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Is there an independent school that exposes children to non-European cultures and religions?
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Anonymous
| Not 22:20, but Blair offers both Arabic and Chinese. Problem is, despite having two excellent magnets (DC is in one), it's public so it's a no-go for OP. |
Anonymous
Because yours is so much worse? And because, at this point, the most problematic things OP has "said" are words you've put in his/her mouth. On one level, I'm skeptical of what a global education looks like at this level -- e.g. how many false generalizations, misleading omissions, and outright errors about other people and places would be involved? Could/would it be different if teachers in the US were, themselves better educated? Yes, somewhat, but not entirely, I suspect, because, in part, my skepticism comes from seeing the same phenomenon with respect to US History instruction in the US. So maybe in the end what kids are left with re social studies and history is a story about who and where they are in the world. And, yeah, I'd prefer "one place among many" to "in the center of the universe at the apex of its power." Re language instruction. That's one of those no-brainer things for me that our educational system typically does wrong. No excuse for graduating lots of monolingual kids when languages are something that's easier to learn/master if you start young and when fluency in another language is something that can be of lasting use throughout your lifetime even if you never leave the US. To me, there's nothing ungrateful or arrogant about someone who was educated elsewhere and now lives in the US questioning and comparing educational systems in different nations and identifying what s/he perceives to be a weakness in ours. We could always do better and some countries undoubtedly already do better than we do in some regards. Why not learn from others -- which includes learning from their successes as well as their shortcomings? |
Anonymous
| Besides, I have serious doubts about whether I want OP in my Moco school. Her kid might be reasonable, but you never know. |
Anonymous
| My sense us, a "non-western approach" means a more traditional approach. She doesn't want her kids around our westernized kids.. OP, you should try the Islamic school in Virginia. |
Anonymous
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So "I'd like my kid(s) to study Asia, Africa, and the Middle East as well as Europe and America" is really code for "I don't want my kid(s) to study with your kids -- despite the fact that I'm asking you for school recommendations."
Hmm, maybe the more pressing curricular reform in the US would be one that focuses on reasoning skills. |
Anonymous
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There is a private school that offers exposure to non-european cultures.
It is called public school and that is the reason it has not been mentioned here |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
More a question of generosity of interpretation and a matter of approaching conversations in ways that increase their likelihood of being productive. Yes, I recognize that there are people in the world (and, specifically, foreign born people working in the US) who fit your description. But there is also a real and worthwhile question behind the original post. So rather than attempt to "out" some anonymous poster as a jerk, I think it makes more sense to address the worthwhile question in a meaningful way. Why don't I extend the same interpretive generosity to you? You've left no room for it at this point. You've repeatedly outed yourself as a jerk. Which is probably a shame on some level because you might have contributed to a better dialogue about public vs. private schools and education for global citizenship. E.g. a private school like GDS hasn't been able to sustain Arabic instruction (even when it has willing teachers on staff for other reasons) due to lack of student demand. By contrast, Blair has managed to -- presumably in part because its larger scale fosters sufficient student interest to continue the course. And WIS's IB program is what makes it distinctive among DC privates at the HS level -- but there are a variety of local public IB programs (and not just in HS) which would be worth comparing. So you had the chance to point out to OP that to judge public schools generally based on one neighborhood elementary is to write off the schools that are most likely to reflect her preferences at least in later grades. Instead, you (sing or pl) have basically called OP a racist and elitist and told her to go back from whence she came. Way to go, pps! You've really made the public school alternative look unattractive. Which isn't fair because, odds are, that most of the parents aren't like you. |
Anonymous
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Basically, I'm sick of trolls on DCUM. I don't think that OP deserves any better treatment than the other trolls.
I wasn't the PP or PPs who told her to go home or to put on a burka. I don't think that's productive. I am the PP who has called her out on her bad behavior. That's what I do with my kids. I am surprised that you are trying to justify her bad behavior and that you ignore her many obnoxious statements. I'm not impressed because she's foreign, as you seem to be. To me she's no different from any other DCUM troll. I know many lovely foreigners in living overseas (with whom I've had long conversations about the many flaws in US foreign policy), OP is not one of these lovely foreigners. |
Anonymous
OP who obstensibly was looking for a school with something like IB wrote: "And perhaps some history here too. America developed sort of in splendid isolation because of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and peaceful Canada to the north and helpless Mexico to the south. " The 13 Colonies were pretty helpless. France helped so please google Layfayette and Yorktown. Mexico helpless???? Learn your history OP. If you don't like it here you should leave. |
Anonymous
If you're saying that some (specific) public schools have ethnically diverse students, sure, although many privates are also diverse in the same way. Pretty much every private school I know includes literature by non-Western authors, at least by middle school. The public schools are the same. Every public school I know of teaches American History, state history, and survey of world history, then repeat those courses at the AP level. Do public high schools offer regional studies or other full-semester or full-year courses focused exclusively on a non-US, non-European part of the world? The language choices are also similar - some public schools offer Chinese and/or Arabic, as well as European languages, and some don't. I have no idea whether any of this is what OP is looking for, but I honestly don't see public schools as being any better than private schools at really teaching about non-European cultures and religions. |
Anonymous
I told the w1tch to put her kid in IB in public school. That wasn't good enough although it is in schools around the world. Plus it costs taxpayers alot more than AP. This person is a succubus. |
Anonymous
She's not your kid. And I'm not seeing how calling someone a troll is more productive than telling a person to put on a burka. (Less racist, sure, but not more productive). Maybe you're overestimating your own powers of discernment here -- I'm not particularly "impressed" by OP (or by her foreignness) or unfamiliar with "lovely foreigners." I just think that there's an interesting substantive question about curriculum here and it would make more sense to discuss that reasonably than to play hall monitor. YMMV. |
Anonymous
Well, at least she's not a tatterdemalion, LOL! But no doubt her child will become one, if sent to the wrong private school... |
Anonymous
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I'm 8:43 but not any of the subsequent posters. OP seems to have offended a lot of people here: some think she's elitist (the WIS and public school posters), some think she's a snob (the poster who cited one on the subject of US history).
There's "generosity" of interpretation, as you say, and then there's naievety and stupidity. I see no reason to continue being "generous" to somebody who has been nasty on this thread. Or who has started threads on American pumpkin sharing, laundry and schools, and who has said "some Americans are bizarre" in the context of a thread on school FARMS programs. OP may not be my kid, as you say. But that doesn't mean I have to fall into her mean little trap. |