Washington City Paper article on picking a school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want to know how good we have it here compared to NYC, go find the 2008 documentary "Nursery University."

It's insane.

My cousin was told his daughter was not "diverse" enough despite the fact that he comes from an old famous decent family, his wife is from Columbia, and his daughter already spoke English, Spanish and French. So now she is at a sweet Catholic school and obsessed with horses, but one smart kiddo who did not get in to the "best" NYC schools. The school idiot who made that comment was from Dalton....

What does it mean to be from an "old famous decent family", and what does that have to do with diversity?

Nothing. And fine forget the decent part. I was trying to say not a robber baron, not a Rockefeller. And obviously not a Kennedy. Her father is not diverse.

I guess what I was trying to say without identifying the child is she is a mix of a before the Mayflower WASP father and a mother from Columbia, trilingual and bicultural and indisputably Hispanic. I think there are many kinds of diversity, but I think hers certainly counts. She spends all her time when not in school in Columbia... For the Dalton School (which purportedly prides itself on diversity) to decide that she was not diverse seemed ridiculous to me.

Maybe the idiot from Dalton had filled up all the "Hispanic" slots, or only wanted kids who were 100% from a foreign country, or was looking for a Taino ... I could go on and on and get less and less politically correct and offend more and more people, but what is the point?

I do really want to know what the admissions officer meant though about her not being "diverse enough" for Dalton... Maybe it is that WASPS are now a minority but her heritage on her mother's side disqualified her? He was looking for one of the few remaining 100% WASP kids whose parents have a lot of money?

The only point was how ridiculous the comment was and how sad the situation was - not that she did not get in, but the reason they gave her parents, which had everything to do with her meeting some strange kind of checklist that had nothing to do with her intelligence. And as I said, I would have loved to have seen the checklist. Her parents were too taken aback and too polite to ask what particular type of diversity she was lacking. But I really wish they had, cause I think the story would just get better and better.....

Between this post and your other one going on about not being the Bushes, you pretty much demonstrate what most likely that Dalton admissions person was getting from your friends, which would indeed be a real turn-off. If your friends/family has an attitude like yours about how amazing and diverse the family and child are, not only is the superiority piece hard to swallow, but it shows you really don't know much about the range of "diversity" a school can and often does consider. The tri-lingualism is indeed impressive, but beyond that, being half Columbian doesn't offer much that stands out when compared with the immense diversity of nationality and experience that is so deep in NYC. Your friends may even possess some of that broader/deeper diversity and - if they presented themselves the way you presented them - it likely got buried under all that "We are so awesome, amazing and diverse" hyperbole, it couldn't be seen.

Hopefully the young lady ended up somewhere that she's thriving, and hopefully she'll learn to present her own strengths and diverse experiences/characteristics much better than you just did.

[Anonymous]

This is a lot of angst over school for a two year old! Just shell out your own money for normal preschool like the rest of America.

If the school in his neighborhood is so terrible, why did he move there in the first place? Why can't he move somewhere with better schools? The tone of this piece is so entitled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a lot of angst over school for a two year old! Just shell out your own money for normal preschool like the rest of America.

If the school in his neighborhood is so terrible, why did he move there in the first place? Why can't he move somewhere with better schools? The tone of this piece is so entitled.

X 100 !!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a lot of angst over school for a two year old! Just shell out your own money for normal preschool like the rest of America.

If the school in his neighborhood is so terrible, why did he move there in the first place? Why can't he move somewhere with better schools? The tone of this piece is so entitled.

X 100 !!

I also thought it was stupid and entitled. I'm guessing he moved wherever he lives because he's a hipster. The thing that pissed me off the most was that he was wringing his hands about whether to send his kid to a public school, a charter school, or a private school, and his family was willing to pay for the kid to go to private school. It's like he wants to come across as EveryDad, but has this great option that most of us trying to sort through DCPS/charters don't have. Maybe his family could help him afford to live somewhere with better public schools, but then he'd have to give up his hipster dad cred for living ETOP in DC.

