Petty incident or detail that turned you off a school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our LS interview at GDS was really bad. The interviewer seemed really disinterested throughout, didn't pre-read anything about our kids, was just going through the motions. It was such a different vibe than what we had expected from the school and turned us off completely.

Same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At a Waldorf school, a teacher at an Open House asked my child to leave the room so they could describe the philosophy.

It wasn't so much that the philosophy was a certain way, it was that they had a mission and a plan and it was supposed to be kept secret from the children.

My kid was pretty rigid at the time (we were testing him for what was then called Asperger's/HFA) and there were some open-ended developmental rules and concepts (play was with natural objects instead of plastic, snacks were grown right there on campus...) but that clothes with stripes or dots were OK but clothes with letters or words were not.

It was not a uniform, but I thought we have so many rituals already, applying another layer of "if/then" statements to a shirt could make me go nuts and would result in my 7 a.m. battles over tee-shirts.

*Caveat: This is not a dig against Waldorf, it was the the presentation of the structure that made it seem mysterious and hard to manage. I was also really tried and stressed at the time.

Ultimately, my kid looked at the art work and said, "I can't do that. I am better at ______" and we parted ways.

I did a Waldorf visit when my child was young and I was very open-minded about different educational philosophies. They made all of the parents stand in a circle in a tiny room to go through a special routine of lighting a candle and telling a very specific folk tale in a very specific way. I was trapped opposite the door and I can’t tell you if it lasted 2 minutes or 2 hours.

It was just way too much arcane ritual for me, and I say that as a Catholic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Entered a third grade classroom on a tour and noted the wall clock was stopped by five hours. I thought it showed a lack of care on the teachers part to leave it stopped and she missed opportunities to teach kids how to read a standard clock.

You know those clocks usually run on batteries and it’s entirely possible that it had stopped overnight, the teacher put in a maintenance request that morning and it just hadn’t been fixed yet. Sounds like the school avoided a crazy parent though.

+1. Holy Moly yes. Some of you are unreal. I’d hate to have you as guests in my home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Entered a third grade classroom on a tour and noted the wall clock was stopped by five hours. I thought it showed a lack of care on the teachers part to leave it stopped and she missed opportunities to teach kids how to read a standard clock.

You know those clocks usually run on batteries and it’s entirely possible that it had stopped overnight, the teacher put in a maintenance request that morning and it just hadn’t been fixed yet. Sounds like the school avoided a crazy parent though.

+1. Holy Moly yes. Some of you are unreal. I’d hate to have you as guests in my home.

"Petty" is the point of the thread. The posters know it's petty.

[Anonymous]

1. When we were on a tour with the admission director of Holton for upper school, she came across a student and had her speak about her experience at Holton and student sized my DD up and down before proceeding with an answer.

2. While at open house last year at Georgetown Prep, volunteer parents were more interested in talking to people they knew than in helping a future family. Truly felt like I was an outsider in a country club.

[Anonymous]

Disclaimer: We're not catholic. Visited two catholic schools while checking out high schools for dc. One of them was "waaay too catholic" (according to dc) because they did prayer before every class. The other catholic was fine/not "too catholic".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Entered a third grade classroom on a tour and noted the wall clock was stopped by five hours. I thought it showed a lack of care on the teachers part to leave it stopped and she missed opportunities to teach kids how to read a standard clock.

You sound like a nightmare. Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our LS interview at GDS was really bad. The interviewer seemed really disinterested throughout, didn't pre-read anything about our kids, was just going through the motions. It was such a different vibe than what we had expected from the school and turned us off completely.

Same.

Hmm. All the GDS haters are out. Or are you trying yo discourage the competitions get your kid in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our LS interview at GDS was really bad. The interviewer seemed really disinterested throughout, didn't pre-read anything about our kids, was just going through the motions. It was such a different vibe than what we had expected from the school and turned us off completely.

Same.

Hmm. All the GDS haters are out. Or are you trying yo discourage the competitions get your kid in?

The school is full of weird, socially awkward kids. That's just the truth.

[Anonymous]

AD at a popular school introduced herself to DS twice on the shadow day. It seemed she didn’t remember meeting him. It made it feel like a cattle call. However, I did really like her during the parent interview.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell. Great school and we have many friends with kids there who love it and are happy. Unfortunately, during our Zoom information session, a few of the 5th or 6th graders that presented (and were great - all of them were intelligent, well spoken, absolutely lovely) noted how their teacher(s) helped when they were feeling anxious. The fact those children referred to feeling anxious at all during that type of presentation worried me. I felt it wouldn't be a good fit for our child.

Well all of these schools with a Socio-Emotional Learning curriculum obsessively talk to kids about anxiety starting in Kindergarten. So now every poor kid thinks they have anxiety but what they really have is crazy left-wing indoctrination.

[Anonymous]

The tour at GDS was given by a current parent who could not answer any substantive questions. I for sure thought GDS would be our first choice and they instantly plummeted to last place after being on campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Local girls school in MoCo

Student tour guide was, frankly, sort of a B and talked to us with outright disdain

Head of admissions kept getting my kids’ names wrong (they are pretty typical names)

Obviously ended up at another school

Holy Child or Stone Ridge?

Neither. Holton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. When we were on a tour with the admission director of Holton for upper school, she came across a student and had her speak about her experience at Holton and student sized my DD up and down before proceeding with an answer.

2. While at open house last year at Georgetown Prep, volunteer parents were more interested in talking to people they knew than in helping a future family. Truly felt like I was an outsider in a country club.

#2 is not petty and is my peeve! I’ve experienced that before at multiple schools and it’s so unwelcoming and gross. I help with admissions tours now at another school and we have made a pact that volunteers will never talk to each other during mingling times unless every visitor has a current parent to talk to.

[Anonymous]

Spanish teacher didn’t know any of the students’ names and it was December when I toured.