Anonymous wrote:

If you think questions about your ancestry or ethnic background are offensive, what is it you find offensive about those questions? Please educate me.

I find it offensive that despite the fact that I was born and raised in the United States and am as American as the next guy, that I am still treated as a foreigner. I find it offensive that when my colleague who is an immigrant but white is not being asked questions such as "Where are you from?" that make him feel like an outsider or foreigner, I am. You assume o r at least make me feel like you assume that I am not from here, I am not American and I am not "one of us" but don't treat the Caucasian person who is a foreigner that way.

Until you know how much importance *I* place on my ethnic heritage, then you shouldn't place more importance on it than I do because otherwise you imply that my heritage is more important than I, as an individual, am.

Thanks for your response, and to others who responded to my question. To summarize, it seems that if I ask a question about your ancestry or ethnic background, you will be offended because you assume I am making all sorts of negative judgments about you, and implicitly questioning whether you are "American enough." Is that a correct summary of your view? If so, your assumption is both unfortunate and inaccurate (at least for me personally, and perhaps for many others). Like I said, people are curious about other people; that's just human nature. If I ask about you and your background, that doesn't mean I'm judging you.

If I meet someone named "Kaysone Phomvihane" at some school event, I'd almost certainly ask about the origin of his name. So why would you think I'm questioning his right to be at that school or in the United States? I'd be asking because it's the kind of name I don't hear every day, and I'd be very curious about its origin. I'd really hope for a simple response of "It's Laotian," or even better "It's Laotian. Even though I am from Kentucky, my parents wanted me to have a traditional name." Those might put us on the path of getting to know one another better, and perhaps even liking each other. But if he is secretly thinking (or even saying), "You jerk! How dare you ask me about my name when we've just met! Quit questioning my right to live here! I'm just as American as you are!," then our conversation might not go so well.

I'm not saying there aren't rude jerks out there, or that some people don't make inappropriate judgments based on appearance or name or accent. We've all encountered those people. Those kind of people are going to judge even if they never talk to you at all. It seems that the type of person who asks you a question is at least open to some discussion about it, which I think is a positive step.

Thanks again for your responses. They are interesting.

By the way, does it matter what my apparent ethnicity is? If I'm somewhat foreign-looking or foreign-sounding myself, does that change your assumptions when I ask about your background?

Anonymous wrote:9:12 -- excellent suggestion. thanks! then it's just a question of activating a new device, and there's no issue with the contract or my plan (except for adding the data package, of course)

I think that's right. But like I wrote, I've never actually done it before, so you definitely should call Verizon first to make sure this will work. I'm guessing they'll charge you some $30 changeover fee or something, just because they can.

If you go this route, would you mind reporting back here on how it went? I'm curious how smoothly it works since I might be doing the same thing at some point down the road.

Anonymous wrote:... would you ask someone their religion or political affiliation or sexual orientation at first meeting? All of these are questions in which the answers have frequently been used to exclude or persecute people. Would you ask for someone's weight? It's good policy to avoid asking people questions on first meeting that they may not want to disclose or that are often asked for reasons other than wanting to get to know someone better. If it mattered to the poster HE'd disclose it in conversation.

I don't really think these are fair comparisons. Religion and political affiliation are known hot-button topics that routinely divide people. Sexual orientation and weight are not only hot-button topics, but are also issues that many people keep private and closely hidden. By contrast, a person's ancestry is often somewhat evident on her face.

It's also something that many people are intensely curious about. There's that "Who do you think you are?" show, and 60,000 web pages dissecting the ancestry of people like Tiger Woods and various other celebrities.

I don't see what is offensive about asking the question. Sure, if someone is making negative and unfair inferences about you, based on your response to the question, that's a problem. But I imagine the question itself is just part of human interaction. No more offensive or intrusive than asking me where I grew up, or what I do for a living. Besides if I really don't want to answer your question, no one can make me. There are plenty of ways to brush off that question without really responding.

