Will Whittle be around next year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you overpay for a clearly distressed house and forgo a simple home inspection that would reveal all sorts of structural issues, you’re not a victim just a poor consumer.

There are also scenarios where are you pay for a home inspection, but the inspector lies and scams you. Plenty of con artists go after more vulnerable people that are easier to fool, that doesn’t mean the scammer schooling be blamed and held accountable.

The school opened in a new facility with (by all accounts) excellent faculty. The school achieved accreditation and IB certification. It’s easy to look back today and say parents should have known but that’s not the reality.

There were established alternatives with track records going back decades. It was always a gamble sending a kid there (assuming they could have gotten into a better school).

Very limited high performing options for kids that wanted to learn/continue learning Mandarin in Middle School. As much as the world has changed in the last 20 years you would think there would be more alternatives. But here's some for example, if you have more please share.

Bullis farm from the city very expensive.
Sidwell one in a million very expensive.
DCI which is rated 6/10 on Greater Schools. Many complaints that I've heard from parents I trust to make informed schooling decisions.
Pallotti is far from the city and doesn't begin until HS.
Whittle promised a lot and offered merit scholarship.

If parents were seeking small school traditional education there were many other viable schools. But for the niche group mentioned above that wanted Mandarin as a key learning component there weren't many options. Of course some will say just send your child to a traditional school and have them study Mandarin on the weekends, blah blah blah etc... Sending your child to Whittle was a risk, like a start up company. Its all sunken cost now, lesson learned.

The availability of Mandarin was worth risking your child's education on a startup headed by a charlatan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you overpay for a clearly distressed house and forgo a simple home inspection that would reveal all sorts of structural issues, you’re not a victim just a poor consumer.

There are also scenarios where are you pay for a home inspection, but the inspector lies and scams you. Plenty of con artists go after more vulnerable people that are easier to fool, that doesn’t mean the scammer schooling be blamed and held accountable.

The school opened in a new facility with (by all accounts) excellent faculty. The school achieved accreditation and IB certification. It’s easy to look back today and say parents should have known but that’s not the reality.

There were established alternatives with track records going back decades. It was always a gamble sending a kid there (assuming they could have gotten into a better school).

Very limited high performing options for kids that wanted to learn/continue learning Mandarin in Middle School. As much as the world has changed in the last 20 years you would think there would be more alternatives. But here's some for example, if you have more please share.

Bullis farm from the city very expensive.
Sidwell one in a million very expensive.
DCI which is rated 6/10 on Greater Schools. Many complaints that I've heard from parents I trust to make informed schooling decisions.
Pallotti is far from the city and doesn't begin until HS.
Whittle promised a lot and offered merit scholarship.

If parents were seeking small school traditional education there were many other viable schools. But for the niche group mentioned above that wanted Mandarin as a key learning component there weren't many options. Of course some will say just send your child to a traditional school and have them study Mandarin on the weekends, blah blah blah etc... Sending your child to Whittle was a risk, like a start up company. Its all sunken cost now, lesson learned.

The availability of Mandarin was worth risking your child's education on a startup headed by a charlatan?

Mandarin was only one component, of course a well rounded education was the goal. There was no such prior wide spread prior knowledge other then Avenues that CW had this type of business background. The Avenues backstory read more like a business dispute. It wasn't like he was depicted as a repeated Trumpian like business failure or a Bernie Madoff schemer.

[Anonymous]

Never understood the Mandarin language thing, especially ad there are at least well over a billion people who already and will always speak it better than your DC.

Reminds me of the obsession w Japanese language in the 1980s. Very few ever became fluent and it was rarely of any practical use

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Mandarin was only one component, of course a well rounded education was the goal. There was no such prior wide spread prior knowledge other then Avenues that CW had this type of business background. The Avenues backstory read more like a business dispute. It wasn't like he was depicted as a repeated Trumpian like business failure or a Bernie Madoff schemer.

This is simply not true. An Empire Undone was published in 1995 and chronicled the failure of Whittle Communications. The fall of Edison Learning was covered extensively in the press and a simple Google search would have revealed as much. Class Clowns with its scathing indictment of Whittle's track record was published in 2016 (it says something about the man's salesmanship that he was still able to raise money and get two schools off the ground in the face of that).

