How far of a drive is worth it to attend private school?
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Anonymous
| 7 miles, 30 minutes. DC takes Metro in the a.m. (45min.) |
Anonymous
| I would caution against a long commute if your child is active--needs to move around, play outdoors, etc. My older child would not be able to sit on a bus for an hour twice a day. A school would have to be extremely special for that type of commitment not to mention the lack of nearby friends from school. |
Anonymous
| DS commutes from Old Town Alex to The Heights....about 40 mins each way, on the bus. We couldn't do it if the school didn't provide a bus. DS (high school) sleeps in the morning, and does HW on the way home. Bus leaves Old Town at 7am, and he gets off the bus at 3:45. It is quite reasonable; he plays travel soccer, and is able to make practice 4x a week. |
Anonymous
I love God, but He's not communicated any concerns about traffic in your 'hood. Since Divine intervention is not forthcoming on this matter, perhaps simple common sense might help. Have you considered moving? As none of the elite schools in DC are new, perhaps you might also consider their location before choosing your next house. Common sense would lead most people to understand that if you live around a school -- public or private -- there will be heavy traffic twice a day. |
Anonymous
Wow. I know a family in Old Town that also sends their son to The Heights (in the elementary grades). I was kind of surprised when I learned of the distance he was traveling. They say it's worth it. For a teenager, that seems fine. It just seemed far for an elementary student. We also know families from DC and Bethesda and Silver Spring whose kids take the bus each day to the Potomac School. It seems so far! They complained that, when winter comes, there are often a lot of 2-hour delays (more so than even MCPS) because the kids are coming from everywhere. The Potomac School seems awesome, but if I lived across the river, I don't know if I'd send my child there. |
Anonymous
| We drive about 11 miles to take DD to her school. It takes 30-40 min each way (fortunately it is somewhat on my way to work in the morning, though fighting through other schools' carpool lines to get there is a real pain, not to mention the illegally parked cars on the street as we get nearer our destination). DS and our other kids complain about the round trip in the afternoon. Perhaps if we can get them in that school as well, the burden will lighten just a bit. It does have an impact on the social aspects of school, since most of DD's school friends live much closer. We love the school, but we constantly debate whether the commute is worth it. |
Anonymous
| We live between two major cities and our smaller area did not have adequate schools to meet the needs of our daughter. Either way we were looking at a long commute in either direction. We chose a great school that was 55 miles away. One hour on the nose to get to school but two hours home because of traffic. Worth every penny and all the time but we tend to be the adventurous type. My daughter would simply be a different person if she had gone to another school. The amount of drive and confidence she has in herself is amazing. Doing exceptionally well in a very difficult major in college far away from home. |
Anonymous
| I went to a private in DC from VA for HS. I would prefer to send my kids to public, in our neighborhood, than do them the social disservice of being so geographically out of the loop. It was very much an experience of being an outsider looking in. Suddenly in college I had so many friends as I didn't live 30 minutes away from everyone else. |
Anonymous
| It depends, but a lot of people get tired of the drive especially once kids start getting older and get heavily involved with sports and other school activities. A realtor told me that half the homes for sale in Cleveland Park and Mass Ave Heights are bought by parents who get sick of daily driving from Potomac or McLean to St Albans, Sidwell, WIS, Maret, etc. |
Anonymous
Wow - so you should get to live wherever you want and inconvenience others but the likely DC residents who pay the taxes to support your commute should be inconvenienced so you can live in Potomac (or Olney/Rockville if you are lower SES and think you are spending your way up)? You do realize that everyone along the way is inconvenienced by your choice? People who live along the route, others who are commuting etc and that doesn't even get into the environmental costs of driving and sprawl and it seems to be an odd requirement that to attend an elite private school in DC you must drive a gray imported SUV to be a part of the idiot herd. How about you consider the location and the schools before choosing your home? Or is thinking beyond yourself too heavy of a lift for you? |
Anonymous
| I am not the one you responded to, but I do not choose where to live based on the convenience of others. I choose it for my own peace of mind and that of my family. I love the big yard, cleaner air, cooler summertime temperatures and quiet environment that I get in Potomac versus what I would get in much of Bethesda or DC. If you choose to live in the city, you do so for your own reasons and you can live with the circumstances. But don't tell me where my kids will go to school. |
Anonymous
Right - because you are selfish and clueless which is to be expected from the average but vain Potomac resident wasting half their day commuting to their kids private school in NW DC. Of course you are convinced you have a higher quality of life and most likely as a SAHM the loss of time is all the same to you as there is still leftover time to go shopping. So I can't tell you where to send your precious children to school but I can tell you where to shove your Lexus or Range Rover and I will do everything I can to make sure that your commute through my neighborhood is miserable. |
Anonymous
Ha! And you city-dwellers are so selfless and clued-in as you weave your rental bikes in and out of traffic, cutting off drivers and ignoring pedestrians in the crosswalks. Perhaps it is the air pollutants messing with your brains that cause you to be unable to read all those signs that say "No Parking" as you leave your Car2Go in a "No Parking" zone and wander in front of oncoming cars as you jaywalk across the street too absorbed in your oh so meaningful texts to notice. Give me a break! |
Anonymous
Why do you live in the city? As an urban dweller, I knew that traffic was a casualty of city living. |
Anonymous
One of the reasons I moved out of the city 25 years ago. Haven't looked back, though I still have to drive into the city to take my DD to school and go to work. And no, don't whine to me about "Metro". Metro has sucked for more than 20 years. |