Politically Incorrect Private School Thread What Do You Really Think?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don't care what people think about my choice but I don't like it when people think my choice is a rejection of theirs.

I love this comment, especially the last part.

I say this to my friend all the time.

I didn't realize education was so political. I go private because I haven't been able to find the diversity that I'm looking for in the public school of the neighborhoods in which I've lived. I refuse to send my children to a school that has 800 students and 8 are AA and not a single AA on the staff. With maybe 1 in the cafeteria and 1 custodian. No can do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't care what people think about my choice but I don't like it when people think my choice is a rejection of theirs.

I love this comment, especially the last part.

I say this to my friend all the time.

I didn't realize education was so political. I go private because I haven't been able to find the diversity that I'm looking for in the public school of the neighborhoods in which I've lived. I refuse to send my children to a school that have 800 students and 8 are AA and not a single AA on the staff. With maybe 1 in the cafeteria and 1 custodian. No can do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I say this to my friend all the time.

I didn't realize education was so political. I go private because I haven't been able to find the diversity that I'm looking for in the public school of the neighborhoods in which I've lived. I refuse to send my children to a school that has 800 students and 8 are AA and not a single AA on the staff. With maybe 1 in the cafeteria and 1 custodian. No can do.

Where is this public school you're describing? I think you're making this up and I doubt you've spent much time in your local public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I say this to my friend all the time.

I didn't realize education was so political. I go private because I haven't been able to find the diversity that I'm looking for in the public school of the neighborhoods in which I've lived. I refuse to send my children to a school that has 800 students and 8 are AA and not a single AA on the staff. With maybe 1 in the cafeteria and 1 custodian. No can do.

Where is this public school you're describing? I think you're making this up and I doubt you've spent much time in your local public.

I'm not the poster to which you're responding, but the number of AA students at either Churchill Road Elementary and Longfellow Intermediate is vanishingly small. My DD at the elementary school has zero AA students in her particular class. My DD at Longfellow has six separate classes and not a single AA student in any one of them. I spend a fair amount of time at both schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I say this to my friend all the time.

I didn't realize education was so political. I go private because I haven't been able to find the diversity that I'm looking for in the public school of the neighborhoods in which I've lived. I refuse to send my children to a school that has 800 students and 8 are AA and not a single AA on the staff. With maybe 1 in the cafeteria and 1 custodian. No can do.

Where is this public school you're describing? I think you're making this up and I doubt you've spent much time in your local public.

Yes, "she's lying" is definitely the most probable explanation. SMH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I say this to my friend all the time.

I didn't realize education was so political. I go private because I haven't been able to find the diversity that I'm looking for in the public school of the neighborhoods in which I've lived. I refuse to send my children to a school that has 800 students and 8 are AA and not a single AA on the staff. With maybe 1 in the cafeteria and 1 custodian. No can do.

Where is this public school you're describing? I think you're making this up and I doubt you've spent much time in your local public.

I'm not the poster to which you're responding, but the number of AA students at either Churchill Road Elementary and Longfellow Intermediate is vanishingly small. My DD at the elementary school has zero AA students in her particular class. My DD at Longfellow has six separate classes and not a single AA student in any one of them. I spend a fair amount of time at both schools.

So you don't really want diversity, you just want different-colored people who are all wealthy or at least upper middle class? Because that's pretty much the Churchill zone. If you really valued diversity, you need to move to a neighborhood with more middle class boundaries. There are many excellent public schools in FCPS that are very diverse.

[Anonymous]

Why value diversity? Is that just a way to say poor and proud of it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I say this to my friend all the time.

I didn't realize education was so political. I go private because I haven't been able to find the diversity that I'm looking for in the public school of the neighborhoods in which I've lived. I refuse to send my children to a school that has 800 students and 8 are AA and not a single AA on the staff. With maybe 1 in the cafeteria and 1 custodian. No can do.

Where is this public school you're describing? I think you're making this up and I doubt you've spent much time in your local public.

I'm not the poster to which you're responding, but the number of AA students at either Churchill Road Elementary and Longfellow Intermediate is vanishingly small. My DD at the elementary school has zero AA students in her particular class. My DD at Longfellow has six separate classes and not a single AA student in any one of them. I spend a fair amount of time at both schools.

So you don't really want diversity, you just want different-colored people who are all wealthy or at least upper middle class? Because that's pretty much the Churchill zone. If you really valued diversity, you need to move to a neighborhood with more middle class boundaries. There are many excellent public schools in FCPS that are very diverse.

I wasn't involved with that debate. I was just replying to the dope who asserted there aren't any public schools as the above poster described, because I happen to know there are. On the underlying question, I actually think diversity for the sake of diversity is silly -- either on the basis of race or socio-economic status.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I say this to my friend all the time.

I didn't realize education was so political. I go private because I haven't been able to find the diversity that I'm looking for in the public school of the neighborhoods in which I've lived. I refuse to send my children to a school that has 800 students and 8 are AA and not a single AA on the staff. With maybe 1 in the cafeteria and 1 custodian. No can do.

Where is this public school you're describing? I think you're making this up and I doubt you've spent much time in your local public.

I'm not the poster to which you're responding, but the number of AA students at either Churchill Road Elementary and Longfellow Intermediate is vanishingly small. My DD at the elementary school has zero AA students in her particular class. My DD at Longfellow has six separate classes and not a single AA student in any one of them. I spend a fair amount of time at both schools.

So you don't really want diversity, you just want different-colored people who are all wealthy or at least upper middle class? Because that's pretty much the Churchill zone. If you really valued diversity, you need to move to a neighborhood with more middle class boundaries. There are many excellent public schools in FCPS that are very diverse.

