Please Choose Private For the Right Reasons

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve seen a recent influx of posts from parents looking for a "nice private alternative" to MCPS or DCPS because they want "rigorous academics" and "small classes." As someone who has been through the cycle with multiple kids at Sidwell and GDS, I feel compelled to say: You are fundamentally doing this wrong.

If your primary goal is just a heavy workload and high AP/IB participation, stay in the public system. The top-tier tracks in MoCo and DC are just as rigorous as anything you’ll find in an independent school. In fact, if you go the private route just to "avoid" public, you often end up paying $45k+ for facilities that are—let’s be honest—frequently dated or even inferior to what a well-funded public school offers. I’ve seen some of these smaller parochial campuses in the Olney/Sandy Spring area, and I’m baffled why anyone would pay tuition for a "campus" that looks like a 1970s office park when the local public has better labs and fields.

You don't send your LOs to the crown jewels of DC private to escape public school. You send them for a values-based, progressive experiential education. You go because you want your DS to be an out-of-the-box thinker who understands social justice and pluralism at a cellular level.

What makes Sidwell special isn't the math curriculum—it’s the intentionality. It’s the school-wide Iftar dinners, the student-led seders focused on sustainability, the niche global theater productions (the recent African folk tale was breathtaking), and the Quaker values.

There’s also a deeper "values" component we rarely talk about. If a parent is fleeing public school to find a "stifling" or narrow environment—like some of the "diploma mills" up-county (GC comes to mind)—it makes me wonder if they’re actually just trying to avoid the diversity and pluralism that makes the DC area great. If you aren't seeking the beauty of a truly progressive education, you’re just paying for a smaller, more homogeneous pond.

Choose a school for its mission, not because you’re afraid of the public school "boogeyman." Otherwise, you’re just paying a premium for a mediocre outlook.

I looked for a safe place for my child, a place where my child can be seen and encouraged, and a community of down-to-earth diverse (econ and ethnic/race/religion) parents. I found it, and it was - intentionally - not Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow lady you really take limousine liberal to the next level. People literally choose trump over the nonsense you spout, and I can definitely see why. No one is buying your performative progressivism, and the kids who are regurgitating that stuff up to you will be on Wall Street in ten years destroying community hospitals. If you really believed anything you claim your kids would be in public schools with the diverse population you RAVE about! So please stop lying to yourself and everyone else.

We don’t own her please MAGA can have her closed minded view of the world.

Meh…OP may be a troll but there is some truth to it. Folks that flee public and go to any private regardless of mission and quality are generally MAGA, MAGA-lite, or generally close minded enough to not want to be apart of one of the most diverse and progressive public school districts in the country.

[Anonymous]

For my own sanity this is a troll

[Anonymous]

As a 2x Sidwell parent, you're embarrassing us. Nobody chooses Sidwell for the "intentionality," as that is not unique to Sidwell. Every private school operates intentionally -- if that weren't the case, they would all be in a PR crisis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve seen a recent influx of posts from parents looking for a "nice private alternative" to MCPS or DCPS because they want "rigorous academics" and "small classes." As someone who has been through the cycle with multiple kids at Sidwell and GDS, I feel compelled to say: You are fundamentally doing this wrong.

If your primary goal is just a heavy workload and high AP/IB participation, stay in the public system. The top-tier tracks in MoCo and DC are just as rigorous as anything you’ll find in an independent school. In fact, if you go the private route just to "avoid" public, you often end up paying $45k+ for facilities that are—let’s be honest—frequently dated or even inferior to what a well-funded public school offers. I’ve seen some of these smaller parochial campuses in the Olney/Sandy Spring area, and I’m baffled why anyone would pay tuition for a "campus" that looks like a 1970s office park when the local public has better labs and fields.

You don't send your LOs to the crown jewels of DC private to escape public school. You send them for a values-based, progressive experiential education. You go because you want your DS to be an out-of-the-box thinker who understands social justice and pluralism at a cellular level.

What makes Sidwell special isn't the math curriculum—it’s the intentionality. It’s the school-wide Iftar dinners, the student-led seders focused on sustainability, the niche global theater productions (the recent African folk tale was breathtaking), and the Quaker values.

There’s also a deeper "values" component we rarely talk about. If a parent is fleeing public school to find a "stifling" or narrow environment—like some of the "diploma mills" up-county (GC comes to mind)—it makes me wonder if they’re actually just trying to avoid the diversity and pluralism that makes the DC area great. If you aren't seeking the beauty of a truly progressive education, you’re just paying for a smaller, more homogeneous pond.

Choose a school for its mission, not because you’re afraid of the public school "boogeyman." Otherwise, you’re just paying a premium for a mediocre outlook.

Oh lordy! I don't have a horse in this race, but I laughed out loud at this. Funniest thing I've read all week. Thanks, OP.

Agree. The funny comes from how unconsciously oxymoronic the post is. Not to mention so atrociously written it should be up for the DCUM equivalent of a Razzie.

No one who truly understood Quaker values could write such refuse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look I disagree with the premise that we all live in a bubble and have no interactions with other private schools other than the one our kids attend (we all have family, friends and coworkers etc. With kids that go to other schools that we engage with)... but I genuinely haven't got a clue what GC is... can someone fill me in??

Good Counsel high school.

