Forum Index
»
Private & Independent Schools
NCS Parents - "I wish I had known x" type advice.
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
The nicest high school student I can recall meeting in the past several decades (and I'm including myself and everyone I knew in high school, at that!), who worked part-time at my office during a recent summer, was an NCS student who had just graduated. She was an incredibly thoughtful kid -- one of my colleagues had an ill family member and the young woman brought in a card and some treats she'd made.
It's just a school, with all different kinds of kids. I wouldn't get carried away with DCUM stereotypes. |
Anonymous
| Wish NCS would start after school sports sooner...lower school has few on campus options...hope someone reading.... |
Anonymous
| NCS has sport for 4-6 during the academic day and therefor releases at 3:45. 7 - 8 use the gym from 2 -3 and then US from 3 - 6... not room for LS. LS does have girls on the run twice a week. |
Anonymous
| Looking for a lower school team sport like soccer or field hockey after school...like a club sport. They could call it sports skills... Familiar with girls on the run and have done more than once...just would like something on campus...not stoddert... |
Anonymous
| On average, how many girls leave NCS after middle school? |
Anonymous
I don't think they have a lot of options with the field space, as a prior poster suggested. They've got two full fields and both field hockey and soccer are going on, with four full teams (A & B soccer and field hockey) sharing the fields during middle school sports (2:30 - 3:30) and four full teams (Varsity and JV soccer and field hockey) on those two field during upper school sports (3:45 - 5:45). I don't think there's middle school sports on Friday, I wonder if they could do something then? I've heard some decent things about KOA sports for younger kids. (Editorial comment: Field hockey is a great option because typically soccer is so oversubscribed around here that there's a lot more opportunities to make teams and play through high school in field hockey. And as an ol' field hockey player back in the long grass field days (so jealous of artificial turf), it's not the greatest sport for parental watching but it is really fun to play.) Good luck! |
Anonymous
| Def. interested in field hockey...I played. koa pretty far away.... |
Anonymous
If I hear of other options I will post. I know the NCS and Potomac Coaches run a club program together on weekends (called Beyond Sticks for the younger kids) about which I've heard some good things (it doesn't help with the weekday thing, though, I know). |
Anonymous
|
My STA son says the Cathedral kids joke at both schools that NCS is built on convincing extraordinary girls that they are average, and STA is built on convincing average boys they are extraordinary.
Maybe some truth there! -: |
Anonymous
That's an oldie -- first heard it something like six years ago from someone who had a son at STA and a daughter at NCS. I would say that STA is a warmer, even softer place, in some ways, but I would also chime in on the view that high school is just a harder time for the typical girl than the typical boy (although of course there are exceptions). I can also say that the NCS faculty I've met champion the girls' accomplishments quite vigorously. |
Anonymous
| As a current STA and NCS parent, I think the culture of NCS and other girls' schools whose mission is to develop strong women leaders must necessarily be less nurturing than that of STA and other boys' schools whose students have and will always have all the advantages of being male in a man's world. Girls and women simply must try harder, even competing magainst one another in a man's world with a (still) limited number leadership leadership positions for women, and that sad fact puts great pressure on high-school girls. |
Anonymous
Besides Susan Rice any other NCS (distinguished) alumni who are world leaders or hold major leadership positions? Less nurturing is a huge understatement! |
Anonymous
I'm curious about this conclusion as someone who knows more about St. Albans than NCS but does know something about NCS (but has not had a child attend). NCS has things like a defined homework policy (limiting the amount per night); what appears to be a pretty strong advising system (compared to STA which does not have time built into its schedule for advisors and kids to meet); and a peer group program for ninth graders, led by juniors and seniors. All of those things seem, admittedly to an non-insider, to be evidence of some nurturing. So, not challenging your assessment, but honestly curious, what is the school doing that is not nurturing? Not trying to start a flame war here, I am just trying to resolve whether this is something that the school is dropping the ball on; whether structurally this is kind of what you get when you have an elite all-girls' academic school with high-powered parents (so do people say stuff like this about Brearly and Spence in NYC?); or whether maybe it's a stereotype with some roots in fact but also blown out of proportion? |
Anonymous
I think this is Holton Mom. |
Anonymous
If the prevailing culture at NCS is that in order to succeed in the world "you must be better than the boys" then many of the girls are being led to failure. Just as their female counterparts, men are passed over for promotion on a regular basis. Being passed over for partner at a law firm is just as devestating to a man as it is to a woman, but the man doesn't have the excuse of a "glass ceiling". Spending four years at an Ivy League school just to put on your resume that you graduated from Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, etc. may not get you the job you want. If you want to be a meteorologist, a degree from the University of Oklahoma will be better received; if you want to be a photographer, a degree from the Corcoran or from Maryland School for the Arts may give you a leg up over Harvard or Princeton. The female doctor who helps deliver your baby or treats your flu may have been a graduate of some school you've never heard of. There is no disgrace in not going to an Ivy. Nurturing means finding and bringing out of each individual their strengths and encouraging and enabling them to follow their passion. If "being the best you can be at what you want to be" is not the philosophy at NCS, than some changes need to be made. It is too good a school not to bring out the best in ALL its women. Encouraging each student to pursue her passion is more nurturing than setting false goals (Ivy League) as the road to success. Maybe that's a lesson they can learn from their brother school. |