[Anonymous]

+1000. the guy was a douche.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a lot of angst over school for a two year old! Just shell out your own money for normal preschool like the rest of America.

If the school in his neighborhood is so terrible, why did he move there in the first place? Why can't he move somewhere with better schools? The tone of this piece is so entitled.

X 100 !!

I also thought it was stupid and entitled. I'm guessing he moved wherever he lives because he's a hipster. The thing that pissed me off the most was that he was wringing his hands about whether to send his kid to a public school, a charter school, or a private school, and his family was willing to pay for the kid to go to private school. It's like he wants to come across as EveryDad, but has this great option that most of us trying to sort through DCPS/charters don't have. Maybe his family could help him afford to live somewhere with better public schools, but then he'd have to give up his hipster dad cred for living ETOP in DC.

Yes. This is the same issue I highlighted as the OP of the "Why do you live where you live" thread. Apparently, this person has the financial means to send the kid to private school...so he could do that or move. But then he wouldn't have the hipster cred of living in Mt. P. He might have to live in a boring JKLM neighborhood. Point is, this guy has options so why should I feel sorry for him? I'll spend my energy worrying about the kids who don't have those choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1000. the guy was a douche.

Some of the comments were from similarly douchey individuals. Hard to know where to begin, although this was just precious "I met people who were almost all the colors of the rainbow and had as many different life experiences and points of view as a rainbow does."

Really? Almost all the colors of the rainbow? I hope she gave the blue and purple ones some oxygen, if they're even still alive. And the green ones would need something for their nausea. The red ones probably needed some aloe vera for their burns, and the orange ones? Well, maybe an oompa loompa suit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1000. the guy was a douche.

Some of the comments were from similarly douchey individuals. Hard to know where to begin, although this was just precious "I met people who were almost all the colors of the rainbow and had as many different life experiences and points of view as a rainbow does."

Really? Almost all the colors of the rainbow? I hope she gave the blue and purple ones some oxygen, if they're even still alive. And the green ones would need something for their nausea. The red ones probably needed some aloe vera for their burns, and the orange ones? Well, maybe an oompa loompa suit.

Rainbows have points of view? lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want to know how good we have it here compared to NYC, go find the 2008 documentary "Nursery University."

It's insane.

My cousin was told his daughter was not "diverse" enough despite the fact that he comes from an old famous decent family, his wife is from Columbia, and his daughter already spoke English, Spanish and French. So now she is at a sweet Catholic school and obsessed with horses, but one smart kiddo who did not get in to the "best" NYC schools. The school idiot who made that comment was from Dalton....

What does it mean to be from an "old famous decent family", and what does that have to do with diversity?

Nothing. And fine forget the decent part. I was trying to say not a robber baron, not a Rockefeller. And obviously not a Kennedy. Her father is not diverse.

I guess what I was trying to say without identifying the child is she is a mix of a before the Mayflower WASP father and a mother from Columbia, trilingual and bicultural and indisputably Hispanic. I think there are many kinds of diversity, but I think hers certainly counts. She spends all her time when not in school in Columbia... For the Dalton School (which purportedly prides itself on diversity) to decide that she was not diverse seemed ridiculous to me.

Maybe the idiot from Dalton had filled up all the "Hispanic" slots, or only wanted kids who were 100% from a foreign country, or was looking for a Taino ... I could go on and on and get less and less politically correct and offend more and more people, but what is the point?

I do really want to know what the admissions officer meant though about her not being "diverse enough" for Dalton... Maybe it is that WASPS are now a minority but her heritage on her mother's side disqualified her? He was looking for one of the few remaining 100% WASP kids whose parents have a lot of money?

The only point was how ridiculous the comment was and how sad the situation was - not that she did not get in, but the reason they gave her parents, which had everything to do with her meeting some strange kind of checklist that had nothing to do with her intelligence. And as I said, I would have loved to have seen the checklist. Her parents were too taken aback and too polite to ask what particular type of diversity she was lacking. But I really wish they had, cause I think the story would just get better and better.....