Thanks! I genuinely never would have gotten there 🤣

That's... unusual. There are only a handful of schools we identify by acronym and GC is one of them. I don't even live in DC or send my kids to DC area privates and I know them lol

They genuinely just weren't on my radar at all and I did DC Catholic school track myself 🤣 just goes to show you we all have schools we personally focus on and those we just don't...

[Anonymous]

What in the Bennington Queer Ceramics Theory doctorate did I just read?

[Anonymous]

Is this a satire?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What in the Bennington Queer Ceramics Theory doctorate did I just read?

Troll or not, let’s not make the same jokes that MAGA makes about our area. Even if it’s trolling or misguided, they just want the next generation to continue to evolve.

[Anonymous]

The post is a 100% woke Dem post. Pretending to care about mission and diversity while wanting to control who can attend

[Anonymous]

Esp since it is a school that even the FA students have to be wealthy, or play good basketball.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Lol, didn't think this would turn into such a thing.

Just thinking back to a conversation at an AAU game this past weekend where some parents were going on about "needing" to get out of public for SJC or GC. It just felt so reactive.

If you’re already in a solid cluster (Whitman, Wootton, etc), the academics are fine. Why pay $45k for a uniform and a stricter schedule? Honestly, those campuses... they’re fine, but they aren't exactly inspiring. You’re trading actual diversity for a bubble that doesn't even offer the kind of intellectual freedom you get at the Big Three / big five / whatever you wanna call it.

If you aren't looking for the actual mission—the Quaker values, the intentionality, the out-of-the-box thinking—then what are you actually buying? It just seems like a huge premium for a more filtered version of suburban life. Anyway, just what I was thinking. And to the person saying you don’t go to the Sidwell for the intentionally , yeah you do…

[Anonymous]

Well, you don’t go for the Quaker values.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve seen a recent influx of posts from parents looking for a "nice private alternative" to MCPS or DCPS because they want "rigorous academics" and "small classes." As someone who has been through the cycle with multiple kids at Sidwell and GDS, I feel compelled to say: You are fundamentally doing this wrong.

If your primary goal is just a heavy workload and high AP/IB participation, stay in the public system. The top-tier tracks in MoCo and DC are just as rigorous as anything you’ll find in an independent school. In fact, if you go the private route just to "avoid" public, you often end up paying $45k+ for facilities that are—let’s be honest—frequently dated or even inferior to what a well-funded public school offers. I’ve seen some of these smaller parochial campuses in the Olney/Sandy Spring area, and I’m baffled why anyone would pay tuition for a "campus" that looks like a 1970s office park when the local public has better labs and fields.

You don't send your LOs to the crown jewels of DC private to escape public school. You send them for a values-based, progressive experiential education. You go because you want your DS to be an out-of-the-box thinker who understands social justice and pluralism at a cellular level.

What makes Sidwell special isn't the math curriculum—it’s the intentionality. It’s the school-wide Iftar dinners, the student-led seders focused on sustainability, the niche global theater productions (the recent African folk tale was breathtaking), and the Quaker values.

There’s also a deeper "values" component we rarely talk about. If a parent is fleeing public school to find a "stifling" or narrow environment—like some of the "diploma mills" up-county (GC comes to mind)—it makes me wonder if they’re actually just trying to avoid the diversity and pluralism that makes the DC area great. If you aren't seeking the beauty of a truly progressive education, you’re just paying for a smaller, more homogeneous pond.

Choose a school for its mission, not because you’re afraid of the public school "boogeyman." Otherwise, you’re just paying a premium for a mediocre outlook.

This is ridiculous. Your whole post is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve seen a recent influx of posts from parents looking for a "nice private alternative" to MCPS or DCPS because they want "rigorous academics" and "small classes." As someone who has been through the cycle with multiple kids at Sidwell and GDS, I feel compelled to say: You are fundamentally doing this wrong.

If your primary goal is just a heavy workload and high AP/IB participation, stay in the public system. The top-tier tracks in MoCo and DC are just as rigorous as anything you’ll find in an independent school. In fact, if you go the private route just to "avoid" public, you often end up paying $45k+ for facilities that are—let’s be honest—frequently dated or even inferior to what a well-funded public school offers. I’ve seen some of these smaller parochial campuses in the Olney/Sandy Spring area, and I’m baffled why anyone would pay tuition for a "campus" that looks like a 1970s office park when the local public has better labs and fields.

You don't send your LOs to the crown jewels of DC private to escape public school. You send them for a values-based, progressive experiential education. You go because you want your DS to be an out-of-the-box thinker who understands social justice and pluralism at a cellular level.

What makes Sidwell special isn't the math curriculum—it’s the intentionality. It’s the school-wide Iftar dinners, the student-led seders focused on sustainability, the niche global theater productions (the recent African folk tale was breathtaking), and the Quaker values.

There’s also a deeper "values" component we rarely talk about. If a parent is fleeing public school to find a "stifling" or narrow environment—like some of the "diploma mills" up-county (GC comes to mind)—it makes me wonder if they’re actually just trying to avoid the diversity and pluralism that makes the DC area great. If you aren't seeking the beauty of a truly progressive education, you’re just paying for a smaller, more homogeneous pond.

Choose a school for its mission, not because you’re afraid of the public school "boogeyman." Otherwise, you’re just paying a premium for a mediocre outlook.

This is ridiculous. Your whole post is ridiculous.

"pluralism at a cellular level." How ridiculous???!!Pretentious and ridiculous.