What is going on at SSSAS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of racists in VA switching from public to private because of the dreaded boogeyman CRT being foisted on them in public

no one is escaping CRT by going to SSSAS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The HOS is incredible.

Is she the one that was previously at NCS?

She is. And I’m not the PP, but I agree with her/him 100%!

(We have one child in the Upper School who came to the school in MS.)

No. The head of the lower school came from Beauvoir. The HOS came from Baltimore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ask the school! And if you aren’t there, why on earth do you care?

Go away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The HOS is incredible.

Is she the one that was previously at NCS?

She is. And I’m not the PP, but I agree with her/him 100%!

(We have one child in the Upper School who came to the school in MS.)

No. The head of the lower school came from Beauvoir. The HOS came from Baltimore.

Actually the HOS was at Beauvoir before she was in Baltimore. And the head of the lower school also came from Beauvoir.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The HOS is incredible.

Is she the one that was previously at NCS?

She is. And I’m not the PP, but I agree with her/him 100%!

(We have one child in the Upper School who came to the school in MS.)

No. The head of the lower school came from Beauvoir. The HOS came from Baltimore.

Actually the HOS was at Beauvoir before she was in Baltimore. And the head of the lower school also came from Beauvoir.

To correct this again: The HOS at SSSAS was at NCS as head of the science department, then was a HOS in Baltimore for a bit before coming back to the DC area to be HOS at Sssas. The head of the lower school at SSSAS came relatively recently from Beauvoir.

There are also teachers I know of (and I only know the background of a handful of teachers at SSSAS!) who came from GDS and St Albans, all of which just is a reminder that the faculty and leadership at well known DC are schools are surprisingly fluid, and the schools are not as different from each other as dcum would have you believe. In fact I think the biggest difference among these schools is the parent/student culture and not the quality of faculty or education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The HOS is incredible.

Is she the one that was previously at NCS?

She is. And I’m not the PP, but I agree with her/him 100%!

(We have one child in the Upper School who came to the school in MS.)

No. The head of the lower school came from Beauvoir. The HOS came from Baltimore.

Actually the HOS was at Beauvoir before she was in Baltimore. And the head of the lower school also came from Beauvoir.

To correct this again: The HOS at SSSAS was at NCS as head of the science department, then was a HOS in Baltimore for a bit before coming back to the DC area to be HOS at Sssas. The head of the lower school at SSSAS came relatively recently from Beauvoir.

There are also teachers I know of (and I only know the background of a handful of teachers at SSSAS!) who came from GDS and St Albans, all of which just is a reminder that the faculty and leadership at well known DC are schools are surprisingly fluid, and the schools are not as different from each other as dcum would have you believe. In fact I think the biggest difference among these schools is the parent/student culture and not the quality of faculty or education.

This is spot on. Our kids go to single-sex schools in DC. I am just reading the thread to see what people are saying. The PP is exactly right. The faculty and administrative leadership movement is very fluid. If you want to know what the differences are between the schools you need to look at the parent and student culture, with the student culture being driven by the parent culture.

[Anonymous]

The schools may overlap with faculty, but the parent culture and student culture is definitely different between a place like SSSAS and the DC privates. And the academic grind is not even close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The schools may overlap with faculty, but the parent culture and student culture is definitely different between a place like SSSAS and the DC privates. And the academic grind is not even close.

I totally agree.

We chose SSSAS over a “top” private (by dcum standards!) for this exact reason - we experienced the “grind” as kids ourselves, and it’s just not worth it. Honestly I handled it well as a teenager but as an adult I realized how much the pressure to succeed affected my mental health (and my relationship with my parents).

