How would you place top schools on a scale of most liberal to most conservative?

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]If you read the OP carefully, [u]it's not asking about politics at all[/u]. [u]It's asking about progressive v. traditional teaching. I assume this is meant to get at things like how much memorization is expected, how much learning is inquiry-based and student-led, etc[/u].. And that's a lot more important the the political leanings of the parents and/or faculty.[/quote]

I don't think so. OP's title to the thread is "[i]How would you place top schools on a scale of most liberal to most conservative?[/i]". There's no way to say that's about the style of teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or a scale of progressive to traditional teaching? Trying to get a feel for the culture of private schools around here.

Might be best to talk to the current students. If teachers are protesting and very vocal about their personal political beliefs while in the classroom or school building, your kid will either adopt a similar view or silence his/her view. Similar to what's going on in loud liberal U.S. universities, even if it is a small % of the school (but ~100% of staff).

When Trump won, my firm was neutral. It was respectful, ppl danced around things, and only a couple people were either visibly distraught or gleeful. We did our work, and tried to understand how this would affect our business or not. We'd hope our independent school stays the same way. Lots to focus on.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you read the OP carefully, [u]it's not asking about politics at all[/u]. [u]It's asking about progressive v. traditional teaching. I assume this is meant to get at things like how much memorization is expected, how much learning is inquiry-based and student-led, etc[/u].. And that's a lot more important the the political leanings of the parents and/or faculty.[/quote]

I don't think so. OP's title to the thread is "[i]How would you place top schools on a scale of most liberal to most conservative?[/i]". There's no way to say that's about the style of teaching.[/quote]

agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or a scale of progressive to traditional teaching? Trying to get a feel for the culture of private schools around here.

Might be best to talk to the current students. If teachers are protesting and very vocal about their personal political beliefs while in the classroom or school building, your kid will either adopt a similar view or silence his/her view. Similar to what's going on in loud liberal U.S. universities, even if it is a small % of the school (but ~100% of staff).

When Trump won, my firm was neutral. It was respectful, ppl danced around things, and only a couple people were either visibly distraught or gleeful. We did our work, and tried to understand how this would affect our business or not. We'd hope our independent school stays the same way. Lots to focus on.

Like teaching skills to help discern the truth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or a scale of progressive to traditional teaching? Trying to get a feel for the culture of private schools around here.

Liberal and conservative are political terms.

If you are asking about teaching, you can have progressive teaching in a traditional framework and perhaps even the opposite--so I think sometimes these binary questions trips us up....

[Anonymous]

OP -- if you care about teaching, I would put Maret more toward the middle. If you care about politics, definitely far left leaning.

[Anonymous]

^^^ would a conservative but very bright child not fit in well at Maret? I care more about teaching but don't want D.C. Not to feel comfortable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^ would a conservative but very bright child not fit in well at Maret? I care more about teaching but don't want D.C. Not to feel comfortable.

Have you spent much time around those with deeply help political ideologies at all? Of either stripe.

Do you think it would be possible for some of their beliefs not to leak into the classroom discussion?

[Anonymous]

I would actually put Maret in the top spot. the rest seem correct.

[Anonymous]

Whoever put Potomac so far up was wrong. It is super conservative in red leaning VA and most of the grads go to fratty UVA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whoever put Potomac so far up was wrong. It is super conservative in red leaning VA and most of the grads go to fratty UVA

I concur.

The less politically liberal schools seem to be St Agnes/Stephen, NPS, Potomac School, Norwood, Gonzaga/Catholic schools, Beauvoir/NCS/St Albans, Waldorf / Reggio / montessori (all apolitical frankly), Sheridan.

The very politically liberal schools seem to be GDS (as advertised), St Patricks (teacher behavior), Sidwell, Maret. Some of this manifests itself in massive chips on shoulders and zero ability to debate fiscal or social issues intellectually.

Rest lean politically liberal or vocally liberal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whoever put Potomac so far up was wrong. It is super conservative in red leaning VA and most of the grads go to fratty UVA

Since when has NoVa leaned red?

[Anonymous]

since warner make millions doing VC and tech/Telco long ago. plus their biz friendly policies and less taxes than DC or Md/MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:since warner make millions doing VC and tech/Telco long ago. plus their biz friendly policies and less taxes than DC or Md/MoCo.

That makes it blue.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you read the OP carefully, [u]it's not asking about politics at all[/u]. [u]It's asking about progressive v. traditional teaching. I assume this is meant to get at things like how much memorization is expected, how much learning is inquiry-based and student-led, etc[/u].. And that's a lot more important the the political leanings of the parents and/or faculty.[/quote]

I don't think so. OP's title to the thread is "[i]How would you place top schools on a scale of most liberal to most conservative?[/i]". There's no way to say that's about the style of teaching.[/quote]

agree. [/quote]

If you read the OP's post and not the thread title, they are asking about teaching styles... They should have said, "progressive to traditional" instead of liberal to conservative.