Sidwell, Maret and Georgetown Day-- Are all the families very liberal?

[Anonymous]

Can anyone think of a private school where the teachers are required to also address the children using honorifics? Master John and Miss Mary?

This is what we do at home and I don't want dcs attending a school where the illusion of respect only goes one way.

[Anonymous]

GDS is the extreme reaction to Liberal White Guilt.

Sidwell is populated by families who think like GDS parents, but want a more structured environment for their children. Hypocrites is another word one might use.

Maret is caught in the middle. They are becoming increasingly populated by familes who would otherwise have gone to the Cathedral Schools or Landon/Holton, so you get a smattering of more conservative liberals, but they're at Maret b/c they perceived the former to be too conservative.

[Anonymous]

For what it's worth, I'm a very liberal democrat from a long line of lefties, and I hope and pray that my kids will grow up to share my values. BUT I found GDS incredibly off-putting. PC, preachy, self-righteous, humorless-- as if the school was determined to embody every absurd caricature of the left. I decided not even to apply. I knew it would drive me batty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For what it's worth, I'm a very liberal democrat from a long line of lefties, and I hope and pray that my kids will grow up to share my values. BUT I found GDS incredibly off-putting. PC, preachy, self-righteous, humorless-- as if the school was determined to embody every absurd caricature of the left. I decided not even to apply. I knew it would drive me batty.

Anyone who comes from a "long line" of anything and "hope[s] and prays that my kids will grow up to share my values" sounds pretty conservative to me....

[Anonymous]

15:25 here. That's "pray" in the colloquial, secular sense, I assure you. I come from several generations of union organizers and community organizers, civil rights activists and anti-war activists, and I grew up walking on picket lines and protest marches. I was brought up to believe that working for civil rights and social justice is everyone's basic obligation-- not something that should be a sideline or an affection, just something that naturally affects how you choose to spend your life but that you don't need to spend a whole lot of time agonizing over. And maybe because of this, I don't have a huge amount of patience with liberal handwringing or PC self-righteousness, both of which GDS exuded. Life's too short to spend time with the humorless.

Granted, maybe it was just the admissions people.... I know nice, sane, people whose kids have been very happy at GDS. I'm just saying: I thought the place would drive *me* batty. The kids all take turns conducting playground mediation sessions? --Shoot me!

To quote, or misquote, Emma Goldman, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution."

[Anonymous]

I don't know why PP has to engage in name calling about other schools. It just detracts from whatever point is being made.

[Anonymous]

13:28, exactly how screwed up are your kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:13:28, exactly how screwed up are your kids?

I feel certain that 13:28 was being sarcastic.

[Anonymous]

(20:30 again)

Oh, I think 13:28 is being sarcastic, too. And in some ways that's even worse, because it implies that s/he thinks the entire issue of kids calling teachers and adults Mr and Ms, rather than Joe and Betty Lou, is silly, or not important, or perhaps not even "deserved."

And if s/he is indeed raising his/ her kids this way, I can assure you that they are, at some level at least, a bit screwed up.

[Anonymous]

I can assure you that all of our kids are, at some level least, a bit screwed up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We ruled out GDS for the same reason. We asked in our interview if our child could still address adults as Mr. or Mrs. because that is what we teach at home and their answer was some version of a "no." I would still consider myself a liberal.

As a former teacher, I found it frustrating at one school I worked at that required faculty to go by last names - there are many other ways to be respected by your students than by what you are called. Just my opinion.

As a current Sidwell parent, I have found a nice mix of 'conservatives'/liberals, Republicans/Democrats - I would definitely say it is liberal - but respectful of all opinions. And on the last name issue - some of the absolute best teachers at Sidwell go by first names. And the students most certainly respect them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Granted, maybe it was just the admissions people.... I know nice, sane, people whose kids have been very happy at GDS. I'm just saying: I thought the place would drive *me* batty. The kids all take turns conducting playground mediation sessions? --Shoot me!

You're joking!
Another lefty here (who has studied mediation and conflict resolution but knows their limits) and you can also shoot me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We ruled out GDS for the same reason. We asked in our interview if our child could still address adults as Mr. or Mrs. because that is what we teach at home and their answer was some version of a "no." I would still consider myself a liberal.

As a former teacher, I found it frustrating at one school I worked at that required faculty to go by last names - there are many other ways to be respected by your students than by what you are called. Just my opinion.

Also a former teacher -- I agree with this. You can make it clear that you are in charge even if kids call you by your first name.

[Anonymous]

In the french immersion programs in Montgomery County it's always, always "Madame X" or "Monsieur Y". Does that count?

[Anonymous]

It's not an issue of who is in charge, Doris, Hillary, Billy Bob and everyone else who thinks it's OK for my pint-size people to call their teachers by their first names. It's a matter of respect, as well as a recognition of the fact that, no matter how PC and universal you want to pretend to be, 6 year olds and adults are not peers.