Weeding out...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't Al Gore's kid get "weeded out" of St. Albans and then immediately accepted at Sidwell, or maybe the other way around? Some weeds, like the ivy in my yard, are pretty resilient.

Yes, you pretty much captured it. So I guess what you're really saying is that Sidwell is a better source for or accepting of, ahem, weed than STA, though I thought GDS topped the list in that category.

[Anonymous]

If it was indeed Sidwell and not the other way around, I'm not so sure on that point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I personally know of 3 kids who've been, as jhuber put it nicely, counseled. In each instance, this wasn't a shock to the parents. In two cases, the parents themselves broached the stay - no stay discussion.

The schools are: NCS, Sidwell lower, and Sidwell upper.


Minority students? Only ask given the other thread regarding Sidwell.

Each kid is white non-Hispanic.

What I've kind of always wondered, and would never ask these older kids' parents, is, how exactly did you and the school decide that 10th grade or so is "it" ??? I mean, if academic fit is the issue (and it was), wouldn't you kind of know that before 10th grade? (the NCS(Beauvoir) and Sidwell upper kids I know had been there their whole academic lives).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't Al Gore's kid get "weeded out" of St. Albans and then immediately accepted at Sidwell, or maybe the other way around? Some weeds, like the ivy in my yard, are pretty resilient.

Yes, you pretty much captured it. So I guess what you're really saying is that Sidwell is a better source for or accepting of, ahem, weed than STA, though I thought GDS topped the list in that category.

Albert Gore III left St. Albans for Sidwell, despite his father and grandfather graduating from STA. He graduated from Sidwell. I imagine he preferred it to STA because I frankly don't believe STA would remove the double legacy son of a vice president. As for Sidwell accepting him, I don't think any independent school in DC would have turned him away. He got into Harvard (that legacy again) and graduated, despite multiple arrests (some involving, ahem, weed ).

There are different standards for different people and families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Albert Gore III graduated from Sidwell. He got into Harvard (that legacy again) and graduated, despite multiple arrests (some involving, ahem, weed ).

There are different standards for different people and families.

I wonder if Sidwell weeded out some other more deserving student than Albert to make room for the rich brat

[Anonymous]

Continuing with the weed theme:


http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/education/767.html

"... in 1996 Albert Gore III left St. Albans in eighth grade amid a flurry of pot rumors to attend Sidwell Friends ...."

[Anonymous]

It is not uncommon for families to "weed" themselves out prior to starting 9th grade. If you apply your 4 year old to schools thinking you actually know what the best fit will be for 9th-12th grades, based on them simply having a high WPPSI score, you are fooling yourself. That test is not going to determine what kind of student you will have 10 years down the line. Many of these schools will work for a fairly wide range of kids until high school. Just because a school goes all the way through 12th grade does not mean you have to stay there.

[Anonymous]

That's also true. But I think were discussing the opposite mechanism here.

[Anonymous]

There was an article in Washingtonian about the Gore episode. He was caught with drugs at STA and was punished along with the rest of his cohort. The school did not make the charges public, but Tipper sought to have all records of the incident removed from young Al's records. The school refused to do that and the Gores pulled him.

[Anonymous]

Good for St. A.