SSSAS - what is the culture like currently?
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Anonymous
What is even more telling about the school's culture is the lack of an alternative point of view on this list - for example, from an African American such as Shelby Steele from Stanford University. If you (or your child) have a different opinion, keep it to yourself or leave. Your child's grades will be hurt by your alternative point of view. |
Anonymous
| I’m a bit confused as to what people in this discussion mean by bullying. Is it nasty comments among kids/cliques and broken friendships? Or are you talking about isolation and exclusion of one student over time? |
Anonymous
Both. But nice try at deflecting. |
Anonymous
| Wait....is the pissed off mom who left the school ALSO opposed to reading about racial justice? This is the same person? This is getting so good..... |
Anonymous
|
I have a son in the MS. So I can't speak to the mean girl drama referenced by the above posters. But what I can say is my shy, not-at-all-athletic, on-financial-aid son has a decent-sized friend group, which he never had in public school. No one bothers him either; which again, was not the case in public school.
Academics are not Big 4, but who wants to drive across town every day? They're better than ACPS, FCPS or Bishop Ireton by a long stretch, and that's the realistic competition. |
Anonymous
| I don’t have an 8th grade girl — rather a recent graduate who attended for high school. But SSSAS was a perfect choice for our DC, and we would do it again in a heartbeat. We were thrilled with the quality of teaching. Our DC had a diverse group of really nice friends, all of whom are happy in college and who were well prepared for a range of schools. And perhaps most importantly to us, our DC loved high school and and was extremely happy throughout. SSSAS takes a range of students and serves them well. Their top students go onto to lots of top schools. But not everyone has to go that route. So they honor and celebrate lots of different students who excel at different things and don’t make students who aren’t aiming for a top ten school feel like failures. As a result, the students don’t seem to feel as much pressure. They are happy, supported, pushed — but not in unhealthy ways. They have lots of homework but not homework they have to stay up until 2 am to do. The school focuses on the whole young person — with ethics-based chapel including deeply personal chapel talks led by seniors, arts and sports requirements, and some wonderful, fun traditions designed to build community among the entire student body. Our DC ended up at a university people on DCUM tout and was well-prepared for a STEM major. DC took BC calc in HS, and it turns out that was enough to launch. I know some people here want two classes beyond that. Our DC was a very good student but certainly not a prodigy (and don’t think it is the right school for true prodigies). DC is happy in college but visits SSSAS at every break to see teachers. This is not true with my other children who did not attend SSSAS; they were glad to escape high school relatively unscathed. Good luck OP — I am sure your child will flourish, whatever your choice! |
Anonymous
It sounds like you could use some diversity and inclusion training. You enjoy the sport of attacking if someone has an opinion that is different than yours. Your approach resembles the cultural tones that a number of posters have mentioned concerns about. My guess is that you have taught your kids this same behavior which has only enabled and enhanced the bullying problem at SSSAS. Or, or you on staff at the school? Way to be part of the problem rather than the solution. |
Anonymous
+1. |
Anonymous
This is our experience as well. |
Anonymous
Not really. It just a bunch of word salad here because I don’t think anyone knows what they’re talking about. I’m looking to apply next year so was actually a bit curious. |
Anonymous
Isolation for the most part but also bullying. We have a child that was in Middle. The cliques are formed early. Most kids aren’t mean they just aren’t inclusive - at all. And the parents of these kids are the same way. The school is so focused on certain groups of kids that they just forget that average bullying and exclusion occurs right under their nose. They don’t do a good job of fostering an atmosphere preventing it from happening. The worst part, which starts in Lower School where the cliques start, is that there is a process by which classes are formed (by the school counselor ironically) that actually reinforces these cliques by clustering kids together by request. If you are a new kid chances are you will make friends with other new kids or be a “floater.” There are some nice teachers at the school - but there are nice teachers in lots of places - and the school certainly doesn’t support bullying or exclusion - but it is there any way and they don’t do a good job of managing it. We learned recently we are not alone in this experience but that parents tend not to share this with each other for obvious reasons. They just apply out and you find out later people were really unhappy. To say that these things don’t happen at SSSAS just because your kid hasn’t experienced it doesn’t mean it’s not there. When it’s your kid, it matters. . |
Anonymous
| It is horrible. Wouldn't recommend this school to my worst friend. It pricey. Curriculum is woke in the worst sense of it all. Its only a positive environment if your a faculty kid that's getting a major tuition break or one of the school's 4-5 big donor families where the rules and honor code just don't apply. Just horrible, horrible waste of money. |
Anonymous
Shelby Steele is a self-hating racist who supports the disenfranchisement of anyone who doesn’t buy into the currently existing system that privileges whites arms the wealthy. I deplore knee-jerk wokism, but Shelby Steele is not an alternative point of view. That’s like saying Tucker Carson is an alternative viewpoint. Yes, in a sense — a white supremacist alternative viewpoint. Don’t expect an Episcopal school to validate a morally corrupt alternative perspective. |
Anonymous
Racism isn’t an “alternative viewpoint.” I think your invoking of Shelby Steele told us all we need to know. |
Anonymous
Agree. My kids aren’t in the “popular” group either but happy and learning and have such nice, generous and fun friends. We think it’s a gem, too. |