, it was obvious that both had a religious slant be it Quaker or Episcopal. But we'd thought GDS would be non-denominational and then found that Christmas and Passover were two of the 5 major assemblies. I should have probably written Judeo-Christian, PPs are correct. It seemed that if there was a bit of a religious slant at GDS it was more Jewish and Christian because of its history. We admire the history by the way. Very much. And are attracted by the school's values of respect and tolerance for all. Still wondering a bit what its like for families, and there probably aren't many, that are not from the Judeo-Christian traditions. Those kids and their families still don't see their religious tradition reflected in the big school assemblies. That has to create a feeling of being lesser. We're practically agnostics, but culturally our family is mostly not Judeo-Christian. |
Anonymous
| OP. Meant to write "more Jewish than Christian because of its history". |
Anonymous
| I thought the GDS student body was/is, whether culturally or religiously, majority Jewish. Additionally, and please correct this if it is wrong, are not the majority of the GDS Board members Jewish as well? |
Anonymous
| Yes, the school has a lot of Jewish kids. In some classes it is half Jewish. No issues with this. I am sure St Albans has many classes that are 90% Christian. Probably more, LOL. I think OPs question is reasonable in terms of what either of these things mean for kids who aren't from those traditions. |
Anonymous
| I also think the question is reasonable (I'm the Jewish parent with DC at a Cathedral school). I think ultimately, however, no one can answer it. It comes down to OP's comfort level and none of us have the same comfort level. |
Anonymous
| If you want a school that is everything - check out WIS. |
Anonymous
Also, check out the private schools in northern virginia - we are from asia (multiple countries and regions) originally and find that the privates in northern va (e.g. nysmith, potomac, flint hill, langley, etc...) are not focused on any one and not religiously focused at all but are still multicultural enough to make us feel comfortable. |
Anonymous
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OP, FWIW, ten, yes TEN, years ago, I know someone who pulled their child out of GDS, b/c the child did not feel comfortable there as a Muslim (the family was liberal and not very religious). She said that if you don't "go along", it can be trouble.
The ended up at an even more liberal DC private school and were very happy. |