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Beauvoir
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Anonymous
| I think so. I believe they fill 3 classes in pre-K and just one in K. Sibling preference is officially for pre-K, but that doesn't mean it's absent from K b/c some of the sibs who apply for pre-K are encouraged to wait a year. |
Anonymous
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Parent here with some Beauvoir experience. Good school for a certain type of student - strong tester, moderate personality and conforming behavior. If your child is overly expressive, bright but not a strong tester or quirky, I'd recommend you stay away and look at other schools.
As for the comment about "set for life" all I can say is "clueless" |
Anonymous
| All I can say is you don't have a kid at Beauvoir above...you sound like sour grapes to me |
Anonymous
Sour grapes?? I don't see it. All I see is an opinion. |
Anonymous
Beauvoir and STA are very, very different. |
Anonymous
| pp, why no quirky kids at beauvoir? |
Anonymous
Quirky parents beget quirky offspring. No matter how diverse Beauvoir claims to be, one common trait is conformity. "Quirky" is simply an unnecessary risk to that conformity apple-cart that Beauvoir cherishes. So, in a word, few quirky kids at B because the admissions folks are good at sniffing out quirky parents, and keeping them well below the hill. |
Anonymous
I disagree strongly and not trying to stir up trouble here but many of my friends' children are at Beauvoir and they are anything but the above description, except I think they are bright and did test very well. They all seem happy and well adjusted and have lots of personality. Unfortunately there are a lot of families in DC who are connected and wealthy and assumed they would get into Beauvoir. I think when their child was rejected they just took it so personally and have been on a vengeance against the school every since. It is a real shame. I think many of these posters really don't have children at the school and are just still angry over their child being rejected. I know this is true because I have many friends that did not get into the school and some of them do still have a certain hostility against the school even though they are at wonderful schools and their children are happy and doing well. It is something I haven't been able to understand. I just wish people would be happy where they are and stop making up things about schools that aren't true and move on... |
Anonymous
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Back to the original question, the answer is ... no.
Beauvoir is a great school if you don't care about the incidentals. You know, reading and math. Somehow, the school floats by with this perception that by being nurturing, it can just toss academic preparation out the window. See if you can get the administration to ever mention a word like rigorous or competitive. Because they pander to parent's ideas that this idylic stage of life should be for growing gardens and dressing up for a Christmas pageant (which indeed it should...but not full time), they have simply skated right past any accountability on academics. If you want one of the Cathedral schools, you need to go to Beauvoir. And it is a nice school. It's just a school where from second grade on you're going to have to work with your kid at night to teach them the things Beauvoir won't. If you don't want a Cathedral school but want to linger in the cotton candy land of hopes and dreams, then Beauvoir may also be for you. But if you don't want the Cathedral schools and have the slightest desire for a school that teaches the 3 R's (in addition perhaps to lovely things like painting Van Gogh's sunflowers), then you need to head to another school. |
Anonymous
| PP: Are you a Beauvoir parent? I'm not...it was just an interesting post to read and I was wondering if this was your family's personal experience or not. |
Anonymous
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19:44 here. Yes, I was a Beauvoir parent (5 years). And I don't actually detest Beauvoir. I just think it was incredibly overrated. I am still incredulous that I had to teach my kid to read. WTH? And why didn't my kid know cursive after third grade? (or even get INTRODUCED to cursive) Why didn't my kid come out knowing math facts?
They should have spent a little less time patting themselves on the back about how much people want their kids to go to their school and spend a little more thinking through a curriculum. |
Anonymous
| Not surprised here. These deficits are why in recent years it is not automatic for the Beauvoir boys to get into STA. STA has noticed these deficiencies compared to outside applicants. |
Anonymous
Current Beauvoir parent here. Thanks for the heads-up. We've been pleasantly surprised by Beauvoir so far, but useful to know that we'll need to supplement in math later on. |
Anonymous
Strong words from someone who kept her child there for all 5 years. Why did you stay if you had such a negative experience? Seems kind of silly. |
Anonymous
Well, for one thing I actually did want a Cathedral school, so it would have been silly to pull my child OUT of Beauvoir at the time I realized there were significant gaps in the education. I think up through first grade everything was lovely. I didn't really notice any gaps until around 2nd grade, when I realized my child never had a reading group and didn't know addition facts and never had a single paper corrected for spelling or punctuation. In my case, I thought, "Maybe it's just this one lousy teacher. I'll work on this stuff at home". But then you're in third grade and it's still lousy. And at that point you're already applying out. I am not saying this to be mean. I know Beauvoir did a lot for my child in many ways. I'm just saying that from my experience (and every single parent that I know from my child's grade), Beuavoir didn't teach what it should have taught in 2nd and 3rd grade (and maybe earlier...but I didn't notice). Take it or leave it. |