GDS vs Beauvoir for Pre K?

[Anonymous]

For folks unfamiliar with the history of GDS, the school was founded by African-American and Jewish families who were shut out of other schools in then-segregated Washington. Not surprising that Jews make up a large portion of student body. And there are more AA students than at any of the other Big 3/4/5 schools. For folks who are also unaware, the Cathedral schools, NPS, St. Pat's, etc devote a portion of the students' school time to chapel, etc. GDS holds a Christmas assembly as well as a Passover seder. The Passover seder may be one of the most "accessible" entry points to understanding Judaic history. I regret that a parent is dismayed that school funds are expended on it.

And I am not Jewish....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For folks unfamiliar with the history of GDS, the school was founded by African-American and Jewish families who were shut out of other schools in then-segregated Washington. Not surprising that Jews make up a large portion of student body. And there are more AA students than at any of the other Big 3/4/5 schools. For folks who are also unaware, the Cathedral schools, NPS, St. Pat's, etc devote a portion of the students' school time to chapel, etc. GDS holds a Christmas assembly as well as a Passover seder. The Passover seder may be one of the most "accessible" entry points to understanding Judaic history. I regret that a parent is dismayed that school funds are expended on it.

And I am not Jewish....

8:14 here. I think you misread my post. I am not dismayed that the school funds Passover seder with a catered celebration. I am dismayed that the school does not treat equally (i.e., with funding) Ramadan, Christmas, Easter, etc. Given GDS's history, I don't believe GDS's percentage of AA students (~18%) is significantly different than schools like Sidwell (~16.5%) or Holton (~16.5%). Regarding the Cathedral schools, NPS, and St. Patrick's these are all nonsecular schools. Of course they would dedicate a portion of the students' time to chapel. GDS is supposed to be secular.

[Anonymous]

Secular can mean either not recognizing any religious holidays or acknowledging several. I think that the latter is oftentimes referred to as "neutral." I prefer this approach so that children are exposed to multiple religious traditions, rather than none.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Secular can mean either not recognizing any religious holidays or acknowledging several. I think that the latter is oftentimes referred to as "neutral." I prefer this approach so that children are exposed to multiple religious traditions, rather than none.

Yes, GDS is secular in that it does not recognize any one religion. I would assume that if my DC were to attend a school founded by AAs and Jews, that there may be a greater focus on holidays and other events of significance to those two groups. Moreover, in a society where Christmas decorations go up that day after Halloween, does GDS really need to cater a dinner after the children sing Christmas carols for an hour? I think it would be nice for Eid and Diwali fests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For folks unfamiliar with the history of GDS, the school was founded by African-American and Jewish families who were shut out of other schools in then-segregated Washington. Not surprising that Jews make up a large portion of student body. And there are more AA students than at any of the other Big 3/4/5 schools. For folks who are also unaware, the Cathedral schools, NPS, St. Pat's, etc devote a portion of the students' school time to chapel, etc. GDS holds a Christmas assembly as well as a Passover seder. The Passover seder may be one of the most "accessible" entry points to understanding Judaic history. I regret that a parent is dismayed that school funds are expended on it.

And I am not Jewish....

8:14 here. I think you misread my post. I am not dismayed that the school funds Passover seder with a catered celebration. I am dismayed that the school does not treat equally (i.e., with funding) Ramadan, Christmas, Easter, etc. Given GDS's history, I don't believe GDS's percentage of AA students (~18%) is significantly different than schools like Sidwell (~16.5%) or Holton (~16.5%). Regarding the Cathedral schools, NPS, and St. Patrick's these are all nonsecular schools. Of course they would dedicate a portion of the students' time to chapel. GDS is supposed to be secular.

Christmas AND Easter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Re is 4 the right age to introduce sexual orientation

To me, earlier is better for two reasons. One is that it's already there -- assuming you have family, friends, or classmates' parents who are gay or lesbian. So you either treat these people as deviations from a norm or you define the norm (family) more inclusively from the beginning. I'm strongly in favor of the latter approach.

Secondly, gender norms get enforced from a very early age and you see taunting (of the sort whose build-up can lead to teen suicide at a later age) very young. My DC had an old friend try to drive her new friend away by running around the playground singing the old X and Y sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G song and claiming DC and new friend loved each other so much they probably wanted to get married. New friend responded "That's silly; two girls can't get married." DC piped up "Except in Massachusetts!" This was first grade.

