If you are wealthy would you send your kids to a W school over private?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IF both W schools and privates were free, what would you choose?

I am a new poster and have not been able to read all 46 pages of this thread but I did skim through a it and approached our choice much like you posed this question. We are in a W cluster but had considered private. Particularly Bullis. We decided to stick with our W cluster for many reasons but mostly because the diversity that you speak of at Bullis turned us off. We went to a football game and all the kids they bussed in were playing and the remaining student section was not diverse at all. I also truly believe that the math curriculm in our W cluster is leaps and bounds ahead of Bullis. Other factors lead to our decision as well but in the end even if it was free we decided to pass on private. In my opinion Private is worth it if you go for name recognition which is therefore only worth it when looking for single sex schools and that was not appealing for us.

Students who play sports are also students who are in the classroom. The Bulls football program is one of the best high school football program in the US. It has phenomenal athletes that earn the attention of D1 schools for college scholarship opportunities. Same for other athletic programs at the school.

A better measurement of the academic atmosphere is a tour of the school during the school day. Unlike public schools, athletes wear the same uniform as all other students. There’s nothing on them that represents themselves as a football player.

For math, child left Churchill for Bullis specifically for their STEM program. There were more advanced classes at Bullis for math and electives not offered at Churchill. The peer group for advanced math was around 12 students to Churchill’s 2 (hence why my son, if he stayed at Churchill, wouldn’t have a math class past 11th grade). The top math, science, and AP economics classes were taught by university professors. The quality of instruction and availability for help during office hours was also a huge benefit at Bullis.

Finally, help with the college search process was another benefit of private. Counselors at Bullis have a small fraction of students compared to their MCPS counterparts. Bullis counselors actually have several meetings with students to help them come up with a list of colleges, read essays, and provide feedback. They also help students chunk out the deadlines. At Churchill there was zero help with navigating the college process.

dp.. I call BS. It's a simple numbers game. Public schools like the Ws have way more students than Bullis, and many are also UMC. There are way more high achieving students in public schools than there are at Bullis simply because there are more public school students than private schools.

if your DS was that advanced in math he could've gone to Blair STEM, but it seems to me that he is probably not intuitively advanced as much as he is coached to be advanced. And yes, a lot of public school students are also tutored and coached to be advanced in math, as well, but they don't send their kids to private because they think private is much more advanced in STEM than Blair, for example.

BS meter is showing all the way to the right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IF both W schools and privates were free, what would you choose?

I am a new poster and have not been able to read all 46 pages of this thread but I did skim through a it and approached our choice much like you posed this question. We are in a W cluster but had considered private. Particularly Bullis. We decided to stick with our W cluster for many reasons but mostly because the diversity that you speak of at Bullis turned us off. We went to a football game and all the kids they bussed in were playing and the remaining student section was not diverse at all. I also truly believe that the math curriculm in our W cluster is leaps and bounds ahead of Bullis. Other factors lead to our decision as well but in the end even if it was free we decided to pass on private. In my opinion Private is worth it if you go for name recognition which is therefore only worth it when looking for single sex schools and that was not appealing for us.

Students who play sports are also students who are in the classroom. The Bulls football program is one of the best high school football program in the US. It has phenomenal athletes that earn the attention of D1 schools for college scholarship opportunities. Same for other athletic programs at the school.

A better measurement of the academic atmosphere is a tour of the school during the school day. Unlike public schools, athletes wear the same uniform as all other students. There’s nothing on them that represents themselves as a football player.

For math, child left Churchill for Bullis specifically for their STEM program. There were more advanced classes at Bullis for math and electives not offered at Churchill. The peer group for advanced math was around 12 students to Churchill’s 2 (hence why my son, if he stayed at Churchill, wouldn’t have a math class past 11th grade). The top math, science, and AP economics classes were taught by university professors. The quality of instruction and availability for help during office hours was also a huge benefit at Bullis.

