spin-off! What is so awful about attending school with exclusively upper middle class kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Private school would provide little economic diversity (despite the fact that the Smiths do all they can to support financial aid), but would improve the racial and religious diversity.

On what planet? How many muslim kids go to your private school? I posted to say that there was one - 1 - in our private school. Even your statement about private schools having better racial diversity than NW DC public schools is suspect. Plus, we know a lot of private school kids who claim diversity because they are 1/8 American Indian (yes, I actually know a family that does this), or foreign kids with parents who are posted here.

[Anonymous]

Face it, there are trade-offs in life. Most of the time, you cannot have everything you want. Of course, this applies to choosing a school.

However, you want to "have it all". You want the private school, and you also want DCUM to validate your choice by agreeing to some fig leaf about how your kid will have diversity too. But several of us have rejected your arguments. It's a bit of a joke to argue that there's more racial or religious diversity in private schools than in public schools. Or that you can get diversity by doing the noblesse oblige thing in a soup kitchen once a month.

There are trade-offs in life, and you can't have it all. Make the trade-off that is best for your kid. Choose private school if your kid needs a low student-teacher ratio, or whatever. But you need to accept that you will be sacrificing exposure to true diversity (including religious diversity! geez!). You are not going to get our support on the diversity issue, because the fig leafs mentioned here just don't stand up to scrutiny.

[Anonymous]

You are incorrect pp. Schools such as Whitman H.S. have almost no diversity; whereas most of the private schools in MD do.

[Anonymous]

Well, let's see. In my child's private there are Christian (many denoms), Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Quaker, Agnostic and Atheist families. There are also more students of color than we ever see at the local public. Both of my children have a best friend who is another race (and no, not 1/8th of something).

I am not the one with a fig leaf. The fig leaf is that by going to public school there is a diversity benefit. In my neighborhood, there is not. I am not moving east of the park just to get diversity. If that is not authentic or whatever, I honestly do not care. I know what I do to help others, and I am satisfied with it. I won't sacrifice my children's education or safety to pursue some false promise that going to a school with many income levels in it will somehow lead to world peace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are incorrect pp. Schools such as Whitman H.S. have almost no diversity; whereas most of the private schools in MD do.

Which would be a wonderful argument - except you said you live in DC, not MoCo, so Whitman isn't your kid's "alternative" public school.

I could counter your argument by comparing diversity at Lowell vs. diversity at Coolidge (in NW) or in any school in Anacostia. Except I won't, because that would be just as stupid and random as your comparison.

Look, I don't care if you delude yourself into thinking your private school offers more diversity than your local public. By all means, go ahead and delude yourself. Several of us have tried to reason with you, but reason doesn't appeal to somebody who wants to believe fiction instead.

So I'm taking off. Enjoy your fantasy life.

(PS. A sincere question: do you live in SE US? Do you have an abiding interest in Alexandria Academy? Because some of your posts show the same simplistic thinking skills and unfamiliarity with area schools.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, let's see. In my child's private there are Christian (many denoms), Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Quaker, Agnostic and Atheist families. There are also more students of color than we ever see at the local public. Both of my children have a best friend who is another race (and no, not 1/8th of something).

I am not the one with a fig leaf. The fig leaf is that by going to public school there is a diversity benefit. In my neighborhood, there is not. I am not moving east of the park just to get diversity. If that is not authentic or whatever, I honestly do not care. I know what I do to help others, and I am satisfied with it. I won't sacrifice my children's education or safety to pursue some false promise that going to a school with many income levels in it will somehow lead to world peace.

See, it is stuff like this that makes you sound like you view all people not of your same SES as destitute and dangerous. My child (at and MCPS public ES) doesn't have any friends who are homeless, but she does have friends whose parents drive taxis or clean houses for a living. Just as she has friends whose parents are professionals like us. some get free lunches, some get picked up from school in luxury cars. And at least for now, yeah they do all eat lunch together in the cafeteria.

[Anonymous]

The facts that you think that all private school families live in lilly white neighborhoods shows you have no clue.
My kids live in a neighborhood with taxi drivers and landscapers. They are our friends too.

[Anonymous]

Has it ever occurred to you private school bashers that there is more than one person on this thread with a kid in private school? I'm a PP who lives in DC. I'm not the one who posted the Whitman comment. Talk about simplistic thinking!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has it ever occurred to you private school bashers that there is more than one person on this thread with a kid in private school? I'm a PP who lives in DC. I'm not the one who posted the Whitman comment. Talk about simplistic thinking!

It does not matter if there is one of us or many of us - we are all the same to her.

[Anonymous]

I am not a private school basher. Some private schools are great institutions.
I have children in both private and public schools and I attended both public and private schools.
What works for my family: public school during the formative and early school years to immunise against entitlement syndrome and private school later if there is a need or interest for depth in particular areas. Crew and/or Math and Science at Exeter for example.
So far, we are fortunate--learning disabilities and a required need for small classes or one-on-one instruction have not forced our hands to seek a small private school earlier. Our kids love and are thriving in the big public pond and have neither need nor requirement for an elite and exclusive private educational bubble for their primary education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not a private school basher. Some private schools are great institutions.
I have children in both private and public schools and I attended both public and private schools.
What works for my family: public school during the formative and early school years to immunise against entitlement syndrome and private school later if there is a need or interest for depth in particular areas. Crew and/or Math and Science at Exeter for example.
So far, we are fortunate--learning disabilities and a required need for small classes or one-on-one instruction have not forced our hands to seek a small private school earlier. Our kids love and are thriving in the big public pond and have neither need nor requirement for an elite and exclusive private educational bubble for their primary education.

I don't think public immunizes middle class kids from entitlement.

[Anonymous]

I do. I have known several kids from the lower middle class attending prestigious private schools who developed a false sense of security (these kids will admit so in hindsight) when they entered the real world to discover (their lower middle class status remains unchanged) they don't have the same entre as their wealthy counterparts.

An immunization may require several periodic booster shots for efficacy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do. I have known several kids from the lower middle class attending prestigious private schools who developed a false sense of security (these kids will admit so in hindsight) when they entered the real world to discover (their lower middle class status remains unchanged) they don't have the same entre as their wealthy counterparts.

An immunization may require several periodic booster shots for efficacy.

I am sure there are kids from public and private that have a false sense of security. I don't think public make kids act or feel less entitled.

The public school kids that live next to me have 2 XBoxes so the kids don't have to share. (In addition to the PS3 and Wii)

I just don't see the affect you are talking about in the public school kids I know. Not that they are worse than the private school kids - just that they are the same.

[Anonymous]

I am referring to my children rather than your next door neighbor's clan. I suspect there may be some genotypic and phenotypic particularities with your next door neighbors that public school will cure or immunise them from. Some folk learn entitlement at home and other settings do not have a chance for other influences. The home setting remains too dominating a pathogen for the entitlement disease state.

Competing in the big and diverse (racial, ethnic, religious and SES) public school pond is working out nicely for our kids rather than schlepping them to an exclusive, elite private school bubble for pre-K to 8. To date, we have no need for these services for primary education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am referring to my children rather than your next door neighbor's clan. I suspect there may be some genotypic and phenotypic particularities with your next door neighbors that public school will cure or immunise them from. Some folk learn entitlement at home and other settings do not have a chance for other influences. The home setting remains too dominating a pathogen for the entitlement disease state.

Competing in the big and diverse (racial, ethnic, religious and SES) public school pond is working out nicely for our kids rather than schlepping them to an exclusive, elite private school bubble for pre-K to 8. To date, we have no need for these services for primary education.

Exactly, you don't need private for education and I don't need public for immunization.