Norwood: What do you love? Not Love?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10:41 I am curious why would you choose a school that recites The Lord's Prayer everyday in chapel? Doesn't seem like it would be a good fit.

Many families, ours included, were not told that the Lords Prayer was recited on a daily basis during the admissions process. The school is an independent school, and was marketed as such. Most prospective families wouldn't think to ask an independent school if they recited prayers on a daily basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10:41 I am curious why would you choose a school that recites The Lord's Prayer everyday in chapel? Doesn't seem like it would be a good fit.

Many families, ours included, were not told that the Lords Prayer was recited on a daily basis during the admissions process. The school is an independent school, and was marketed as such. Most prospective families wouldn't think to ask an independent school if they recited prayers on a daily basis.

I dunno maybe the part about Chapel gave it away. We certainly inquired about it when we looked at the school.

[Anonymous]

We didn't ask when we applied. Didn't matter when we found out later in the big scheme of things, but nonetheless still thrilled to have the Board decide to remove it. Now, it is consistent with the philosophy/mandate of the school.

[Anonymous]

We love the campus.

We love that it is close to our house.

We hate that exmissions are a crap-shoot.

We (I) hate that my DC friends ever either never heard of it, or treat it like it's a haven for Big-3 rejects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We love the campus.

We love that it is close to our house.

We hate that exmissions are a crap-shoot.

We (I) hate that my DC friends ever either never heard of it, or treat it like it's a haven for Big-3 rejects.

I don't care about that. I am one of those people that loves the suburbs and hates the city, and loves Norwood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We hate that exmissions are a crap-shoot.

In what way? The exmissions data seem to be quite good.

[Anonymous]

Yes, the track record on exmissions look pretty solid. Got it from the website.

[Anonymous]

HS placement is fantastic, but since the sibling policy is so strong there are bound to be a few misses.

[Anonymous]

When we went on the admissions tour, they said that they have Daily Chapel. It's on their website too. Any reasonable person would assume that Daily Chapel includes prayers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10:41 I am curious why would you choose a school that recites The Lord's Prayer everyday in chapel? Doesn't seem like it would be a good fit.

Many families, ours included, were not told that the Lords Prayer was recited on a daily basis during the admissions process. The school is an independent school, and was marketed as such. Most prospective families wouldn't think to ask an independent school if they recited prayers on a daily basis.

[Anonymous]

Of course atheists think that prayers are useless, so your biased opinion is hardly newsworthy. Thank God Norwood feels differently!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would think that atheists would send their children elsewhere. When a school tells you that they have "daily chapel", it's clear that there will be some type of religious instruction. Only an idiot would be resentful.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a Norwood parent with two children there and one Norwood graduate.

Regarding bullying: Based on our experience on both sides of the issue, Norwood does have pretty much a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to bullying, except that admins have been open to discussing issues and tailoring outcomes instead of reacting in a knee-jerk way to every complaint. It's difficult to parse out the truth when it comes to complaints from children, some parents are hyper-reactive, and some children have real issues both being bullied and bullying others, but we think Norwood has done a pretty good job of dealing with these issues. I have no reason to believe that Norwood treats generous donors differently.

Regarding the strategic plan: Our opinion is that the plan and changes to the schools culture have been discussed ad nauseum, primarily because some Christian parents can't deal with the fact that Norwood is a secular school and they scream and holler about every perceived diminution of the school's Christian-esque attributes. It also seems like there are a lot of non-Christian parents who make a lot of noise about the more Christian-esque attributes. We're atheists and, frankly, we find the whole discussion annoying. Norwood focuses on teaching "values", which we applaud. Things like the Lord's Prayer - hey, have you ever been to chapel at Norwood? Yes, they say the Lord's Prayer now, but if you look you'll see the kids don't say it and most of them just tune out during that part of chapel. It will not be missed when cut out of the program.

I didn't say I was resentful - I find the Lord's Prayer recitation charming in an old-fashioned sort of way and, honestly, I think it has no impact on the students at all - in one ear and out the other.

[Anonymous]

Wow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our family is not Christian (and obviously so), so naturally, many of the families against the Lord's Prayer assumed that we would want to see it eliminated, but we actually were OK with it. My kids never felt like "guests". So I hope that people don't make generalizations about who wanted the change.
To me, the issues wrt bullying mattered a whole lot more. I am waiting for an e-mail from the head that says that kids will be suspended (!) if they put their hands on another child, regardless of how many millions or billions his dad has.

To me, classifying "putting their hands on another child" as automatically (1) bullying; and (2) deserving of suspension is too draconian. Yes, any physical conflict should be always addressed, and yes, some conduct is worthy of suspension (which should be assessed without fear or favor) but I would like to see schools and the teachers retain discretion. I feel like "bullying" is in danger of becoming an over broad catch-all word, which might ultimately undermine attempts to combat it.

[Anonymous]

I asked my daughter who is in first grade what she disliked most about Norwood. She said handwriting. I asked her what she liked the most. She said PE.

So far, so good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To me, classifying "putting their hands on another child" as automatically (1) bullying; and (2) deserving of suspension is too draconian. Yes, any physical conflict should be always addressed, and yes, some conduct is worthy of suspension (which should be assessed without fear or favor) but I would like to see schools and the teachers retain discretion. I feel like "bullying" is in danger of becoming an over broad catch-all word, which might ultimately undermine attempts to combat it.

I agree, and I think Annie Nichols is very sensitive to the need to ensure that responses to unwelcome behavior are developmentally appropriate. One of things I find most encouraging about her approach to bullying is the framework she uses for defining different levels of unwelcome behavior.

[Anonymous]

Annie Nichols should have come five years ago, don't miss the other guy.