St Albans for black students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You might not want to send your child to private in DC if you have this much of a problem with CCC. At GDS there are cliques if Jewish CCC members and synagogue cliques. If you are not Jewish you are out. The same can be said for Maret and Sidwell. You also have Congressional parent cliques to contend with as well as neighborhood cliques. Kids that live near each other hangout formally and informally and parents encourage those friendships. Honestly, I am not sure there is a private school in DC that a black family would not feel like an outsider.

Well, there is the fact that the top private schools offer a better education.

Many people at STA are not cliquey and surprisingly there are enough of us to make the school feel kind of normal most of the time.

However, the CCC moms are active in the parent association and have outsized voice in comparison to their numbers. Some of them are married to STA alums who also have outsized influence. Several members of the board are both alums and CCC members.

These are subtle cultural factors the HOS needs to take address if he’s genuinely interested in tackling racism. The thing is, you can’t tackle racism without tackling classism and that is rampant among the parents. Not so much among the boys.

The bottom line is that you will face more cliqueyness and exclusion as a parent than your boys will at school, where friendships form based on interests and personality. Through Form I, some of the social life is managed by parents, but less so as the boys get older.

Through middle school the boys relate through sports and video games, so if your son is good at either social life is fairly easy to navigate.

DP. This may have been this way in the past but a lot of this has changed. The PA leadership committee has been quite diverse and from a variety of families at least in recent years. The PA committees are also a variety of parents and diverse. A lot of it is honestly who volunteers. Op, most of the AA students in our grade seem to be happy and thriving. They are leaders socially and academically. Some AA students may be unhappy but that goes for some caucasian boys too. I agree with pps that the boys especially as they get older really do choose their own friends and it is usually by interest and same sports etc... The faculty and HOS are dedicated to being inclusive and I believe are fair and sincere in their efforts. We feel confident that STA is sincerely wanting to make STA the best school it can be for AA students. I hope you apply and end up becoming part of the STA community if you choose so.

[Anonymous]

Maybe ccc will peter out on its own. The only people who seem to join now are young, gop strivers who can’t afford second homes (or even super nice homes in the dmv). A lot of nova families and youngish sorority types. It doesn’t seem “cool” anymore.

[Anonymous]

One more time - St. Albans is about the relationship between the students and the teachers and the brotherhood between the boys.
The school cannot control country clubs and the people that hang out there, nor do they care.

Plenty of crazy, social climbing parents at every school. Most of the kids don't care !

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One more time - St. Albans is about the relationship between the students and the teachers and the brotherhood between the boys.
The school cannot control country clubs and the people that hang out there, nor do they care.

Plenty of crazy, social climbing parents at every school. Most of the kids don't care !

Have you not read what many pp's have said? The attitudes toward minorities at ccc take root and can cause problems among the boys. It's not irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One more time - St. Albans is about the relationship between the students and the teachers and the brotherhood between the boys.
The school cannot control country clubs and the people that hang out there, nor do they care.

Plenty of crazy, social climbing parents at every school. Most of the kids don't care !

Have you not read what many pp's have said? The attitudes toward minorities at ccc take root and can cause problems among the boys. It's not irrelevant.

Do people really think that the values taught at home are not carried over to the school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One more time - St. Albans is about the relationship between the students and the teachers and the brotherhood between the boys.
The school cannot control country clubs and the people that hang out there, nor do they care.

Plenty of crazy, social climbing parents at every school. Most of the kids don't care !

Funny, the worst STA parent I know is totally crazy and a desperate climber, but she is not a CCC member. Go figure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would be furious if my son was thought of as just a diversity number. If the school and admin have this philosophy then it will naturally trickle down to everyone else.

This is fundamentally the school's problem. You have the super wealthy, mostly conservative, Chevy Chase club members (or similar) and then the token diversity kids. This never works well. My son and friends applied from DCPS with smart, professional parents but not ultra wealthy or waspy. None were admitted despite having top scores and grades. However, they were admitted to GDS, Sidwell and Maret. And female friends to NCS.
The following year it was the same story from our DCPS. None to STA despite being awesome kids. Who was admitted both years? Super pretty boys from one social circle who all attended a few feeder private schools. AND of course the few diversity kids. If the school would admit a few kids "in the middle" economically or a bit more of a social mix they probably wouldn't run into the same problems year after year. Even NCS has figured this out. They have a far more economically diverse student body.

NP. What grade? Can you apply again? Numbers are tight for with so many applicants.

[Anonymous]

For my black son the answer to all of the above is yes. We were difinately part of the community and still are... he still hangs with STA boys daily and he is out of college. All of the boys went to one another’s house and he has been the Chevy for parties, dances, golf and lunch countless times. We are friends with the parents too. We had a very positive experience.

Good to hear. Did your son come in 4th or older?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

For my black son the answer to all of the above is yes. We were difinately part of the community and still are... he still hangs with STA boys daily and he is out of college. All of the boys went to one another’s house and he has been the Chevy for parties, dances, golf and lunch countless times. We are friends with the parents too. We had a very positive experience.

Good to hear. Did your son come in 4th or older?

Yes. I would strongly recommend coming in 4th grade. It allows you kid to Bond with the class and adjust to the teaching style at the same time as all the other boys. The philosophy of the school is not the same as the nondenominational coed schools other posters have mentioned. In general the kids that graduated at the top of the class and went to top schools were kids that started on the close.


During his time there most of the class was from feeder schools with Beauvoir being the number one feeder. Very few kids of any race came from any public school and some of the public school transplants make racist assumptions that were called out immediately by their classmates. The public school kid in general had not studied the same things and had to play catch up. It is my impression that for some boys catching up was hard.

We are friendly with other Black families that sent their sons to STA over a 30 year period. If parents are involved Black boys do well (the same is true for any race). There were Black families of various socioeconomic levels that were active members of the community.