Any actually diverse schools out there? Particularly Catholic?
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Anonymous
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I'm probably going to get berated for asking this, but I think this is a serious concern. A school doesn't have a diverse make up if it is almost all white or almost all African American or any race. I have no problem with one race or another being a majority (I attended a high school that was around 75% African American, 20% white, and 5% Hispanic/Asian). I want my child to be exposed to other cultures and backgrounds, but I also don't want him to be the only white student at a school -- just like families from other races might be nervous about being the only minority student (a more common problem for minorities in affluent schools, I'm sure). I want him to have friends from all races, but I also don't want him to feel like he is different.
I find it very disconcerting and odd that several of seemingly well respected, quality Catholic high schools have no white students (at least that is what it looks like from research). Why? With so many relatively affluent families (though perhaps not "wealthy") white families moving into Brookland and Petworth and the notoriously difficult lottery process, you would think you would want to send your child to a high quality school with relatively affordable tuition like St. Anthony's and Archbishop Carroll. I also find it odd that these schools are rarely mentioned on this forum. I really haven't been able to find out much about them. Is the demographic data correct? If so, what's the hold up? Why are people willing to schlep their children across town or to another state rather than go to these schools? Is it just the racial barrier? Something else? Honestly curious. We are still a few years away from school age, but I have found this perplexing. Are there other schools I am missing in a similar bucket or do we know of any truly diverse schools that represent a pretty solid group from several ethnic groups? |
Anonymous
| I'll weigh in on this one. We are a middle class African American family that moved to DC in 2011. We grew up internationally and attended private schools in the US, Africa, and Europe. Our son was at a predominately white daycare in Capitol Hill. While I certainly would have liked there to have been more minorities (asians, hispanics, blacks) that just wasn't the case. We entered the lottery process after doing a lot of research and listed only 5 schools because we had come across St. Anthony's and absolutely fell in love with the school. It was #1 on our list for our 3 year old. I shared the info with our group at our daycare (mostly Cap hill families) and while I never received feedback from them, I suspect that 1. They had never heard of it, 2. They were really looking for public schools |
Anonymous
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My screen somehow locked on me so I had to hit submit prematurely...
3. They would prefer not to commute to brookland from the hill, and 4. I suspect many equate a school that's majority African American with an intense focus on academics and not play based. St. Anthony's is an absolute gem of a school (albeit a hiden one amongst the white population in dc). There are a few white families there and I think they love the school. It's too bad for others that many have not looked twice at this school because they may not see enough white faces. All the schools I attended growing up were either very international or majority white. I have tons of friends of all races so I don't worry for a second that our kids will grow up with sufficient diversity in their lives. In the meantime they are getting an awesome affordable education in an incredibly warm, supportive environment.. I'd encourage you to attend their open house in the spring. I was sold immediately. Preschool is playbased. Academics are very strong in the upper grades. They pair the younger kids up with buddies in the older grades. It's only been 2 weeks and our son is already saying hi to some of the 8th graders who help out in the classroom. The assistant preschool 3 teacher has a kid attending St. Anselm's which I was very impressed by. I'm pretty sure we will not be playing the lottery next year. I'm excited that this may be home for us until we have to pay the big bucks for highschool. I can't afford to send our kid to the schools I was fortunate to attend growing up - places like the UN school in NY and the international school in Vienna, Austria. However I truly feel like we have found a great elementary school for our kids in St. Anthony's. Some white families are there and know that. Many don't even give such schools a glance because of preconceived assumptions about schools that don't look like them. Everyone in the end has to do what's best for their families but I bet if you went and visited it, you might not care as much that there aren't as many white faces as you are used to seeing. Best of luck with your search. |
Anonymous
^^PP where were you when I (white Cap Hill lady) asked for info on St Anthony's here last Spring?? 
I couldn't find any info on St Anthonys so I wrote it off and did not even visit I'd say some of your factors are correct for us (play-based and commute) but I would also add the fact that it is, well, Catholic, and not being able to quite wrap my head around that (same reason we did not apply to St Peters.) OP in answer to your question ... if PP keeps posting accolades about St Anthony's online, a few more white parents will go to the open house, a few more will enroll, and then eventually it will get a "critical mass" and become "highly regarded." |
Anonymous
I'm the pp who is at St. Anthony's. I wish I had seen your post last Spring lol. We aren't catholic but both my husband and I attended catholic school for a few years growing up so didn't mind sending our kids to one. We are Christian however so a faith based education is a definite positive for us. The school run's open houses monthly in the spring. The upperclassmen take you on tours of the school and then you meet the principal for a sessionew .in the library. He is awesome! He's been at the school for 17 years, 7 as principal. Last week he "won" Principal of the year for the archdiocese of Washington. It's not a large school. One class per grade I believe. Each class up until 3rd grade has a teacher and an assistant. They have art twice a week, gym twice a week, Spanish twice a week for grades pk3 -2nd (30 mins) and then that jumps to four times a week from 3Rd grade onwards (45 mins). I'm looking at the pk3 daily schedule right now. They choose their work/center from 8am -9:45. The rest of the day is spent doing gym/spanish/library/art depending on the day, lunch, recess, crafts, naps and snack. Aftercare is really affordable. About $2k for the school year. The Catholic church subsidizes tuition for all which is one of the reason tuition is so reasonable. There's a super cute video on their home page about the school. It doesn't look like it's a video but if I recall correctly it has a picture of a teacher with 2-3 kids planting flowers. If you click on that it should play a little video. Come check us out in the Spring. It's been there the whole time. Many families from Maryland have been bringing their kids to the school this whole time while many dc folks dont realize what a warm and at the same time academically strong school it is. |
Anonymous
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Here's the link to the video. I don't know if it will paste correctly but if not look on the school's website and click on the pic of the teacher and kids planting flowers.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1iGyg17biV_amxZa29qamhvN3c/view |
Anonymous
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OP here. Thank you so much for the replys. I want to make it clear that it wasn't because there weren't "enough" white faces, but because based on sites like great schools it looked like there were literally no white students enrolled -- pretty sure on multiple sites it said they made up 0% of the student body. Again, I am more than happy with white students not being the majority, I just don't want my son to feel different from other students or feel like he might be singled out. I appreciate that the responders took my question seriously and with the intent that is was offered in. Sometimes it is difficult to gauge how an honest question with no ill will will be reacted to on the forum.
