Merit Scholarship-Landon

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Landon has current freshmen from Blessed Sacrament, Woods and Mater Dei. I have coached a number of boys who have applied to all three schools. There is overlap between Prep and Landon and a little with Zaga and Landon. I could name a number of boys who are at Prep or Landon currently that applied to both schools. All the comments come from folks that are old and are not on the scene. Fyi, there is not a Hot Shoppes in Bethesda anymore and the Cold War is over. Also if your kid is talking about dating "molly" that is a bad thing.

The few Catholic families that send their sons to Landon are almost all new to DC. They don't yet get how much the GP and GZA crowd detest Landon.

Does anyone reading this thread have any sense of the Catholic/Protestant/Jewish percentages at Landon, Prep, Gonzaga, and STA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The benefit of forgiving them and letting them off the hook so to speak is the school and everyone involved would equally be freed from the curse of this event.

Many years have passed. Every time it comes up all parties are hurt all over again. It's time to let the school and everyone involved to heal.

The prudent thing to do would be to stop standing on ceremony and to let the healing begin. It would be great if Mr. Armstrong could facilitate this healing process during the last year of his tenure.

Well, you sound like a kind and compassionate person. But to the extent you are asking for what would amount to the school saying it made a mistake in expelling the two students for a serious honor violation, I just can't imagine that happening. If nothing else because they might worry about the message to current students. If the resolution you contemplate is something more private like inviting the two alums to feel welcome at alumni events and consider themselves part of the greater Landon family, perhaps something like that is possible. (Although I'd really assume the actually students have emotionally moved on -- it's been 11 years at this point.)

The message it would send would beautiful, honorable, inspiring, and emancipating. The offenses were the same, but the punishments were different. All of the boys were in crisis mode. The punishments were not dealt out based the offenses committed, but how they reacted while their worlds were collapsing around them. The punishments were different and Landon will never be free and respected until this mistake is corrected. Prove that the honor code is valid. Prove that leaders and institutions can make mistakes. Prove that as an institution they can right this wrong. Prove to their students they no longer need to bear the burden of this past mistake. Free all of the students who were involved.

It was handled poorly, that's not a sin, it was a mistake. Admit it, correct it and be free of it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Does anyone reading this thread have any sense of the Catholic/Protestant/Jewish percentages at Landon, Prep, Gonzaga, and STA?

Gonzaga, because of where it is and its desire to include City boys in its student population has a fair number of AA's and they are the largest non-Catholic group. Although some are Catholic. Take them out of the calculation and its pretty much 100% Catholics.

The non-Catholics at Prep are almost entirely AA's or Asians, many of whom are boarders and are residents of foreign countries.

So the percentage of Catholics among the Caucasians at both these schools is very close to 100%. Gonzaga has about 1000 boys and GP has about 500.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The benefit of forgiving them and letting them off the hook so to speak is the school and everyone involved would equally be freed from the curse of this event.

Many years have passed. Every time it comes up all parties are hurt all over again. It's time to let the school and everyone involved to heal.

The prudent thing to do would be to stop standing on ceremony and to let the healing begin. It would be great if Mr. Armstrong could facilitate this healing process during the last year of his tenure.

Well, you sound like a kind and compassionate person. But to the extent you are asking for what would amount to the school saying it made a mistake in expelling the two students for a serious honor violation, I just can't imagine that happening. If nothing else because they might worry about the message to current students. If the resolution you contemplate is something more private like inviting the two alums to feel welcome at alumni events and consider themselves part of the greater Landon family, perhaps something like that is possible. (Although I'd really assume the actually students have emotionally moved on -- it's been 11 years at this point.)

The message it would send would beautiful, honorable, inspiring, and emancipating. The offenses were the same, but the punishments were different. All of the boys were in crisis mode. The punishments were not dealt out based the offenses committed, but how they reacted while their worlds were collapsing around them. The punishments were different and Landon will never be free and respected until this mistake is corrected. Prove that the honor code is valid. Prove that leaders and institutions can make mistakes. Prove that as an institution they can right this wrong. Prove to their students they no longer need to bear the burden of this past mistake. Free all of the students who were involved.

It was handled poorly, that's not a sin, it was a mistake. Admit it, correct it and be free of it!

I don't want to pour salt in the wound (because it sounds like you were somehow caught up in this directly), but I think honestly all people really remember is that a bunch of kids from one particular school cheated on the SATs. That's the thing that's given Landon the relatively lasting black eye. Only the insiders (or people who take the trouble to re-read the Washingtonian article) remember the subsidiary controversy about whether it was fair to give a harsher punishments to the kids who didn't know enough/get good enough advice (or whatever) to come in and confess before they were accused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Landon has current freshmen from Blessed Sacrament, Woods and Mater Dei. I have coached a number of boys who have applied to all three schools. There is overlap between Prep and Landon and a little with Zaga and Landon. I could name a number of boys who are at Prep or Landon currently that applied to both schools. All the comments come from folks that are old and are not on the scene. Fyi, there is not a Hot Shoppes in Bethesda anymore and the Cold War is over. Also if your kid is talking about dating "molly" that is a bad thing.

