Reply to Bullis, Sidwell, Landon, Maret, Georgetown Day, Potomac ... does this ranking make sense?

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Reply to "Bullis, Sidwell, Landon, Maret, Georgetown Day, Potomac ... does this ranking make sense?"

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[quote=Anonymous]As a somewhat recent alum of GDS, which I attended from k-12, I am really wondering where all of this is coming from. If you are really smart enough for any of these schools than you should already realize that different students excel in different environments. It all depends on the fit. Some students need more structure academically than others, some thrive on self-exploration and unique ways of thinking, some need more balance in activities than others. Is a student who is a very serious athlete going to have the same exposure at GDS that they would have at, say, Landon? Probably not. But if a student has an interesting in acting or singing, GDS offers much more exposure. Frankly, if you are someone who wants to encourage your children to define themselves and their self-confidence based on their school's ranking, then PLEASE don't choose GDS, because I wouldn't want that type of attitude in my school. GDS's main goal is freedom of expression in a community that is receptive and open to new ideas (as long as they are slightly liberal if I am being very honest). You can feel it in the classrooms, in the hallways, in the arts, in sports. Being different isn't such a bad thing at GDS, but simply an opportunity to learn about someone. That being said, some students need more structure. GDS will not police you. It is an open campus, you can leave when you aren't in class to grab coffee or run home and you call your teachers by their first name. Not all students will be able to handle that level of personal responsibility. Not all parents want their children to have that type of unsupervised freedom.

I always felt there was healthy, playful competition between Sidwell, Maret, and GDS because of the similarities in activities, and general attitudes of the school. I had many friends in each and we have all been equally successful. I don't think a single one of them would say that they would have been more successful had they only been in another school. In fact because of how small the schools are we often found that the typical GDS "social group" was really just a blend of students from all three. Thankfully we didn't share the need to rank each other like some of the parents on this blog seem to need to. If you continue that you will be doing your child a disservice.

Try them out for a day and pick a school because it's the right fit for your child. Not because some parent on here is nervous about their parenting and needs to leave it to the rank of the school their child attends to feel good about their child's chances at success. It depends on what you value, what values you would like your child to develop and finding an environment that matches.

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