SSSAS does a good job challenging kids academically without applying excessive pressure. And a lot of that comes from the parent culture! Our friends and colleagues with kids at Sidwell or NCS/STA are far more obsessed with prestige than parents at SSSAS, who for the most part are pretty chill and not overly competitive. We also, not coincidentally, have several parent friends we met at St Stephens who graduated from Sidwell or NCS/STA who wanted a little more balance for their kids, and so chose St Stephens. (Not to knock Sidwell and NCS/STA, which are obviously great, but they attract a fair number of extremely competitive and intense parents, and that negatively affects the student culture IMO)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of racists in VA switching from public to private because of the dreaded boogeyman CRT being foisted on them in public

So you brand parents who send their children to private school as racists?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of racists in VA switching from public to private because of the dreaded boogeyman CRT being foisted on them in public

Serious question: Do Virginia public schools teach kids about racism and inequality?

My kid's private school has them reading Howard Zinn in seventh grade, and probably comes pretty darn close to actually teaching CRT in the classroom, just like the right-wingers fear. That's why we chose this particular school. If the local public schools are doing the same, wow, more power to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The schools may overlap with faculty, but the parent culture and student culture is definitely different between a place like SSSAS and the DC privates. And the academic grind is not even close.

I totally agree.

We chose SSSAS over a “top” private (by dcum standards!) for this exact reason - we experienced the “grind” as kids ourselves, and it’s just not worth it. Honestly I handled it well as a teenager but as an adult I realized how much the pressure to succeed affected my mental health (and my relationship with my parents).

SSSAS does a good job challenging kids academically without applying excessive pressure. And a lot of that comes from the parent culture! Our friends and colleagues with kids at Sidwell or NCS/STA are far more obsessed with prestige than parents at SSSAS, who for the most part are pretty chill and not overly competitive. We also, not coincidentally, have several parent friends we met at St Stephens who graduated from Sidwell or NCS/STA who wanted a little more balance for their kids, and so chose St Stephens. (Not to knock Sidwell and NCS/STA, which are obviously great, but they attract a fair number of extremely competitive and intense parents, and that negatively affects the student culture IMO)

Translation : cupcake classes, grade inflation, boozy Alexandria parent scene

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The schools may overlap with faculty, but the parent culture and student culture is definitely different between a place like SSSAS and the DC privates. And the academic grind is not even close.

I totally agree.

We chose SSSAS over a “top” private (by dcum standards!) for this exact reason - we experienced the “grind” as kids ourselves, and it’s just not worth it. Honestly I handled it well as a teenager but as an adult I realized how much the pressure to succeed affected my mental health (and my relationship with my parents).

SSSAS does a good job challenging kids academically without applying excessive pressure. And a lot of that comes from the parent culture! Our friends and colleagues with kids at Sidwell or NCS/STA are far more obsessed with prestige than parents at SSSAS, who for the most part are pretty chill and not overly competitive. We also, not coincidentally, have several parent friends we met at St Stephens who graduated from Sidwell or NCS/STA who wanted a little more balance for their kids, and so chose St Stephens. (Not to knock Sidwell and NCS/STA, which are obviously great, but they attract a fair number of extremely competitive and intense parents, and that negatively affects the student culture IMO)

Translation : cupcake classes, grade inflation, boozy Alexandria parent scene

Ha. I don’t drink but frankly a boozy parent scene sounds pretty fun to me. 😀

[Anonymous]

SSSAS was a fantastic experience for my family - great education for DC and families were fun and friendly. I agree, it is a social and sporty culture as some have mentioned, and if this vibe is not your cup of tea, it probably wont be your kids cup of tea either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of racists in VA switching from public to private because of the dreaded boogeyman CRT being foisted on them in public

Serious question: Do Virginia public schools teach kids about racism and inequality?

My kid's private school has them reading Howard Zinn in seventh grade, and probably comes pretty darn close to actually teaching CRT in the classroom, just like the right-wingers fear. That's why we chose this particular school. If the local public schools are doing the same, wow, more power to them.

They do not. They cover the same old things the kids have heard since K. MLK was peaceful and never sad a bad think about white people and Rosa Parks was a timid old black lady who wouldn't give up her seat. That's about it. White washed and inaccurate and short.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of racists in VA switching from public to private because of the dreaded boogeyman CRT being foisted on them in public

This is not true for SSSAS. SSSAS embraces CRT and teaches students that America is “systemically racist”. They teach the children about “white privilege” and how you have to be anti-racist.