I think this link aptly demonstrates why early is better:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/03/so-that-means-you-love-each-other.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Secular can mean either not recognizing any religious holidays or acknowledging several. I think that the latter is oftentimes referred to as "neutral." I prefer this approach so that children are exposed to multiple religious traditions, rather than none.

Yes, GDS is secular in that it does not recognize any one religion. I would assume that if my DC were to attend a school founded by AAs and Jews, that there may be a greater focus on holidays and other events of significance to those two groups. Moreover, in a society where Christmas decorations go up that day after Halloween, does GDS really need to cater a dinner after the children sing Christmas carols for an hour? I think it would be nice for Eid and Diwali fests.

There is no stopping this brigade: Eid, Diwali, Christmas, Passover. Then we can get into the other holidays too for each of these groups. It would be so nice to see a school that left religious completely out of the picture. It is after a family's decision to make. Whether to celebrate, what to celebrate. There is never going to be a way to include everyone and it would just takes up too much time. Also, think about agnostics, atheists, those who are spiritual but non-religious. Sadly, I have a feeling GDS will move toward including more religions rather than consider dropping religious celebrations all together.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, when you're 4 it's not about sex -- it's about who loves each other, and who lives together, and who takes care of each other. And there's a lot of variation (adoption, blended families, extended families, single parents). So it's not just the lesbian couple's kids who have two mommies -- it's the kids whose parents divorced and whose dad remarried or the kid who was adopted.

If, from an early age, kids see and respect different arrangements, that's a good thing. And there's no real option to wait until later -- one way or another, there's information in their environments that is going to be processed. It can be there is the right way to be a family and other ways are screwed up or represent failures -- or it can be there are a whole lot of different ways people live in families.

[Anonymous]

Atheist GDS parent here.

There have been Diwali celebrations/assemblies (just not pageants -- like the Harvest Festival, Christmas, Passover, or MLK's Birthday programs where parents are invited) since my MS student was in PreK or K at least. And Chinese New Year. Not sure about Eid (DC definitely came home talking about it once but my sense is that, unlike Diwali and Chinese New Year, this hasn't been something they celebrate every year). Basically, there's a weekly community assembly in the lower school and lots of the topics are multicultural. Plus parents are routinely invited in to share holidays, traditions, etc. in the lower grades.

I'm all for pluralizing rather than eliminating discussions of religion and other belief systems (e.g. Greek mythology, West African epics) especially when they move beyond holidays and venture into the realm of ideals and of how people and communities make sense of the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
There is no stopping this brigade: Eid, Diwali, Christmas, Passover. Then we can get into the other holidays too for each of these groups. It would be so nice to see a school that left religious completely out of the picture. It is after a family's decision to make. Whether to celebrate, what to celebrate. There is never going to be a way to include everyone and it would just takes up too much time. Also, think about agnostics, atheists, those who are spiritual but non-religious. Sadly, I have a feeling GDS will move toward including more religions rather than consider dropping religious celebrations all together.

You could choose public school, if you felt strongly about this. I think that an educational philosophy committed to diversity would be disingenuous if it left out religious diversity from the curriculum. One cannot separate the study of religion from the study of history, literature, philosophy, geography, social studies, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GDS vs Beauvoir for Pre K?

I went from Beauvoir to GDS. Loved the change. Both are great

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS vs Beauvoir for Pre K?

I went from Beauvoir to GDS. Loved the change. Both are great

How old were you when you made the switch? Must have been a good 30 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should consider your political and social values in making this decision. Beauvoir is a better fit for Waspy or Wannabe-Waspy families, must be comfortable with chapel requirements, uniformity, more Republicans.

This is complete nonsense. The kids in the school had their own election in 2008 and Obama won 80% of the vote. The bumper sticker vote was about the same. It is a very diverse school with a little bit of everything, including Republicans, Democrats and 5 year olds....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should consider your political and social values in making this decision. Beauvoir is a better fit for Waspy or Wannabe-Waspy families, must be comfortable with chapel requirements, uniformity, more Republicans.

This is complete nonsense. The kids in the school had their own election in 2008 and Obama won 80% of the vote. The bumper sticker vote was about the same. It is a very diverse school with a little bit of everything, including Republicans, Democrats and 5 year olds....

Agreed. We're pretty far left leaning parents who are very happy with Beauvoir for our two kids. The academics and moral education are strong. The social environment, for our kids and for us as parents, has been a pleasure.