Finally, help with the college search process was another benefit of private. Counselors at Bullis have a small fraction of students compared to their MCPS counterparts. Bullis counselors actually have several meetings with students to help them come up with a list of colleges, read essays, and provide feedback. They also help students chunk out the deadlines. At Churchill there was zero help with navigating the college process.

dp.. I call BS. It's a simple numbers game. Public schools like the Ws have way more students than Bullis, and many are also UMC. There are way more high achieving students in public schools than there are at Bullis simply because there are more public school students than private schools.

if your DS was that advanced in math he could've gone to Blair STEM, but it seems to me that he is probably not intuitively advanced as much as he is coached to be advanced. And yes, a lot of public school students are also tutored and coached to be advanced in math, as well, but they don't send their kids to private because they think private is much more advanced in STEM than Blair, for example.

BS meter is showing all the way to the right.

PP - this thread is asking if money wasn’t a factor, would you send your child to a W school or private. Blair is not a W school nor do most people in Potomac wish to put their child on a 45 minute bus ride to Silver Spring for access to a challenging math class and a segregated school within a school.

You may not agree with our choice, however, Bullis was a wonderful experience for my son. Bullis met his needs and provided a more challenging curriculum than Churchill. Bullis was also only 10 minutes from our house.

[Anonymous]

MCPS focus is cramming 32+ students into a classroom. Students in W public schools are routinely placed into curriculums that are below or above their ability and skills. W schools are also neglected by Central Officials because MCPS resources are prioritized for public schools with high FARMS rates.

Private school students take entrance exams when they transfer from public to private. Private high schools also still give final exams so students have to demonstrate they are ready for the next level. The focus of private schools is to place students in the appropriate level classes.

[Anonymous]

private schools parents can try to justify paying up to $55000 for a subpar education from here to the heaven, but the fact is none of them can compete with the Ws.
Choose any academic competition and the W schools will run circles around them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:private schools parents can try to justify paying up to $55000 for a subpar education from here to the heaven, but the fact is none of them can compete with the Ws.
Choose any academic competition and the W schools will run circles around them.

Yes, it's similar to how RM and Blair run circles around the W's even.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS focus is cramming 32+ students into a classroom. Students in W public schools are routinely placed into curriculums that are below or above their ability and skills. W schools are also neglected by Central Officials because MCPS resources are prioritized for public schools with high FARMS rates.

Private school students take entrance exams when they transfer from public to private. Private high schools also still give final exams so students have to demonstrate they are ready for the next level. The focus of private schools is to place students in the appropriate level classes.

Please stop. Seriously. Private school is a self selected and then curated selection of students and families in small quantity. A place free of many of the state, federal requirements that a public school must adhere, not to mention from the burden of having three eyes of the entire public. Most don’t serve many special needs. And even with all that advantage, most are still on par or worst than public schools.

Stop acting like private schools are some great slice of heaven in comparison to public schools. It’s a false comparison and not true, especially not for all private’s. Their focus is on exclusivity, name recognition, and appearing better than other private’s and public’s. It’s one of the reasons why they continue to invest in ridiculous campuses. And I say that as someone who graduated from a good one.

If you like your private great. If you think it’s better than public for your kids, great. But the original question has been asked and answered, Repeatedly. Not all wealthy parents or people who can afford it would choose private. Some would some wouldn’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:private schools parents can try to justify paying up to $55000 for a subpar education from here to the heaven, but the fact is none of them can compete with the Ws.
Choose any academic competition and the W schools will run circles around them.

Post proof. Oh wait — you won’t. We’ve been through this over and over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS focus is cramming 32+ students into a classroom. Students in W public schools are routinely placed into curriculums that are below or above their ability and skills. W schools are also neglected by Central Officials because MCPS resources are prioritized for public schools with high FARMS rates.

Private school students take entrance exams when they transfer from public to private. Private high schools also still give final exams so students have to demonstrate they are ready for the next level. The focus of private schools is to place students in the appropriate level classes.

Please stop. Seriously. Private school is a self selected and then curated selection of students and families in small quantity. A place free of many of the state, federal requirements that a public school must adhere, not to mention from the burden of having three eyes of the entire public. Most don’t serve many special needs. And even with all that advantage, most are still on par or worst than public schools.