We will definitely be attending an open house, and I am super hopeful that this will be the school for us as my husband is Catholic and I went to Catholic school for a while and loved the education. It is also very convenient for us as we are about to move into a house about three blocks away. I have been a bit perplexed as to why it seems that so many DCUM families send their kids to school so far outside the neighborhood when there is a school that seems to be very well liked by the families that attend and is so central to the neighborhood. I'm also a bit frustrated by that fact, though I recognize many families might be confused and troubled like I am through my research and, therefore, not consider as strongly as we should. I am hopeful that word doesn't get out too strongly about how good the school is so we to have a good shot at getting in a few years if it is the right fit
Thank you again for the feedback. If anyone has other insights about this or other schools that are within easy commuting distance to Brookland and relatively affordable, I would love to hear about them for all grade levels. We looked at St. Anslem's and even though my husband and I make relatively high incomes (even for DC), I just can't justify the price unless it is a last resort. There are more things I want to spend money on for my family than tuition. As someone who was educated by public schools in the Deep South (not the most highly regarded systems in case you were wondering) and has also achieved success at the top of my field, I firmly believe that the family plays a much stronger role in education and achievement than the school. It would be very difficult for me to ever justify paying that much for primary education or even secondary education (I also passed up DC area schools for my grad degree in favor of a small southern state school, and have had more success than others in my own office with the same degree and around $150k less debt -- just my two cents/rant on education costs!). Thanks again. |
Anonymous
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Hi OP,
My answer will be unpopular, but having grown up in DC and attended catholic schools here, I feel I have a handle on why white families don't attend primarily black schools. It's racism, pure and simple. You will hear various excuses..."I don't want my kid to be the lonely only", "it's a bad school with thugs", "SAT scores are too low", "it's too far for me to travel", etc...UMC African Americans have been lonely onlies and traveled far and wide for schools for decades and it hasn't stopped us. This fear of black people has to stop. We are humans. |
Anonymous
| Gonzaga and visitation are quite diverse. |
Anonymous
+1 The same is true of neighborhood public schools, by the way. The data shows that charters maintain and deepen educational segregation, and part of that is because they give white parents an "out" from their local school. |
Anonymous
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This is 20:47 chiming in on one additional point. I had two friends who were planning on entering pk3 at St. Anthony's this fall. One was another black family who had friends who attended the school and loved it and one was a white family whose daughter who also really liked the school after going to an open house. Both were accepted but neither ended up attending at the last minute. The black family got into Inspired Teaching and really struggled with passing on that opportunity. The white family really wanted a break from the costs associated with school after 3 years of hefty daycare costs. At the last minute they found a charter school that from what I can surmise isn't that highly regarded on here, but decided that since it was just preschool they would go for it to save money and try the lottery next year as they really want to go the public route and not have to pay for school for awhile.
For our family, we wanted a school where our children could be from pk3 - 8th grade if possible and were willing to pay a reasonable amount in school fees for the right school while still allowing us to save for private high school (which we always planned on doing). I don't doubt that the the fear of attending primarily black schools does play a part as mentioned by the pp. I don't know how long St. Anthony's has been doing open houses, however the fact that they do offer them both during the school day to see school in action and in the evening gives you an opportunity to see the school in action. We went to two daytime open houses/school tours. Each family gets their own student tour guide. What better way to both see the school and get a sense of the students in a more one-on-one setting. We were really impressed with both of our tour guides. One was an 8th grade boy who had just gotten accepted into all of the schools he applied to (he was deciding between Gonzaga and a few others) and the other was a 7th grade girl who was the sweetest thing. She's now in the 8th grade and our son already knows her by name and rushed up to her to give her a hug goodbye when he saw her in the school lobby at pickup yesterday. Ok let me stop before I get accused of being a booster. I'm just thrilled that we are there and really hope this will be our school home for the next 11 years for both our kids. |
Anonymous
It's not racism when UMC black families do not send their kids to neighborhood public schools, though. Then it's because of SAT scores or thugs or whatever. |
Anonymous
| OP, this post belongs in the Private School forum. |
Anonymous
Um, you need to educate yourself on what the definition of racism is. African Americans cannot be racist, in general, and specifically toward one another. Now if you want to talk about upward mobility, then let's have that conversation. So no, UMC African Americans are not racists. |
Anonymous
| Have you considered DeMatha? It is quite diverse, and a relatively easy commute from Brookland. Tuition is relatively affordable too. |