Not the person you replied to, and not AA, but I can imagine that if I were an AA mom that yes, I'd sacrifice economic diversity in favor of racial diversity, if I could only have one. SES is a big deal in our society, yes, but Americans are absolutely nuts about race. I wouldn't want my kid to be the only AA in his class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I say this to my friend all the time.

I didn't realize education was so political. I go private because I haven't been able to find the diversity that I'm looking for in the public school of the neighborhoods in which I've lived. I refuse to send my children to a school that has 800 students and 8 are AA and not a single AA on the staff. With maybe 1 in the cafeteria and 1 custodian. No can do.

Where is this public school you're describing? I think you're making this up and I doubt you've spent much time in your local public.

I'm not the poster to which you're responding, but the number of AA students at either Churchill Road Elementary and Longfellow Intermediate is vanishingly small. My DD at the elementary school has zero AA students in her particular class. My DD at Longfellow has six separate classes and not a single AA student in any one of them. I spend a fair amount of time at both schools.

So you don't really want diversity, you just want different-colored people who are all wealthy or at least upper middle class? Because that's pretty much the Churchill zone. If you really valued diversity, you need to move to a neighborhood with more middle class boundaries. There are many excellent public schools in FCPS that are very diverse.

Not the person you replied to, and not AA, but I can imagine that if I were an AA mom that yes, I'd sacrifice economic diversity in favor of racial diversity, if I could only have one. SES is a big deal in our society, yes, but Americans are absolutely nuts about race. I wouldn't want my kid to be the only AA in his class.

+1

Perfectly understandable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I wasn't involved with that debate. I was just replying to the dope who asserted there aren't any public schools as the above poster described, because I happen to know there are. On the underlying question, I actually think diversity for the sake of diversity is silly -- either on the basis of race or socio-economic status.

So you identified one tiny part of MoCo with little diversity and then generalized to the whole MoCo public school system. Yay for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I wasn't involved with that debate. I was just replying to the dope who asserted there aren't any public schools as the above poster described, because I happen to know there are. On the underlying question, I actually think diversity for the sake of diversity is silly -- either on the basis of race or socio-economic status.

So you identified one tiny part of MoCo with little diversity and then generalized to the whole MoCo public school system. Yay for you.

But that's HER PUBLIC SCHOOL, which is relevant to the decision of where to send her children to school, which is what she was talking about. She did not say the same was true for everyone in MoCo. People who say "move to another neighborhood with more diversity" ignore the fact that there's another option: private school. And the schools with larger endowment do actually have SES diversity as well as racial/ethnic diversity. Are they as diverse as some very diverse public schools? Absolutely not. But a lot more diverse than others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:hahahaha I LOVE this thread. I'm bookmarking it. Thank you all for being so honest.

I grew up on the "upper spectrum" of the upper middle class, and then we lost a lot of money just before I went to college, though there was still enough money to pay for college and medical school. Adjusting to our new means was rough, but what saved me was a total understated sense of confidence that I had gained from my upbringing. I know that true confidence isn't derived from money, but there's no doubt that money certainly helps when you're learning to accept yourself.

That's part of the reason why I want my kids to go to private school.

Another reason is that I just want them to be comfortable around all the trappings of privilege. Sometimes the most boastful people are those who come from second or third tier private schools or even from public school, and try to posture and establish status by dropping names or boasting about their wealth. I want my kids to be completely unfazed and unimpressed, because they've seen better. And I want them to never, ever boast about it themselves.

I also want them to build networks. It is very hard to crack an elite social circle once you're in the work force. Those bonds tend to form in elementary school.

Yep, if I said any of this shit out loud, I'd be guillotined.

This is absolutely hilarious to me, because I came from NCS, and wanted nothing more to do with most of the people, many of whom went to my Ivy. I have never been remotely professionally linked to anyone from Beauvoir. My ties on Law Review post Ivy on the other hand, cannot be beat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I wasn't involved with that debate. I was just replying to the dope who asserted there aren't any public schools as the above poster described, because I happen to know there are. On the underlying question, I actually think diversity for the sake of diversity is silly -- either on the basis of race or socio-economic status.

So you identified one tiny part of MoCo with little diversity and then generalized to the whole MoCo public school system. Yay for you.

But that's HER PUBLIC SCHOOL, which is relevant to the decision of where to send her children to school, which is what she was talking about. She did not say the same was true for everyone in MoCo. People who say "move to another neighborhood with more diversity" ignore the fact that there's another option: private school. And the schools with larger endowment do actually have SES diversity as well as racial/ethnic diversity. Are they as diverse as some very diverse public schools? Absolutely not. But a lot more diverse than others.

So college at my Ivy was the most diverse experience of my life, and I learned a lot. I learned why a 9th semester of financial aid matters, I learned how unprepared some kids were, I met kids who had actually grown up in places like East LA and were the first in their generation to graduate from high school, much less from college. I actually married someone not of my race who I met in college.

That being said, now that I have biracial kids, I don't want a SES diverse environment, and don't really care about race. One of us is white, the other not. The only thing we desperately care about is that my kids if they so choose discover their ethnic identity and cultural heritage in college, being educated by Cornell West, not at Wilson. He got a scholarship. The kids he went to ES with are dead, in jail, etc.

[Anonymous]

I went to very well-regarded private for K-12. We could afford the same for DC, but we prefer public education. I think that my DC are getting a better education than I did without the private school bullying I encountered.

Howver, I would switch to a private in an instant if I felt public wasn't working, and I assume most private parents are at the schools they are because they feel it is a better education and/or environment.

I read this forum because I went to private and I'd switch my DC if I felt their needs were not being met.