Schools that excel in teaching writing, analysis and critical thinking

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would have to say all the top schools in this area St. Albans/NCS, GDS, Sidwell, and Potomac. I know because i have looked at those schools and all seem top notch. We are not applying to all of them because of "fit" but most of them. I imagine Maret as well, though we haven't looked there. Basically, from what I have seen, you can't go wrong with any of the name brand schools.

+1 from a GDS parent. All the more competitive admissions independents offer fantastic programs to develop writing and thinking skills. There are differences in the curriculum and areas of emphasis, but you can get a solid sense of the variations by looking at what students are reading in English and history and social science classes. In nearly every instance, the writing load is driven by the teacher-student ratio. Required English and social studies classes in the publics have to cater to students who will barely graduate from high school. Public school teachers, even at the AP level, just don't have the time to ask students to do a lot of writing and thoughtful analysis. I think the expectations at the name brand independent high schools are on par or higher than what you would find in most freshman and sophomore classes at SLACs and big state universities.

[Anonymous]

With a $30K-$40K price tag per year I would most of the well regarded ones, if not all, excel in this area. They issue will be is which school you fit in I think more so that a wrong choice academically.

[Anonymous]

Literally any parochial school

[Anonymous]

St Anselms+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: All the more competitive admissions independents offer fantastic programs to develop writing and thinking skills.

OP here - thanks to everyone for the helpful feedback! Being realistic about admissions chances, I'd also love feedback on some of the "less competitive" schools in the area such as Burke, Bullis and Sandy Spring Friends. We're also only looking at coed and non-parochial, though I imagine others will appreciate feedback on a wider range of schools. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SAAS does a very good job of teaching writing. Ms. Dunne, especially, makes them write every day and thoroughly and carefully corrects their writing.

+1

My DS just started at St. Anselm's this year and his written assignments in ALL subjects are critiqued and graded for content, grammar, concept and thoroughness. He is also learning grammar, which he was not taught in ES or MS. He might not be thrilled, but I am!

I was amazed to see students diagramming sentences when we toured St. Anselm's.

The best way to learn grammar is by studying a foreign language and reflecting upon your own.

[Anonymous]

Our St. Andrew's grad was exceedingly well prepared for the most rigorous writing courses as a freshman at one of the most selective universities. Great teaching is great teaching, and does not necessarily correlate with private high school admission rates (if anything, the more selective the high school probably the harder it is to sort out the teachers' role as opposed to the student's innate ability on average).

[Anonymous]

OP - By the way, in case you aren't sure St. Andrew's is not parochial school. We are not Episcopal nor even Christian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have to say all the top schools in this area St. Albans/NCS, GDS, Sidwell, and Potomac. I know because i have looked at those schools and all seem top notch. We are not applying to all of them because of "fit" but most of them. I imagine Maret as well, though we haven't looked there. Basically, from what I have seen, you can't go wrong with any of the name brand schools.

+1 from a GDS parent. All the more competitive admissions independents offer fantastic programs to develop writing and thinking skills. There are differences in the curriculum and areas of emphasis, but you can get a solid sense of the variations by looking at what students are reading in English and history and social science classes. In nearly every instance, the writing load is driven by the teacher-student ratio. Required English and social studies classes in the publics have to cater to students who will barely graduate from high school. Public school teachers, even at the AP level, just don't have the time to ask students to do a lot of writing and thoughtful analysis. I think the expectations at the name brand independent high schools are on par or higher than what you would find in most freshman and sophomore classes at SLACs and big state universities.

Sorry I should have added Holton as well from what we have seen. The only top school we haven't looked at is Maret as I said but I imagine at 37K, they are all good. Name brand. My junior high at a good private can probably write better than my wife and I and I graduated a top law school with honors. I think colleges these days look for this and even in middle school the top schools cater to do this.

[Anonymous]

Burke does a great job with writers and critical thinking. Really all the true progressives do.

[Anonymous]

Definitely Holton Arms. This is true not only in English but in History as well.

[Anonymous]

The Jesuit schools...Georgetown Prep, Gonzaga

[Anonymous]

Stone Ridge - I graduated a few years back, but the English Department in the Upper School was fantastic. All the essays (in the humanities) I had to complete in college were a breeze compared to many of my SR assignments.

[Anonymous]

Maret

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SAAS does a very good job of teaching writing. Ms. Dunne, especially, makes them write every day and thoroughly and carefully corrects their writing.

+1

My DS just started at St. Anselm's this year and his written assignments in ALL subjects are critiqued and graded for content, grammar, concept and thoroughness. He is also learning grammar, which he was not taught in ES or MS. He might not be thrilled, but I am!

I was amazed to see students diagramming sentences when we toured St. Anselm's.

The best way to learn grammar is by studying a foreign language and reflecting upon your own.

You learn a lot of English grammar by learning a foreign language. This is how I learned, but I only scratched the surface with my first foreign language in high school. It didn't really come together until around my fourth or so language in college.

Diagramming, on the other hand, really helps in a more direct and immediate way and at a younger age. A real plus is this it is very visual, which fits well with a lot of kids' learning style.

I taught myself diagramming and then taught it to my DC a couple of her friends. They were floundering in grammar in their parochial middle school because it was being taught too abstractly. I don't think a year has gone past when the mother of one the friends has not thanked me for doing this because it transformed her daughter from a low B English student to an A student through high school and college despite her STEM focus.