Stop acting like private schools are some great slice of heaven in comparison to public schools. It’s a false comparison and not true, especially not for all private’s. Their focus is on exclusivity, name recognition, and appearing better than other private’s and public’s. It’s one of the reasons why they continue to invest in ridiculous campuses. And I say that as someone who graduated from a good one.

If you like your private great. If you think it’s better than public for your kids, great. But the original question has been asked and answered, Repeatedly. Not all wealthy parents or people who can afford it would choose private. Some would some wouldn’t.

Post proof.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS focus is cramming 32+ students into a classroom. Students in W public schools are routinely placed into curriculums that are below or above their ability and skills. W schools are also neglected by Central Officials because MCPS resources are prioritized for public schools with high FARMS rates.

Private school students take entrance exams when they transfer from public to private. Private high schools also still give final exams so students have to demonstrate they are ready for the next level. The focus of private schools is to place students in the appropriate level classes.

Please stop. Seriously. Private school is a self selected and then curated selection of students and families in small quantity. A place free of many of the state, federal requirements that a public school must adhere, not to mention from the burden of having three eyes of the entire public. Most don’t serve many special needs. And even with all that advantage, most are still on par or worst than public schools.

Stop acting like private schools are some great slice of heaven in comparison to public schools. It’s a false comparison and not true, especially not for all private’s. Their focus is on exclusivity, name recognition, and appearing better than other private’s and public’s. It’s one of the reasons why they continue to invest in ridiculous campuses. And I say that as someone who graduated from a good one.

If you like your private great. If you think it’s better than public for your kids, great. But the original question has been asked and answered, Repeatedly. Not all wealthy parents or people who can afford it would choose private. Some would some wouldn’t.

Wealthy people choose private in disproportionately high numbers compared to public...90% of the people at my country club do private school...and most people I know that live in 2 million dollar + homes do private. Sometimes, you get what you pay for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IF both W schools and privates were free, what would you choose?

I am a new poster and have not been able to read all 46 pages of this thread but I did skim through a it and approached our choice much like you posed this question. We are in a W cluster but had considered private. Particularly Bullis. We decided to stick with our W cluster for many reasons but mostly because the diversity that you speak of at Bullis turned us off. We went to a football game and all the kids they bussed in were playing and the remaining student section was not diverse at all. I also truly believe that the math curriculm in our W cluster is leaps and bounds ahead of Bullis. Other factors lead to our decision as well but in the end even if it was free we decided to pass on private. In my opinion Private is worth it if you go for name recognition which is therefore only worth it when looking for single sex schools and that was not appealing for us.

Students who play sports are also students who are in the classroom. The Bulls football program is one of the best high school football program in the US. It has phenomenal athletes that earn the attention of D1 schools for college scholarship opportunities. Same for other athletic programs at the school.

A better measurement of the academic atmosphere is a tour of the school during the school day. Unlike public schools, athletes wear the same uniform as all other students. There’s nothing on them that represents themselves as a football player.

For math, child left Churchill for Bullis specifically for their STEM program. There were more advanced classes at Bullis for math and electives not offered at Churchill. The peer group for advanced math was around 12 students to Churchill’s 2 (hence why my son, if he stayed at Churchill, wouldn’t have a math class past 11th grade). The top math, science, and AP economics classes were taught by university professors. The quality of instruction and availability for help during office hours was also a huge benefit at Bullis.

Finally, help with the college search process was another benefit of private. Counselors at Bullis have a small fraction of students compared to their MCPS counterparts. Bullis counselors actually have several meetings with students to help them come up with a list of colleges, read essays, and provide feedback. They also help students chunk out the deadlines. At Churchill there was zero help with navigating the college process.

dp.. I call BS. It's a simple numbers game. Public schools like the Ws have way more students than Bullis, and many are also UMC. There are way more high achieving students in public schools than there are at Bullis simply because there are more public school students than private schools.

if your DS was that advanced in math he could've gone to Blair STEM, but it seems to me that he is probably not intuitively advanced as much as he is coached to be advanced. And yes, a lot of public school students are also tutored and coached to be advanced in math, as well, but they don't send their kids to private because they think private is much more advanced in STEM than Blair, for example.