There was a long trail of CW's track record of initial hubris followed by abject failure for anyone willing to do the diligence. It's not just true for parents that signed up for this - the bigger failure actually belongs to those that gave this man the money to unleash his latest scheme and then apparently shuffled off quietly when they realized they had been duped, instead of sticking around and forcing an orderly unwind as a responsible investor would have done

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never understood the Mandarin language thing, especially ad there are at least well over a billion people who already and will always speak it better than your DC.

Reminds me of the obsession w Japanese language in the 1980s. Very few ever became fluent and it was rarely of any practical use

Oh really? My DC is almost fluent at 12 and speaks with very little accent. This from the Chinese immersion schools in this area. He can speak on par with those billion mandarin speakers you just mentioned.

[Anonymous]

It feels terrible with the amount of tension at the school. The no pay has definitely caused some teachers to lash out at some students over minor things. You can even see staff saying minor aggressions, passive-aggressive comments, and saying unusual things with senior faculty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It feels terrible with the amount of tension at the school. The no pay has definitely caused some teachers to lash out at some students over minor things. You can even see staff saying minor aggressions, passive-aggressive comments, and saying unusual things with senior faculty.

The Lord of the Flies, DC edition... Just sad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It feels terrible with the amount of tension at the school. The no pay has definitely caused some teachers to lash out at some students over minor things. You can even see staff saying minor aggressions, passive-aggressive comments, and saying unusual things with senior faculty.

There's been no pay since Jan 31 and no word on funding of owed or upcoming payroll at end of month. Things are not good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never understood the Mandarin language thing, especially ad there are at least well over a billion people who already and will always speak it better than your DC.

Reminds me of the obsession w Japanese language in the 1980s. Very few ever became fluent and it was rarely of any practical use

Oh really? My DC is almost fluent at 12 and speaks with very little accent. This from the Chinese immersion schools in this area. He can speak on par with those billion mandarin speakers you just mentioned.

Wow. Fabulous. They can work in China. Super.

Gimme French any day. Even Latin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you overpay for a clearly distressed house and forgo a simple home inspection that would reveal all sorts of structural issues, you’re not a victim just a poor consumer.

There are also scenarios where are you pay for a home inspection, but the inspector lies and scams you. Plenty of con artists go after more vulnerable people that are easier to fool, that doesn’t mean the scammer schooling be blamed and held accountable.

The school opened in a new facility with (by all accounts) excellent faculty. The school achieved accreditation and IB certification. It’s easy to look back today and say parents should have known but that’s not the reality.

There were established alternatives with track records going back decades. It was always a gamble sending a kid there (assuming they could have gotten into a better school).

Very limited high performing options for kids that wanted to learn/continue learning Mandarin in Middle School. As much as the world has changed in the last 20 years you would think there would be more alternatives. But here's some for example, if you have more please share.

Bullis farm from the city very expensive.
Sidwell one in a million very expensive.
DCI which is rated 6/10 on Greater Schools. Many complaints that I've heard from parents I trust to make informed schooling decisions.
Pallotti is far from the city and doesn't begin until HS.
Whittle promised a lot and offered merit scholarship.

If parents were seeking small school traditional education there were many other viable schools. But for the niche group mentioned above that wanted Mandarin as a key learning component there weren't many options. Of course some will say just send your child to a traditional school and have them study Mandarin on the weekends, blah blah blah etc... Sending your child to Whittle was a risk, like a start up company. Its all sunken cost now, lesson learned.

Gds has mandarin in middle school and I think Sidwell does too. There are lots of schools that offer what Whittle claims to have offered, without the risk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you overpay for a clearly distressed house and forgo a simple home inspection that would reveal all sorts of structural issues, you’re not a victim just a poor consumer.

There are also scenarios where are you pay for a home inspection, but the inspector lies and scams you. Plenty of con artists go after more vulnerable people that are easier to fool, that doesn’t mean the scammer schooling be blamed and held accountable.

The school opened in a new facility with (by all accounts) excellent faculty. The school achieved accreditation and IB certification. It’s easy to look back today and say parents should have known but that’s not the reality.

There were established alternatives with track records going back decades. It was always a gamble sending a kid there (assuming they could have gotten into a better school).

Very limited high performing options for kids that wanted to learn/continue learning Mandarin in Middle School. As much as the world has changed in the last 20 years you would think there would be more alternatives. But here's some for example, if you have more please share.

