You meet a Big 3 student - you think to yourself . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I suspect that a lot of these private-bashing public school parents are scorned applicants who still look for any opportunity to grind their axes. I also suspect there are a fair number who feel guilty or inadequate about either a) not having the wherewithal to afford the tuition or b) being too cheap to pay it and are looking to publicly justify their relative positions in some cathartic way. I would say these two segments account for the vast majority of snark. Those who are truly comfortable with sending their kids to public school would have no reason or impulse to respond one way or the other.

Now, I sure this answer should bring succor and satisfaction to the posting inquirer. Just what she's looking for. Excellent. Let's move on.

What do you mean? I think it is a rational response to the question it was intended to answer. Or are you saying the person who asked the question was a troll?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the poster you're quoting. I was just stating a fact. Unlike two posters who preceded me, the relevant comparison for my family is not comparing one private to another, top-3 private. This situation doesn't make it a "pot shot."

I'm not the poster with all the questions about why public school parents can't be on this board, but I agree with her. FWIW, my credentials for being here include several years in a private elementary and turning down a private big-3, as I said. In fact, sometimes I whip out these credentials just to establish "street cred" when I post on the private school threads, because of people like you!

Fine, if you say so, I'm happy to accept that you did not intend your comment as a potshot. But surely you've noticed the many potshots that do get taken here on a near-daily basis? As a person with experience in both the public and private school worlds, and someone who obviously spends time in this section of DCUM, do you have any thoughts on why so many jabs get taken?

As for who's allowed to post on this board or any board -- I really don't care who you are, as long as you've got something constructive to add. If you've got a keyboard and a an intelligent comment, post away. I don't appreciate your suggestion that I was saying otherwise. I think what gets some private school parents annoyed (me, at least), is when people show up unprovoked criticism of private schools -- and even then, I don't really mind if the comments are thoughtful.

So setting aside your earlier post, do you have any insight on why so many public school parents throw unprovoked anti-private jabs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I suspect that a lot of these private-bashing public school parents are scorned applicants who still look for any opportunity to grind their axes. I also suspect there are a fair number who feel guilty or inadequate about either a) not having the wherewithal to afford the tuition or b) being too cheap to pay it and are looking to publicly justify their relative positions in some cathartic way. I would say these two segments account for the vast majority of snark. Those who are truly comfortable with sending their kids to public school would have no reason or impulse to respond one way or the other.

Since you went nasty first ....

Maybe many of the private parents are disappointed that their kids couldn't get into Maryland or Virginia magnets, so they're stuck reluctantly forking out 30+K per year to get a decent education and a shot at that all-so-important ivy entrance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

As for who's allowed to post on this board or any board -- I really don't care who you are, as long as you've got something constructive to add. If you've got a keyboard and a an intelligent comment, post away. I don't appreciate your suggestion that I was saying otherwise. I think what gets some private school parents annoyed (me, at least), is when people show up unprovoked criticism of private schools -- and even then, I don't really mind if the comments are thoughtful.

So setting aside your earlier post, do you have any insight on why so many public school parents throw unprovoked anti-private jabs?

Thanks for the point of view. I'm the poster you're responding to. Frankly, I saw this whole thread as a joke. So I didn't think it was a question of making "intelligent" comments!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So setting aside your earlier post, do you have any insight on why so many public school parents throw unprovoked anti-private jabs?

Thanks for the point of view. I'm the poster you're responding to. Frankly, I saw this whole thread as a joke. So I didn't think it was a question of making "intelligent" comments!

Wait! Don't go! You seem like a rational person with a good perspective on the situation. Do you have an answer to the question I posed? Any guesses?

[Anonymous]

I think it's because whereas some parents have the money for private schools -- they really don't want to spend it on tuition. It's one thing when people can't afford it...it's another when they value material goods, including mammouth houses over their kid's education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's because whereas some parents have the money for private schools -- they really don't want to spend it on tuition. It's one thing when people can't afford it...it's another when they value material goods, including mammouth houses over their kid's education.

Oh right, everybody has the tuition money, it's just that some families choose to buy McMansions instead of private school. Thanks for the insight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I suspect that a lot of these private-bashing public school parents are scorned applicants who still look for any opportunity to grind their axes. I also suspect there are a fair number who feel guilty or inadequate about either a) not having the wherewithal to afford the tuition or b) being too cheap to pay it and are looking to publicly justify their relative positions in some cathartic way. I would say these two segments account for the vast majority of snark. Those who are truly comfortable with sending their kids to public school would have no reason or impulse to respond one way or the other.

Since you went nasty first ....

Maybe many of the private parents are disappointed that their kids couldn't get into Maryland or Virginia magnets, so they're stuck reluctantly forking out 30+K per year to get a decent education and a shot at that all-so-important ivy entrance.

OK. So which one are you? Scorned applicant or guilty inadequate? By the way, I thought kids could get a "decent" public education without going to a magnet. Or am I wrong?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So setting aside your earlier post, do you have any insight on why so many public school parents throw unprovoked anti-private jabs?

Thanks for the point of view. I'm the poster you're responding to. Frankly, I saw this whole thread as a joke. So I didn't think it was a question of making "intelligent" comments!

Wait! Don't go! You seem like a rational person with a good perspective on the situation. Do you have an answer to the question I posed? Any guesses?

I'm the poster you're responding too, I think. It's probably the case that some posters are bitter that their kid was rejected. Although given that some private schools are desperate for kids (I know of a few), it's pretty hard to get rejected from "private schools" as a whole group. So you'd have to make this argument into bitterness about being rejected from a top 3, which does obviously happen a lot, and then you have a parent who is faced with the difficult choice of a sub-par private versus a sub-par public, and this probably does lead to bitterness. Others may be bitter that other families have the money for tuition and they don't.

Others of us are happy about our choices. My math-oriented kid gets the math and computer coursework he craves in a MoCo magnet. Still others favor public schools for ideological reasons. Although we're liberal, we don't fall into this camp because we've done private, as I said (which also means we're not in the group who is bitter about not being able to afford private).

And then there are people like me who post without really thinking about the implications of mentioning public schools on the private board. I put maybe 10 seconds of thought into my post, because I assumed the whole thread was a joke.

Of course, there is another side of the coin - idiots who are nasty to public school parents, as exemplified by the idiot who posted about public school parents buying large houses instead of paying tuition!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OK. So which one are you? Scorned applicant or guilty inadequate? By the way, I thought kids could get a "decent" public education without going to a magnet. Or am I wrong?

OK, I have to ask: are we enjoying the pleasure of meeting one of those Big 3 students right now? One of the tweens who says he/she posts here?

Because frankly, your jokes are neither clever nor funny. If this is all the Big 3 can offer, I'm not impressed.

[Anonymous]

What do you mean? I think it is a rational response to the question it was intended to answer. Or are you saying the person who asked the question was a troll?

No, I don't use the language of the DCUMMIE Illiterati.

[Anonymous]

It cracks me up that someone who routinely writes "DCUMMIE" seems to pride herself on her diction.

[Anonymous]

Don't worry, most on the Board recognise you are cracked up. What's you dose of Prosac now?

[Anonymous]

It cracks me up that someone who routinely writes "DCUMMIE" seems to pride herself on her diction.

Certifiably and definitely cracked up. Diction has to do with speech and not prose. I doubt the poster has ever heard her speak. Then again, maybe she is suffering from auditory hallucinations.

[Anonymous]

What a wackadoodle!

Anonymous wrote:

What do you mean? I think it is a rational response to the question it was intended to answer. Or are you saying the person who asked the question was a troll?

No, I don't use the language of the DCUMMIE Illiterati.