BS meter is showing all the way to the right.

PP - this thread is asking if money wasn’t a factor, would you send your child to a W school or private. Blair is not a W school nor do most people in Potomac wish to put their child on a 45 minute bus ride to Silver Spring for access to a challenging math class and a segregated school within a school.

You may not agree with our choice, however, Bullis was a wonderful experience for my son. Bullis met his needs and provided a more challenging curriculum than Churchill. Bullis was also only 10 minutes from our house.

How did Bullis provide a more challenging math curriculum than your W school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IF both W schools and privates were free, what would you choose?

I am a new poster and have not been able to read all 46 pages of this thread but I did skim through a it and approached our choice much like you posed this question. We are in a W cluster but had considered private. Particularly Bullis. We decided to stick with our W cluster for many reasons but mostly because the diversity that you speak of at Bullis turned us off. We went to a football game and all the kids they bussed in were playing and the remaining student section was not diverse at all. I also truly believe that the math curriculm in our W cluster is leaps and bounds ahead of Bullis. Other factors lead to our decision as well but in the end even if it was free we decided to pass on private. In my opinion Private is worth it if you go for name recognition which is therefore only worth it when looking for single sex schools and that was not appealing for us.

Students who play sports are also students who are in the classroom. The Bulls football program is one of the best high school football program in the US. It has phenomenal athletes that earn the attention of D1 schools for college scholarship opportunities. Same for other athletic programs at the school.

A better measurement of the academic atmosphere is a tour of the school during the school day. Unlike public schools, athletes wear the same uniform as all other students. There’s nothing on them that represents themselves as a football player.

For math, child left Churchill for Bullis specifically for their STEM program. There were more advanced classes at Bullis for math and electives not offered at Churchill. The peer group for advanced math was around 12 students to Churchill’s 2 (hence why my son, if he stayed at Churchill, wouldn’t have a math class past 11th grade). The top math, science, and AP economics classes were taught by university professors. The quality of instruction and availability for help during office hours was also a huge benefit at Bullis.

Finally, help with the college search process was another benefit of private. Counselors at Bullis have a small fraction of students compared to their MCPS counterparts. Bullis counselors actually have several meetings with students to help them come up with a list of colleges, read essays, and provide feedback. They also help students chunk out the deadlines. At Churchill there was zero help with navigating the college process.

dp.. I call BS. It's a simple numbers game. Public schools like the Ws have way more students than Bullis, and many are also UMC. There are way more high achieving students in public schools than there are at Bullis simply because there are more public school students than private schools.

if your DS was that advanced in math he could've gone to Blair STEM, but it seems to me that he is probably not intuitively advanced as much as he is coached to be advanced. And yes, a lot of public school students are also tutored and coached to be advanced in math, as well, but they don't send their kids to private because they think private is much more advanced in STEM than Blair, for example.

BS meter is showing all the way to the right.

PP - this thread is asking if money wasn’t a factor, would you send your child to a W school or private. Blair is not a W school nor do most people in Potomac wish to put their child on a 45 minute bus ride to Silver Spring for access to a challenging math class and a segregated school within a school.

You may not agree with our choice, however, Bullis was a wonderful experience for my son. Bullis met his needs and provided a more challenging curriculum than Churchill. Bullis was also only 10 minutes from our house.

How did Bullis provide a more challenging math curriculum than your W school?