Between this post and your other one going on about not being the Bushes, you pretty much demonstrate what most likely that Dalton admissions person was getting from your friends, which would indeed be a real turn-off. If your friends/family has an attitude like yours about how amazing and diverse the family and child are, not only is the superiority piece hard to swallow, but it shows you really don't know much about the range of "diversity" a school can and often does consider. The tri-lingualism is indeed impressive, but beyond that, being half Columbian doesn't offer much that stands out when compared with the immense diversity of nationality and experience that is so deep in NYC. Your friends may even possess some of that broader/deeper diversity and - if they presented themselves the way you presented them - it likely got buried under all that "We are so awesome, amazing and diverse" hyperbole, it couldn't be seen.

Hopefully the young lady ended up somewhere that she's thriving, and hopefully she'll learn to present her own strengths and diverse experiences/characteristics much better than you just did.

As I said, as if you care, she landed at a sweet Catholic school. They are not amazing, they are my family. And they did not feel entitled to get in, it was the explanation that bemused them. But I guess you would prefer some country other than Columbia for the other half? Please tell me, since I am a NYC native and know so little, what type of diversity this sweet little six year old needed in the color of her skin or otherwise since the admissions officer made it so clear to my very humble and understated cousins that it had nothing to do with the content of her character?

[Anonymous]

^ I'm the poster from the UWS. I'm surprised that Dalton turned down your cousin's daughter for "diversity" reasons. Even a few yrs ago, being Hispanic was pretty much a shoe-in at private schools like Dalton. We have friends where the mother is Mexican and their son got into every private school they applied including Dalton, Collegiate and Trinity. Both his parents were Yale undergrad and dad was Yale Law (same class as Bill and Hilary), lived in a penthouse on Fifth Ave but was still accepted to increase diversity. Guess times have changed.

[Anonymous]

Entitled twit pp, there is no country called Columbia. Are you referring to Colombia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ I'm the poster from the UWS. I'm surprised that Dalton turned down your cousin's daughter for "diversity" reasons. Even a few yrs ago, being Hispanic was pretty much a shoe-in at private schools like Dalton. We have friends where the mother is Mexican and their son got into every private school they applied including Dalton, Collegiate and Trinity. Both his parents were Yale undergrad and dad was Yale Law (same class as Bill and Hilary), lived in a penthouse on Fifth Ave but was still accepted to increase diversity. Guess times have changed.

THANK YOU for getting the irony and weirdness instead of slamming me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1000. the guy was a douche.

Some of the comments were from similarly douchey individuals. Hard to know where to begin, although this was just precious "I met people who were almost all the colors of the rainbow and had as many different life experiences and points of view as a rainbow does."

Really? Almost all the colors of the rainbow? I hope she gave the blue and purple ones some oxygen, if they're even still alive. And the green ones would need something for their nausea. The red ones probably needed some aloe vera for their burns, and the orange ones? Well, maybe an oompa loompa suit.

Rainbows have points of view? lol

well she missed the midgets dwarfs deaf blind and dumb, but I think the point was the more of the rainbow you get, the more different lights shine. What was the Rainbow Coalition about? All I can remember was the Rainbow Connection. But douchey is a bit crude. Maybe your shoes should be sticking out from under a house lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a lot of angst over school for a two year old! Just shell out your own money for normal preschool like the rest of America.

If the school in his neighborhood is so terrible, why did he move there in the first place? Why can't he move somewhere with better schools? The tone of this piece is so entitled.

Because most people with a conscience understand that there is something scummy about retreating to a walled enclave and defunding public schools in general, and DC public schools in particular. Sure he could move to McLean and drive into the city to volunteer at a soup kitchen once a year on Thanksgiving to salve his conscience. But it's hard not to at least think do a bit of agonizing over it. At least if you have a soul.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Entitled twit pp, there is no country called Columbia. Are you referring to Colombia?

perdoname por favor. Quiza no soy tan educada como usted. Por sopuesto, como suspecho que usted sepa, intente mencionar el pais COLOMBIA. Ya.