Sidwell

[Anonymous]

From what I understand, if a Sidwell teacher notices any imperfection in your child, the teacher advises the parents to hire a tutor to the tune of $100 per hour to "fix" the imperfection. Apparently, about half of the students have tutors. This is craziness. Those parents who've left Sidwell for the sanity of the public schools are happy not only not to have to pay the equivalent of college tuition every year, but to reap the gains of being in a down-to-earth setting where children are prized for what they are, rather than trying to make them into perfect little beings.

Are other private schools in the area like this as well?

[Anonymous]

I am fascinated by this. OP, could you please elaborate... what do you mean by "any imperfection" in your child? Things like slow readers? Slow gross motor skills development? Do you mean the really little kids?

I have never heard this before and I certainly hope this is not the case in other private schools, like the one my DS is looking forward to starting soon. Sounds like a big racket to me....

[Anonymous]

Racket is right. If my dd's school comes to me with ONE suggestion of extra tutoring, we are outta there.

[Anonymous]

We pulled my daughter out of Sidwell in part because of the tutoring "suggestions" we were getting from her teacher with regard to what we believed were minor issues. There is a race to produce academic superstars at Sidwell and it is unhealthy. We enrolled our daughter at John Eaton Elementary and it has been WONDERFUL. The student body is truly diverse (as opposed to the "diversity" at Sidwell which seemed to be in place so that the white kids could be "exposed" to others), the parents are down-to-earth, the teachers are truly engaged and treat the students like human beings, faults and all, rather than as learning machines. I wish someone had shaken me hard when I was all caught up in the private school admissions game and forced me to just go the public school route.

[Anonymous]

I am sorry to observe that this is not just a Sidwell phenomenon. Our private school in Virginia, which I will not name, also has a very high percentage of children receiving tutoring. Back when I was in school, kids were known as being "good at math" or "good at language arts" ... now children do not seem to have the luxury of being better at some things than others. All subjects, skills, and abilities are deemed to be equally important and all high priority. It is up to the parents to receive school suggestions as just that and decide for themselves whether their kids are making good progress compared to their own baseline. Not always easy ...

[Anonymous]

Second poster here. I am still a bit stunned by the fact that private schools that charge $20K plus a year in tuition --- supposedly for such an outstanding education -- have the nerve to suggest that extra tutoring (read: $$) is required to achieve that.

This is our first year at an independent school (not Sidwell, thankfully). Now I'm really nervous.

[Anonymous]

After all this spending, what do we have? A bunch of nervous kids with no personality?
Look, it is the business ($$$) of the schools to teach the kids for the tuition that they ask. Remember the contract? It goes both ways. We pay, school teaches.

[Anonymous]

I am still a bit stunned by the fact that private schools that charge $20K plus a year in tuition --- supposedly for such an outstanding education -- have the nerve to suggest that extra tutoring (read: $$) is required to achieve that.

It's not really that surprising if you consider that private schools are not set-up to educate a wide intellectual spectrum of kids. Public schools have bigger budgets and are geared towards educating children all across the bell curve. They have the gifted and remedial teaching staff to support that mission. Private schools typcially have a narrower group to teach to so that they can run with a smaller number of staff.

I agree that it is ridiculous to admit children with lower-than-typcial-for-Sidwell test scores because of their connections, friends, etc. knowing that they will eventually have trouble keeping up academically. But, let's not forget that many of the kids at Sidwell had some seriously glowing letters of recommendation, phone calls, and educational advisors praising them. Is it really the school's fault that they took an applicant who had excellent references from their former school and educational experts who could explain away a "low" test score.

Sidwell states that they offer a rigorous academic education yet every year parents fight their way into the school w/out thinking about whether it is actually the right fit for their child. And, for both the parents and the school, it is hard to know at age 3, 4, or 5 whether it will be the right fit for the child. So, some choose to stay and hire tutors while others look for a school that is better suited for their child.

[Anonymous]

There are extraordinarily bright children who need help on occasion. test scores don't tell the whole story.

I've heard that at Norwood if a child isn't reading by the middle of first grade, they are not asked to return for second grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are extraordinarily bright children who need help on occasion. test scores don't tell the whole story.

I've heard that at Norwood if a child isn't reading by the middle of first grade, they are not asked to return for second grade.

That child may be better off out of that school. Maybe all kids would be better off in another school. Norwood should concentrate on doing its job.

[Anonymous]

Public schools pressure parents too on getting their kids to read. There is mandatory summer school in falls church city schools after K if your child isn't reading yet. And it continues the following summers as well. Of course its a bit cheaper... but if you are sending your child to Sidwell (at $28K+ per year0 you probably aren't that sensitive to the additional cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Public schools pressure parents too on getting their kids to read. There is mandatory summer school in falls church city schools after K if your child isn't reading yet. And it continues the following summers as well. Of course its a bit cheaper... but if you are sending your child to Sidwell (at $28K+ per year0 you probably aren't that sensitive to the additional cost.

Some of us are scraping by to pay that tuition.

[Anonymous]

This is really disturbing! We have been on the fence with public v private as we are in MOCO (Bethesda). I am really leaning towards public after reading this and other posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From what I understand, if a Sidwell teacher notices any imperfection in your child, the teacher advises the parents to hire a tutor to the tune of $100 per hour to "fix" the imperfection. Apparently, about half of the students have tutors. This is craziness. Those parents who've left Sidwell for the sanity of the public schools are happy not only not to have to pay the equivalent of college tuition every year, but to reap the gains of being in a down-to-earth setting where children are prized for what they are, rather than trying to make them into perfect little beings.

Are other private schools in the area like this as well?

I heard of this previously, with a Sidwell parent
I have also heard of it in the parochial schools...
I really could not see paying extra for a 'mainstream' course, like reading, mathematics if I'm paying 30K for a 6 yr old...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is really disturbing! We have been on the fence with public v private as we are in MOCO (Bethesda). I am really leaning towards public after reading this and other posts.

Yup.