I’m not the person you’re responding to, but we’ve posted course catalogs for private schools repeatedly and compared them to W schools. The course offerings at private schools on the high school level are just as advanced if not more than the W schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You've hit the nail on the head and the reason we have one in private and her little brother will soon be joining her. My oldest was in a 'W' school with great grades and easily scored in the upper 90s on standardized tests but we wanted a different experience for her and didn't like what we were seeing. I went to a school similar to the one you described while growing up in Los Angeles - an amazing and happy experience and wanted this same experience for my kids. When I attended my high school. it was approximately 60% white and about evenly split Asian and Latino and maybe around 5% African-American. It is now over 75% Asian and the culture has completely changed according to my nephews and nieces who have attended. Before it was full of really smart and creative kids but interestingly, not high pressure and cut throat/competitive. Now, it is extremely academically competitive, the cultural arts is no longer highlighted, the sports team is abysmal and the kids are solely focused on GPAs and standardized test scores.

This is BS. I grew up in LA, and still have family/friends there.

Schools with a lot of Asian American students absolutely care about cultural arts. They are very into music and art, and many are into sports, just not the kind of sports you like for white kids.

IMO, you are like many of the white families who leave schools with a high Asian American population because you cannot handle the academic competition from these Asian American kids. You just use the excuse of "they are like robots" to leave the school.

It is true that when the percentage of Asian American students starts to increase, the academic benchmark goes way up, and some people cannot handle it. That's fine. If you don't like the pressure cooker environment for your kids, then certainly you shouldn't have your kids go to that school. I feel the same, so we don't live in a cluster where there is a lot of academic pressure. But your attitude is either racist or defensive.

Be honest with yourself.

As I have stated exhaustively, white parents aren't leaving because of the "competition." These are well-heeled kids with plenty of money and connections to do well in life. They JUST DON'T LIKE THE ATMOSPHERE ANYMORE. How much clearer do I have to be than that? You are so stubborn, you can't fathom that other kids don't want to be around your kids because of their personalities but it is true. Be honest - would you want to WORK in an environment like this? Of course not and kids don't want to attend schools where the kids have a one track mind and very little versatility or interest in anything that is not academic. It really isn't rocket science. Really. But if what you want is a school full of people like your kids, you all are doing a great job of creating that environment. Wootton for one, is well on its way. I have two friends who recently picked homes in the Quince Orchard cluster rather than Wootton because Q.O. offered a more well-rounded high school experience and these are kids who were in other MCPS magnet programs. See, everyone really does not see things the way you do. And that is okay.

AGAIN, a lot of those high achieving Asian American students do waaay more than just school work. They have very strong extra curricular activities; they play some sport; they play a musical instrument. They are just very high achieving in every way. It's hard to compete. I understand. I didn't want my kids under that pressure, so we purposefully chose a cluster that didn't have so many high achieving Asian American students.

We decided against the Wootton cluster, too, for that reason.

Instead we chose RM, but one of my kids ended up in the IB magnet program, anyways, that's like 90% Asian American, and most of them are very well rounded in terms of academics and extra curriculars. They are super high achieving kid.

I understand not wanting your kids around such high achieving super stars. It's hard to compete, and too much pressure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IF both W schools and privates were free, what would you choose?

I am a new poster and have not been able to read all 46 pages of this thread but I did skim through a it and approached our choice much like you posed this question. We are in a W cluster but had considered private. Particularly Bullis. We decided to stick with our W cluster for many reasons but mostly because the diversity that you speak of at Bullis turned us off. We went to a football game and all the kids they bussed in were playing and the remaining student section was not diverse at all. I also truly believe that the math curriculm in our W cluster is leaps and bounds ahead of Bullis. Other factors lead to our decision as well but in the end even if it was free we decided to pass on private. In my opinion Private is worth it if you go for name recognition which is therefore only worth it when looking for single sex schools and that was not appealing for us.

Students who play sports are also students who are in the classroom. The Bulls football program is one of the best high school football program in the US. It has phenomenal athletes that earn the attention of D1 schools for college scholarship opportunities. Same for other athletic programs at the school.

A better measurement of the academic atmosphere is a tour of the school during the school day. Unlike public schools, athletes wear the same uniform as all other students. There’s nothing on them that represents themselves as a football player.

For math, child left Churchill for Bullis specifically for their STEM program. There were more advanced classes at Bullis for math and electives not offered at Churchill. The peer group for advanced math was around 12 students to Churchill’s 2 (hence why my son, if he stayed at Churchill, wouldn’t have a math class past 11th grade). The top math, science, and AP economics classes were taught by university professors. The quality of instruction and availability for help during office hours was also a huge benefit at Bullis.