The few Catholic families that send their sons to Landon are almost all new to DC. They don't yet get how much the GP and GZA crowd detest Landon.

Does anyone reading this thread have any sense of the Catholic/Protestant/Jewish percentages at Landon, Prep, Gonzaga, and STA?

Almost no Jewish students at Prep or Gonzaga at any given time. A fair amount at Landon. Smaller but not insignificant amount at STA.

Obviously lots of Catholic students at Gonzaga and Prep. Probably St. Albans next in line -- more than Landon.

St. Albans out of those four schools is probably the most religiously diverse -- in part because it's an Episcopal school but there aren't all that many Episcopalians in the US or DC area, for that matter.

[Anonymous]

No ... no dog in the fight at all. Just know the story and it seems unfortunate for all parties involved. It's an albatross in which hangs around the necks of the school, its legacy, and its students.

Why if you have the power to free yourself of a curse like that would you not do it?

Simple say in reflect we recognize the situation way handled poorly and we want to correct it. We have your grades from when you attended Landon. Please provide us with grades from other high schools you attended. We will honor those grades and graduate you from Landon.

Very simple and done. Those individuals are returned to good standing with their Landon Brothers and in time most of this unpleasant event will be forgotten.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No ... no dog in the fight at all. Just know the story and it seems unfortunate for all parties involved. It's an albatross in which hangs around the necks of the school, its legacy, and its students.

Why if you have the power to free yourself of a curse like that would you not do it?

Simple say in reflect we recognize the situation way handled poorly and we want to correct it. We have your grades from when you attended Landon. Please provide us with grades from other high schools you attended. We will honor those grades and graduate you from Landon.

Very simple and done. Those individuals are returned to good standing with their Landon Brothers and in time most of this unpleasant event will be forgotten.

But you are assuming the school thinks they did something wrong. My guess is that they think they got worked by an unfair article carrying water for a disgruntled family, and regret only the publicity, not their underlying decision. Also, who is to say the affected guys would even want what you suggest?

[Anonymous]

The SAT scandal is not the primary incident from the past (or involving Landon students) plaguing Landon.

[Anonymous]

Are we really discussing a cheating episode which happened over 11 years ago...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No ... no dog in the fight at all. Just know the story and it seems unfortunate for all parties involved. It's an albatross in which hangs around the necks of the school, its legacy, and its students.

Why if you have the power to free yourself of a curse like that would you not do it?

Simple say in reflect we recognize the situation way handled poorly and we want to correct it. We have your grades from when you attended Landon. Please provide us with grades from other high schools you attended. We will honor those grades and graduate you from Landon.

Very simple and done. Those individuals are returned to good standing with their Landon Brothers and in time most of this unpleasant event will be forgotten.

But you are assuming the school thinks they did something wrong. My guess is that they think they got worked by an unfair article carrying water for a disgruntled family, and regret only the publicity, not their underlying decision. Also, who is to say the affected guys would even want what you suggest?

If they got "worked" it was only because they made a mistake and then refused to recognize their folly. The mistake of treating one offense as two different events then subjecting the participants to two different punishments was a mistake. This folly was committed by an entirely different administration. Mr. Armstrong does not need to own this. No ... far from it; he has the power to correct it. Recently, President Obama awarded the Congressional Medal ot Honor to several members of the armed forces whose gallantry in battle had been overlooked because of ethnicity in past wars and Major League Baseball has retired #24 because of segregation in baseball before Jackie Robison.

People and institutions make mistakes. In this case Landon for some reason used a double standard. You can spin it anyway you want, but when you peel back all the layers of this story the facts remain that all of the boys committed an expellable offense but that punishments were not applied equally. To the best of my knowledge there have not been any other situations like this at Landon where some students were expelled and some were not for the same offense. This is a unique event and it would not open the genies bottle to a landslide of other complaints.

Like the US Government and Major League Baseball, The Landon School should admit in this situation they employed a double standard and then make it right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No ... no dog in the fight at all. Just know the story and it seems unfortunate for all parties involved. It's an albatross in which hangs around the necks of the school, its legacy, and its students.

Why if you have the power to free yourself of a curse like that would you not do it?

Simple say in reflect we recognize the situation way handled poorly and we want to correct it. We have your grades from when you attended Landon. Please provide us with grades from other high schools you attended. We will honor those grades and graduate you from Landon.

Very simple and done. Those individuals are returned to good standing with their Landon Brothers and in time most of this unpleasant event will be forgotten.

But you are assuming the school thinks they did something wrong. My guess is that they think they got worked by an unfair article carrying water for a disgruntled family, and regret only the publicity, not their underlying decision. Also, who is to say the affected guys would even want what you suggest?

If they got "worked" it was only because they made a mistake and then refused to recognize their folly. The mistake of treating one offense as two different events then subjecting the participants to two different punishments was a mistake. This folly was committed by an entirely different administration. Mr. Armstrong does not need to own this. No ... far from it; he has the power to correct it. Recently, President Obama awarded the Congressional Medal ot Honor to several members of the armed forces whose gallantry in battle had been overlooked because of ethnicity in past wars and Major League Baseball has retired #24 because of segregation in baseball before Jackie Robison.