If you think questions about your ancestry or ethnic background are offensive, what is it you find offensive about those questions? Please educate me.

Ahh, I see it there now. Thanks. That could be very useful.

jsteele wrote:SAM2, you must already have superpowers given that you still sign in after all the crap you took for your Big Three FAQ.

Just to be clear, the "Big 3 FAQ" wasn't me. That was counter-programming from someone else in response to my Private School Admissions FAQ. Still, I take your point!

Where's the "new messages" link? I don't see that.

Anonymous wrote:For those who asked for a link to some studies, here's one. It also summarizes previous literature. The Coleman (1982) study that everyone cites does find returns to private school, but after controlling for family income, the gains look pretty small to me.
http://www.edline.com/uploads/pdf/PrivateSchoolsReport.pdf

It seems like a lot would depend on which private schools and which public schools are in the mix. Just like that 2007 study tried to control for SES and other characteristics of students, it seems like it might make sense to control for the quality of the schools covered by the study. Lumping all private schools and all public schools together would seem to be a guarantee of weak results. Here is the NAIS study that focuses just on NAIS schools. http://www.nais.org/files/PDFs/NELSReport_2-3-04_FINAL.pdf Not perfect because it seems to be comparing them to all public schools, rather than just a meaningful subset, but it's at least getting closer to the mark. See also http://people.howstuffworks.com/private-schools2.htm .

For parents here IMHO, instead of relying on some generalized study for guidance, you really need to evaluate how the particular public schools you are zoned for will compare with your private school options. It's more work, but probably will give you better results. I just don't think there's much of a one-size-fits-all answer to OP's question.

You can edit your own posts, rate posts, create bookmarks, and send/receive private messages. It's also easier to spot your posts when you're looking for something. I edit my posts and use the private message function, but not bookmarks or ratings. I think you also can create a little avatar or homepage space, but that doesn't really entice me.

I admit I'm often too lazy to sign in unless there's a particular thread I'm getting invested in. I ought to sign in more often.

Oh yeah, another nice thing is that if you're signed in, the icons of the threads change color when you read them, so you can easily track which threads have new content.

I think Jeff should give us all superpowers or something once we reach 1,000 login posts ....

SAM2 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How should I split up the list?

How about K-8, 4-12, etc?

The problem is they don't all split up the same way. One school might be K-8, but another is PK-3, and another is PK-6, etc. At the other end of the spectrum, one is K-12, another is 4-12, and another is 9-12. I would have trouble figuring out which school goes where.

Anonymous wrote:Is there a way to break out responses based on grade? Knowing 4 people applied to Sidwell isn't helpful if they all could have been in a different grade than what I'm looking at. I seem to recall that was done last year? Thanks for this.

What you're describing is cross-referencing the results. It's definitely possible to do that with a survey, so that people could see (for example) the number of boy applications to PK at Sidwell. But I recall that when I created the original results survey in March 2011. some people were uncomfortable with the idea of cross-referencing, since it might make it possible for others to recognize real life applicants. So when I created this survey, I did not include any cross-referencing.

All that said, while I don't have time to revise this current survey, I'm happy to make adjustments to the March 2012 survey I will create for admissions results. Let me know what level of cross-referencing makes sense to you and how it might be interesting. I'm open to suggestions.

Also, I need your help on another element. The list of schools is already very long, and getting longer with each day. As you can see, the list is so long it overloads Google's chart drawing function on the results page. I was thinking about grouping schools by state (DC vs MD vs VA), but that seems arbitrary. Another approach is to try to group together those that most often compete for students ("Big 10" vs others), but that approach surely will get people agitated because it involves me making judgment calls about which school belongs in which group. How should I split up the list?

Anonymous wrote:

SAM2 wrote:Langley & NPS added. Sorting the order again will take lots of effort, unfortunately, so a clean sort will have to wait until March.