Finally, help with the college search process was another benefit of private. Counselors at Bullis have a small fraction of students compared to their MCPS counterparts. Bullis counselors actually have several meetings with students to help them come up with a list of colleges, read essays, and provide feedback. They also help students chunk out the deadlines. At Churchill there was zero help with navigating the college process.

dp.. I call BS. It's a simple numbers game. Public schools like the Ws have way more students than Bullis, and many are also UMC. There are way more high achieving students in public schools than there are at Bullis simply because there are more public school students than private schools.

if your DS was that advanced in math he could've gone to Blair STEM, but it seems to me that he is probably not intuitively advanced as much as he is coached to be advanced. And yes, a lot of public school students are also tutored and coached to be advanced in math, as well, but they don't send their kids to private because they think private is much more advanced in STEM than Blair, for example.

BS meter is showing all the way to the right.

PP - this thread is asking if money wasn’t a factor, would you send your child to a W school or private. Blair is not a W school nor do most people in Potomac wish to put their child on a 45 minute bus ride to Silver Spring for access to a challenging math class and a segregated school within a school.

You may not agree with our choice, however, Bullis was a wonderful experience for my son. Bullis met his needs and provided a more challenging curriculum than Churchill. Bullis was also only 10 minutes from our house.

How did Bullis provide a more challenging math curriculum than your W school?

I’m not the person you’re responding to, but we’ve posted course catalogs for private schools repeatedly and compared them to W schools. The course offerings at private schools on the high school level are just as advanced if not more than the W schools.

Course offerings in catalogs are marketing brochures. It doesn't mean that the courses are taught every year. It will depend on if there are enough students who want or have the ability to take those classes. Works the same way in public schools and colleges. There are course offerings in catalogues that aren't always offered every year at that particular school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IF both W schools and privates were free, what would you choose?

I am a new poster and have not been able to read all 46 pages of this thread but I did skim through a it and approached our choice much like you posed this question. We are in a W cluster but had considered private. Particularly Bullis. We decided to stick with our W cluster for many reasons but mostly because the diversity that you speak of at Bullis turned us off. We went to a football game and all the kids they bussed in were playing and the remaining student section was not diverse at all. I also truly believe that the math curriculm in our W cluster is leaps and bounds ahead of Bullis. Other factors lead to our decision as well but in the end even if it was free we decided to pass on private. In my opinion Private is worth it if you go for name recognition which is therefore only worth it when looking for single sex schools and that was not appealing for us.

Students who play sports are also students who are in the classroom. The Bulls football program is one of the best high school football program in the US. It has phenomenal athletes that earn the attention of D1 schools for college scholarship opportunities. Same for other athletic programs at the school.

A better measurement of the academic atmosphere is a tour of the school during the school day. Unlike public schools, athletes wear the same uniform as all other students. There’s nothing on them that represents themselves as a football player.

For math, child left Churchill for Bullis specifically for their STEM program. There were more advanced classes at Bullis for math and electives not offered at Churchill. The peer group for advanced math was around 12 students to Churchill’s 2 (hence why my son, if he stayed at Churchill, wouldn’t have a math class past 11th grade). The top math, science, and AP economics classes were taught by university professors. The quality of instruction and availability for help during office hours was also a huge benefit at Bullis.

Finally, help with the college search process was another benefit of private. Counselors at Bullis have a small fraction of students compared to their MCPS counterparts. Bullis counselors actually have several meetings with students to help them come up with a list of colleges, read essays, and provide feedback. They also help students chunk out the deadlines. At Churchill there was zero help with navigating the college process.

dp.. I call BS. It's a simple numbers game. Public schools like the Ws have way more students than Bullis, and many are also UMC. There are way more high achieving students in public schools than there are at Bullis simply because there are more public school students than private schools.

if your DS was that advanced in math he could've gone to Blair STEM, but it seems to me that he is probably not intuitively advanced as much as he is coached to be advanced. And yes, a lot of public school students are also tutored and coached to be advanced in math, as well, but they don't send their kids to private because they think private is much more advanced in STEM than Blair, for example.