Bullis farm from the city very expensive.
Sidwell one in a million very expensive.
DCI which is rated 6/10 on Greater Schools. Many complaints that I've heard from parents I trust to make informed schooling decisions.
Pallotti is far from the city and doesn't begin until HS.
Whittle promised a lot and offered merit scholarship.

If parents were seeking small school traditional education there were many other viable schools. But for the niche group mentioned above that wanted Mandarin as a key learning component there weren't many options. Of course some will say just send your child to a traditional school and have them study Mandarin on the weekends, blah blah blah etc... Sending your child to Whittle was a risk, like a start up company. Its all sunken cost now, lesson learned.

The availability of Mandarin was worth risking your child's education on a startup headed by a charlatan?

Mandarin was only one component, of course a well rounded education was the goal. There was no such prior wide spread prior knowledge other then Avenues that CW had this type of business background. The Avenues backstory read more like a business dispute. It wasn't like he was depicted as a repeated Trumpian like business failure or a Bernie Madoff schemer.

It wasn’t shady to you how CW bypassed all the permitting and neighborhood meetings prior to opening a school? That was the first red flag for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you overpay for a clearly distressed house and forgo a simple home inspection that would reveal all sorts of structural issues, you’re not a victim just a poor consumer.

There are also scenarios where are you pay for a home inspection, but the inspector lies and scams you. Plenty of con artists go after more vulnerable people that are easier to fool, that doesn’t mean the scammer schooling be blamed and held accountable.

The school opened in a new facility with (by all accounts) excellent faculty. The school achieved accreditation and IB certification. It’s easy to look back today and say parents should have known but that’s not the reality.

There were established alternatives with track records going back decades. It was always a gamble sending a kid there (assuming they could have gotten into a better school).

Very limited high performing options for kids that wanted to learn/continue learning Mandarin in Middle School. As much as the world has changed in the last 20 years you would think there would be more alternatives. But here's some for example, if you have more please share.

Bullis farm from the city very expensive.
Sidwell one in a million very expensive.
DCI which is rated 6/10 on Greater Schools. Many complaints that I've heard from parents I trust to make informed schooling decisions.
Pallotti is far from the city and doesn't begin until HS.
Whittle promised a lot and offered merit scholarship.

If parents were seeking small school traditional education there were many other viable schools. But for the niche group mentioned above that wanted Mandarin as a key learning component there weren't many options. Of course some will say just send your child to a traditional school and have them study Mandarin on the weekends, blah blah blah etc... Sending your child to Whittle was a risk, like a start up company. Its all sunken cost now, lesson learned.

Gds has mandarin in middle school and I think Sidwell does too. There are lots of schools that offer what Whittle claims to have offered, without the risk.

Norwood offers Mandarin in grades 5-8

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never understood the Mandarin language thing, especially ad there are at least well over a billion people who already and will always speak it better than your DC.

Reminds me of the obsession w Japanese language in the 1980s. Very few ever became fluent and it was rarely of any practical use

Oh really? My DC is almost fluent at 12 and speaks with very little accent. This from the Chinese immersion schools in this area. He can speak on par with those billion mandarin speakers you just mentioned.

Wow. Fabulous. They can work in China. Super.

Gimme French any day. Even Latin.

You are closed minded. You think small. You are obviously ignorant of how things work in the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never understood the Mandarin language thing, especially ad there are at least well over a billion people who already and will always speak it better than your DC.

Reminds me of the obsession w Japanese language in the 1980s. Very few ever became fluent and it was rarely of any practical use

Oh really? My DC is almost fluent at 12 and speaks with very little accent. This from the Chinese immersion schools in this area. He can speak on par with those billion mandarin speakers you just mentioned.

Wow. Fabulous. They can work in China. Super.

Gimme French any day. Even Latin.

Who gives a damn about French? You are seriously outdated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never understood the Mandarin language thing, especially ad there are at least well over a billion people who already and will always speak it better than your DC.

Reminds me of the obsession w Japanese language in the 1980s. Very few ever became fluent and it was rarely of any practical use

Oh really? My DC is almost fluent at 12 and speaks with very little accent. This from the Chinese immersion schools in this area. He can speak on par with those billion mandarin speakers you just mentioned.

Wow. Fabulous. They can work in China. Super.

Gimme French any day. Even Latin.

You are closed minded. You think small. You are obviously ignorant of how things work in the world.

Just think, your kid could be the western employee in China who gets arrested in retaliation when the DoJ charges a Chinese citizen with some crime.