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Schools and Education General Discussion
Not Newsweek, but real input on best public schools (highschool)
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Anonymous
| PP-- excellent, thank you. |
Anonymous
| 23:46 you might be giving TMI. Your co-workers could figure it out. |
Anonymous
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I went to Whitman, and I will try to give you as balanced a perspective as I am capable of...
1) I really truly believe that many people regard Whitman as the "best" high school in the county. (Sorry Churchill, Wooton, BCC) I believe that college counsellors also believe this. 2) There are a lot of very smart, and perhaps more importantly, very motivated kids at the school. I do think this tends to lead to higher performance by the group as a whole. When I went there, all the "popular" kids took AP and honors courses. In fact, most kids took all four major subjects in either an "honors" or AP form. Taking "regular" courses was almost looked down on. Obviously there are drawbacks to this, because if you struggle as a student, you are on the outside. But for most kids who can hack it, it causes you to work harder (and thus learn more). 3) The competition is intense. This has pros and cons, but one pro is that even if you go to Princeton, your classes/competition will seem somewhat easier. 4) The school is largely very wealthy, and white. There is a high percentage of Asians, and also international students. There are relatively few Hispanic/Blacks. In that respect, I think the school suffers a bit from a lack of diversity. Perhaps more importantly, it suffers from a lack of economic diversity. But, it perhaps gains something too... gangs and serious violence is pretty much unheard of. "Crime" (as was publicized in the recent episode) mostly stems from dumb over-privileged teen behavior... and I suspect, designer high dollar drug use. Pick your poison. 5) The parents are equally intense. Some pros, are that they end up getting very good music, art, language, sports, etc. programs, because the parents will settle for nothing less. I'm sure you can see the cons. From my own experience, I can't say every moment of my life at Whitman was happy (who can?). I remember being pretty stressed out. But, if you survive, I do think you'll be really well prepared. Some of my introductory level classes at Princeton were a joke by comparison. It's not a good place for a mediocre and/or struggling student. They do a great job of challenging the brains. They do a poor job of helping kids who need help. |
Anonymous
I think your last few sentences sum it all up. Of course we all want what's best for our kids, but we can't always assume that the school that offers the most AP classes or has the highest test scores will be the one that works for everyone. We all hope our children will grow up to be excellent students who are hard working and love a challenge, but there are plenty of kids who are just not that way, and often times these "best" schools are not the place for them. |
Anonymous
| I went to Churchill. It's top=-notch academically, can't go wrong there. However, socially, it's another story -- very snobby, wealthy, privileged student body (think porsches, hummers in school parking lot), not at all diverse (economically or ethnically). Highly competitive too -- everyone vying for acceptance to top universities. For that reason, I would never buy a house in the Churchill school district. |
Anonymous
| Interesting. But how would that be different from the privates in the area (top ones?) We are trying to decide between public and private and if the academics are strong at Churchill likely will go that route. |
Anonymous
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To 17:22 -- well, it probably wouldn't be different -- at least I don't think so, though can not speak from experience. If you already live in the Churchill school district you should take advantage of the excellent free education.
To give Churchill credit, I definitely felt prepared academically for my Ivy League college. |
Anonymous
| There are schools in the county that are not diverse. However, I wish that the county would do LESS to try to correct the "problem". They bring racially different people together of different economic/social backgrounds, and thus stereotypes and antagonism arise. This is what goes on at many schools and makes the situation worse. |
Anonymous
Are you speaking from the perspective of a minority who was bussed to a predominately white school or the other way around? |
Anonymous
| A minority who was from an upper middle class family living in an affluent (and white) area who had to witness the bias and prejudice that the bussed students endured. |
Anonymous
| Oh, that's really sad. Definitely see your point. |
Anonymous
| Egads PP, I bet that was tough for you but, wow, also an incredibly valuable lesson. At 14-18 it would be hard to see the value but, has it helped you see things from a mre effective view point than your peers as you have aged? It certainly has the makings of an excellent college essay. |
Anonymous
Private schools will have ethnic and economic diversity - it may be very crafted and calculated but there it will be there |
Anonymous
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I realize this is an old post but I am new here and wanted to give some input because my kids have attended both BCC and Whitman.
First, a correction on a previous post: Whitman does not have the highest SATs in MoCo, Churchill does. There are some racial problems at Whitman. One of my daughters was taunted and harrassed by some Whitman boys about her race (AA). She was physically scared of them. The Whitman principal dealt with it very well-- but Whitman really isn't as diverse as BCC. I know other parents who chose BCC for their AA kids for the same reason. Churchill is known for being a very rich, white school. If a kid cannot fit into that dynamics, he may have a hard time of it. (I was told this by a parent whose family went from fitting in to free-lunch.) As far as pressure, I think they are all high-pressure schools, as are the 2 county magnets (Blair's math science and Richard Montgomery's IB). Kids at all these schools are taking more and more APs and IB classes and the normal math for an 8th grader at Westland (the BCC middle school) is now Algebra so just about all the kids are at least a year accelerated in math. I don't think average kids get served well at BCC either-- forget about special ed kids (even gt/ld). Parents with ld kids or special ed kids are often the unhappiest of them all, having to call numerous meetings to get their kids services. BCC does have some programs to help lower-income kids and has some free after-school drop-in tutoring for all kids so it's probably the best choice of the 3 (Churchill, Whitman, BCC) for a middle-class or working-class family. I think they do a good job of getting past income biases. That doesn't mean there's no racism-- there is, mainly on the part of teachers-- and nothing is done about that. Thankfully, most of the teachers are ok. There are plenty of drugs and drinking at both BCC and Whitman; it would be hard to say where there is more. |
Anonymous
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Oh, about WJ... I had heard good things about it but I have been disappointed with my experiences there. The first time one of my kids had a game there, we saw 3 kids sitting on the curb in front of the school smoking a joint. I know the kids at all the schools do drugs, but it was very surprising to see them so open about it. This was 3 years ago so maybe things have changed. The times I've dealt with the school (one of my kids took her SAT there, games), the staff we've met have been brusque-- at least compared to how they are at BCC. That may not be representative of what usually goes on there but it was our experience.
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