BS meter is showing all the way to the right.

PP - this thread is asking if money wasn’t a factor, would you send your child to a W school or private. Blair is not a W school nor do most people in Potomac wish to put their child on a 45 minute bus ride to Silver Spring for access to a challenging math class and a segregated school within a school.

You may not agree with our choice, however, Bullis was a wonderful experience for my son. Bullis met his needs and provided a more challenging curriculum than Churchill. Bullis was also only 10 minutes from our house.

How did Bullis provide a more challenging math curriculum than your W school?

I’m not the person you’re responding to, but we’ve posted course catalogs for private schools repeatedly and compared them to W schools. The course offerings at private schools on the high school level are just as advanced if not more than the W schools.

Course offerings in catalogs are marketing brochures. It doesn't mean that the courses are taught every year. It will depend on if there are enough students who want or have the ability to take those classes. Works the same way in public schools and colleges. There are course offerings in catalogues that aren't always offered every year at that particular school.

That’s your excuse? Ok, so post proof that private schools don’t actually offer the advanced courses as much as public schools do. Otherwise it’s just obvious you’re grasping at straws to crap on private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You've hit the nail on the head and the reason we have one in private and her little brother will soon be joining her. My oldest was in a 'W' school with great grades and easily scored in the upper 90s on standardized tests but we wanted a different experience for her and didn't like what we were seeing. I went to a school similar to the one you described while growing up in Los Angeles - an amazing and happy experience and wanted this same experience for my kids. When I attended my high school. it was approximately 60% white and about evenly split Asian and Latino and maybe around 5% African-American. It is now over 75% Asian and the culture has completely changed according to my nephews and nieces who have attended. Before it was full of really smart and creative kids but interestingly, not high pressure and cut throat/competitive. Now, it is extremely academically competitive, the cultural arts is no longer highlighted, the sports team is abysmal and the kids are solely focused on GPAs and standardized test scores.

This is BS. I grew up in LA, and still have family/friends there.

Schools with a lot of Asian American students absolutely care about cultural arts. They are very into music and art, and many are into sports, just not the kind of sports you like for white kids.

IMO, you are like many of the white families who leave schools with a high Asian American population because you cannot handle the academic competition from these Asian American kids. You just use the excuse of "they are like robots" to leave the school.

It is true that when the percentage of Asian American students starts to increase, the academic benchmark goes way up, and some people cannot handle it. That's fine. If you don't like the pressure cooker environment for your kids, then certainly you shouldn't have your kids go to that school. I feel the same, so we don't live in a cluster where there is a lot of academic pressure. But your attitude is either racist or defensive.

Be honest with yourself.

As I have stated exhaustively, white parents aren't leaving because of the "competition." These are well-heeled kids with plenty of money and connections to do well in life. They JUST DON'T LIKE THE ATMOSPHERE ANYMORE. How much clearer do I have to be than that? You are so stubborn, you can't fathom that other kids don't want to be around your kids because of their personalities but it is true. Be honest - would you want to WORK in an environment like this? Of course not and kids don't want to attend schools where the kids have a one track mind and very little versatility or interest in anything that is not academic. It really isn't rocket science. Really. But if what you want is a school full of people like your kids, you all are doing a great job of creating that environment. Wootton for one, is well on its way. I have two friends who recently picked homes in the Quince Orchard cluster rather than Wootton because Q.O. offered a more well-rounded high school experience and these are kids who were in other MCPS magnet programs. See, everyone really does not see things the way you do. And that is okay.

You have be one of the most disgusting posters I've seen on DCUM. I can't believe you actually wrote things like "You are so stubborn, you can't fathom that other kids don't want to be around your kids because of their personalities but it is true" and think that you are not racist and that you're in the right. This is why AAPI parents and kids think they have to work so hard. Because people like you look down on them and think you are better when you personally are trash.