
How public -- like a frog. |
Somehow I don't think that anyone walking through GDS and St Albans would confuse the two. It would take local/insider to knowledge to recognize that (in some cases) the same boy could have ended up at either one. |
The similarities are more obvious than the differences if you are from Meridian, Mississippi, no matter what y'all believe! |
You, I like. |
Sorry, but not even pre-K or K kids are chosen solely on the basis of family status/merit. Even pre-K kids shine at the playdate, or not. They seem alert, or not. They bite other kids, or not. And what's the point of taking 3rd grade "out of the mix"? Your distinction seems artificial and forced. |
Your point would be useful if this were all about why schools *accept* certain kids and reject others. I will pass over your implication that Beauvoir issues all its admissions offers based mostly on family status, while Sidwell is totally pure in the area of which kids it accepts and why. I don't really buy that, but it's not the issue at hand. The question is different, however: it's about who is *applying* to certain schools, and why. |
I never said all the Beauvoir kids were chosen solely on the basis of family (and explicitly stated I wasn't getting into the question of what made a family attractive to Beauvoir). That said, the playdate is pretty fluky (single observation in an unusual situation) and admissions officers generally recognize that. So, yes, Beauvoir no doubt is trying to pick the best/most desirable kids (whatever that means from their perspective) but the situation is such that a major part of their assessment will involve sizing up the parents/family/home/demographics. RE why take 3rd grade out of the mix -- I left it in because I couldn't find stats for grade 1-3 admissions at Beauvoir, but the short answer is that it seems likely (from the numbers/description available) that kids rarely (if ever) start Beauvoir in 3rd. The entry years are PreK/K with subsequent admissions a function of attrition. And some attrition is accepted/not every kid who leaves is replaced. By contrast, at Sidwell, 3rd grade is a major entry point (about 15% of the class). And by third grade (especially in private schools where the kids are often older), testing starts to be more reliable and kids have had enough experience with school that skills are less a function of family background than of ability/effort/attitude. End of 3rd would be a better time to assess (at the beginning of 3rd you'll consistently miss a few late-bloomers (esp younger boys) who turn out to be academic stars), but there's a real difference between assessing a 4 year old and and 8 year old. |
Not really -- if we're talking about what kind of people send their kids to a particular school, we're looking at who enrolls -- not who applies. And two sets of post-application decisions -- admissions and acceptances -- are crucial in constituting that group. From what I've seen, the applicant pools for Sidwell, GDS, and Beauvoir overlap significantly -- lots of people apply to two of the three (as wells some other schools which are more variable depending on location/educational philosophy); some apply to all three. So the question is who goes and why. Re who would choose Beauvoir -- someone who wants to send their kid to an elite private school, someone who doesn't feel ready to guess where their kid will belong in MS or HS, someone who values an environment that focuses exclusively on early childhood education, someone who is hoping their kid(s) will go to NCS/StA and wants to increase the odds, someone who lives nearby and likes what they see, someone who is risk-averse and feels that no one is going to fault them/look down on them for sending their kid to Beauvoir, someone who is playing the odds and looking for a program where more than a half dozen new families are admitted each year. Lots of reasons other than "social climbing" -- and I say that as someone who wasn't interested in Beauvoir for my kid. |
To get back to the original point, DCUM was valuable in helping me to figure out which schools had good reputations in this highly educated city. We moved from another part of the country with a preschooler, and these posts (snarky or not) helped me to come up with an initial list of schools to research in person and on the web.
DCUM did not influence what I thought about the schools once I had my initial list. From that point onward, it was about which schools fit my child and family. I guess, though, that some people are less confident about their own observations of a school and rely on such forums as these to help them out. I am an educator myself, so I think I have a pretty good sense of what might be important in a school for my child's growth and development. |
I still don't buy the proposition that if your kid is accepted somewhere (anywhere?) in Pre-K/K, then it is more likely you're a social climber. Linked to the 2nd proposition that Beauvoir accepts many kids in pre-k/k, therefore cathedral families must be social climbers.
What is this called, a syllogism? But it's a false one, because the component propoaitions can both be picked apart, and linking the two propositions just doesn't work. I'll pass on your list of other unflattering reasons for wanting to go to Beauvoir (risk-averse, needing peer approval) and I appreciate your admission that you didn't want it for your kid. FWIW we never applied there either, and DC was accepted at NCS but didn't go. But we know some nice, middle class families there- way more "average" than the families we know at Sidwell. Plus this ignores what happens at the cathedral schools for 4th, 6th and 9th grades. Unless your point is that Beauvoir families are social climbers |
Sorry, hit submit too soon.
Unless your point is somehow that Beauvoir families are social climbers but NCS/St. A families are not. Frankly, a social climber would be asking herself where all the dem political appointees are. And that's Sidwell, with a sprinkling at GDS. |
That's not the claim I'm making. I was explaining why Sidwell parents were less likely to get tarred with the "social climber" brush than Beauvoir parents. Many Sidwell parents can (a) point to their kids' academic achievements pre-admissions and (b) have obviously chosen an educational environment that pushes their kids hard academically rather than emphasizes who you know. Because Beauvoir admits kids young and never gets to an age where academic rigor is a good plan, it's easier for outsiders to see the school as essentially or primarily a country club/social climber environment. And I focussed on Beauvoir because from what I see on DCUM (which is where I've seen this stereotype), it seems as if most posters know and/or are more concerned about PreK/K admissions than the later years. I don't think risk-aversion is an insulting description -- lots of times it makes sense to make a "safe" choice and pressure to do so may not come from peers (I've seen it come from grandparents who may be footing the bill, for example -- and seen it used as a tie-breaker when parents disagree). Frankly, all the reasons I listed for choosing Beauvoir struck me as good reasons. |
DCUM made me think that there are many crazy parents in the area! It really hasn't made me think much about the private schools beyond wondering what percentage of the parents fall into the "crazy DCUM posters" category. |
This might work as an argument, except for the ample testimony on multiple DCUM threads, including this one, that for admission to 6th, 9th and other grades, Sidwell often chooses the connected or rich kid over the equally qualified nobody. Not in every instance, but in many, according to posts here. You may say that this is peoples' "opinion", but there's enough of it out there to argue that your position is not only just your opinion, but it's also a minority opinion. Heck, Sidwell asks parents where they went to college, including for entrance to upper grades. And do check out the many dem appointees' kids they let in-are these kids really disproportionately more talented than non-connected kids? I think that the issue is who the school accepts, not who applies. If you look at a school's population, and find that it's full of the rich and well-to-do, well that's because the school let them in. We don't know anything about who applied and why. |
Humph. I've been on DCUM a long time and I don't agree with this at all. Moreover, we have a close tie to the school and I would say that it's patently untrue that Sidwell "often" picks the connected in <<9th>> grade over the talented. |