People and institutions make mistakes. In this case Landon for some reason used a double standard. You can spin it anyway you want, but when you peel back all the layers of this story the facts remain that all of the boys committed an expellable offense but that punishments were not applied equally. To the best of my knowledge there have not been any other situations like this at Landon where some students were expelled and some were not for the same offense. This is a unique event and it would not open the genies bottle to a landslide of other complaints.

Like the US Government and Major League Baseball, The Landon School should admit in this situation they employed a double standard and then make it right.

I'm not "spinning" anything. I'm not affiliated with Landon and didn't have any DC private school connection back in 2003 when the Washingtonian article came out. I read the article because it was sort of gossipy and insiderish, as the Washingtonian does best. I'm just giving you the perspective that when I read the article originally, it read to me like an angry family that found a sympathetic reporter to share their side of the story with. I'm also giving you the perspective that it is far from uncommon in private school education that students who confess/fully accept wrongdoing get more lenient punishment than those who do not.

I don't know what I would have done in similar circumstances as the Head of School at Landon -- I would venture to say I would not have expelled anyone, because I'm sort of a softie -- but I can certainly make a reasonable argument for why differential punishment was appropriate. I also see the argument on the other side that the core issue was the cheating and it muddied the waters trying to distinguish between actions during the "investigation" stage, or that the kids who confessed probably just got "better legal advice" (so to speak) than the non-confessors, and a school should recognize parental involvement in the former and not hold silence against the latter.

Your insistence that there is only one way to view an incident that you yourself say you were not connected to ("no dog in the fight"), which means you could not have known the full facts of the incident or how it was handled, seems a little odd to me.

So, since neither of us is convincing the other and we have hijacked this thread for a while now, we must agree to disagree about an eleven-year-old disciplinary incident to which neither of us has a connection other than as amateur commentators.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fact, ETS cancelled scores for many students at the Holton test site in areas of the Holton Test site where there were no Landon students. Landon found out who cheated from ETS and went after the perpetrators. Other schools were informed about irregular test scores, and chose to ignore the cheating of their students. These are irrefutable facts. Landon went after the cheaters and punished them. Other schools knew some of their students cheated and chose to ignore the events.

This is incredible. Do you know what other schools were represented that day? Besides Holton of course.

Too funny. This PP reignites a six month old thread about an 11 year old incident and the Landon bashers pick up where they left off.

The very notion of an all male secular school is just too much for some to handle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fact, ETS cancelled scores for many students at the Holton test site in areas of the Holton Test site where there were no Landon students. Landon found out who cheated from ETS and went after the perpetrators. Other schools were informed about irregular test scores, and chose to ignore the cheating of their students. These are irrefutable facts. Landon went after the cheaters and punished them. Other schools knew some of their students cheated and chose to ignore the events.

This is incredible. Do you know what other schools were represented that day? Besides Holton of course.

Too funny. This PP reignites a six month old thread about an 11 year old incident and the Landon bashers pick up where they left off.

The very notion of an all male secular school is just too much for some to handle.

Of all the ways to defend Landon (and there are actually many) this line of argument has to be the stupidest and least-convincing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fact, ETS cancelled scores for many students at the Holton test site in areas of the Holton Test site where there were no Landon students. Landon found out who cheated from ETS and went after the perpetrators. Other schools were informed about irregular test scores, and chose to ignore the cheating of their students. These are irrefutable facts. Landon went after the cheaters and punished them. Other schools knew some of their students cheated and chose to ignore the events.

This is incredible. Do you know what other schools were represented that day? Besides Holton of course.

Too funny. This PP reignites a six month old thread about an 11 year old incident and the Landon bashers pick up where they left off.

The very notion of an all male secular school is just too much for some to handle.

Of all the ways to defend Landon (and there are actually many) this line of argument has to be the stupidest and least-convincing.

Yeah, because there is not even a whiff of misandry among the DC Moms. Carry on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fact, ETS cancelled scores for many students at the Holton test site in areas of the Holton Test site where there were no Landon students. Landon found out who cheated from ETS and went after the perpetrators. Other schools were informed about irregular test scores, and chose to ignore the cheating of their students. These are irrefutable facts. Landon went after the cheaters and punished them. Other schools knew some of their students cheated and chose to ignore the events.

This is incredible. Do you know what other schools were represented that day? Besides Holton of course.

Too funny. This PP reignites a six month old thread about an 11 year old incident and the Landon bashers pick up where they left off.

The very notion of an all male secular school is just too much for some to handle.

Of all the ways to defend Landon (and there are actually many) this line of argument has to be the stupidest and least-convincing.

Yeah, because there is not even a whiff of misandry among the DC Moms. Carry on.

I picture you as, hmmm, about 50. You went to Landon, and you still go back for athletic events. When you go to sporting events, you wear khakis, a button-down shirt, and a Landon baseball cap, and you wear sunglasses on croakies. You are smart but underachieved academically in college, and your days at Landon were happy glory days for you. You play golf and talk about it a lot, but you are not actually that good at it. People at Landon in the administration and on the faculty find you a boor and a bore, but you're a decent-sized donor so they tolerate you.