Actually google docs should be able to sort in seconds by whatever criteria you set: alphabetical and then a few seconds later say display by reverse alphabet. You can change it with a single click

Looks like I've successfully added them all now. PP, I don't see a sort function available for editing a survey form in GoogleDocs; if you can show me where it is, I'd appreciate the help.

Anonymous wrote:Still don't see Langley...

Hmm. That's odd. Must not have saved properly. Will try to add again tonight. List whatever other Virginia schools you want; the more, the merrier.

Langley & NPS added. Sorting the order again will take lots of effort, unfortunately, so a clean sort will have to wait until March.

Anonymous wrote:Can you please add Burgundy Farm?

Done. Thanks for the reminder.

I created a short survey so people applying to schools can share information with each other about how many schools (and which ones) they are applying to. The survey contains just three questions (grade, number of schools, names of schools). All responses are anonymous, and there is no published cross-reference that might allow others to decipher which particular array of schools anyone applied to. If you want to see what the results will look like before responding, you should be able to click on the response link to see the results. (I seeded the survey with a few fake responses which I will remove later as real responses arrive.)

Please respond only once with all your information. Please respond only if you are applying to schools during this admissions cycle. Please don't litter the survey with fake responses, since that just wastes everyone's time. And please recognize that the responses people post here represent only a small sliver of the applicant pool, so while you may be able to draw some information from the response numbers, use that information with caution.

Here is the survey form:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGtIZ3FsRU9HcUhFLUZlcXFiT1NKSWc6MQ

Here is a summary of the results:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewanalytics?formkey=dGtIZ3FsRU9HcUhFLUZlcXFiT1NKSWc6MQ

If I missed schools where you are applying, please post them here. Also, if people are interested, I will post another survey form in March to summarize admissions results. If you are interested, take a look at last year's results (https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewanalytics?formkey=dFFHRklQWDFuOWNaSlMtdlRPd3hORmc6MA) and help me identify any questions that should be added or removed.

Thanks in advance.

Sam2

I'm sharing a good article I read recently: "Single-Sec Education and the Brain" by Lise Eliot. Eliot wrote the excellent book "Pink Brain, Blue Brain" about brain and development difference between girls and boys. This article includes many of the same themes. Its basic argument is that although there are some differences between how female and male brains develop in infants and children, the neurological sex differences are actually fairly small. Her implicit point is that to the extent there are differences between girls and boys, those differences are largely driven by how parents and society treat girls and boys differently (consciously and unconsciously). Accordingly, Eliot seems to be an opponent of sex-segregation in the classroom.

To the extent there are some measurable average differences across large populations of girls vs. boys, those average differences are especially insignificant in light of the large variation among individual children within each population. In other words, if you are measuring some characteristic on a 1-100 point scale, and you find that the average girl scores 2 points higher than the average boy, that average difference is actually very minor in context when you discover that normal scores for each sex are spread fairly evenly over a 40-point range.

Eliot is particularly blunt in her criticism of Gurian & Sax, two popular writers who have written books claiming significant differences in how boys and girls learn (although she criticizes several others as well). Eliot dissects and debunks their claims about sex differences by pointing out where these popular writers lack any scientific basis at all for various claims, where they have misinterpreted scientific research, and where the weight of more recent scientific research has undermined their arguments.

Below is a link to the article itself, which is about 20-25 pages long and only moderately dense from a science perspective. Also below are links to a couple summaries of the article, for those who might not be inclined to read the whole thing.

Full article: https://docs.google.com/open?id=1q3oKOfhAFPnpoh3Ya0hRO-tEuxC7id9kCnd8J3NncPVIg_v9IUi_4yB_ToJc
Summaries: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110818101653.htm and http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainstorm/201109/pseudoscience-in-sax-sex
A full Eliot bibliography, which suggests she feels pretty strongly about this issue: http://66.99.255.20/DNN/home/CMS/Neuroscience/Faculty/Eliot/Publications/tabid/998/Default.aspx