Reply to Top private (Sidwell, GDS) versus top public (JKLM) for early years: what are the differences?

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Reply to "Top private (Sidwell, GDS) versus top public (JKLM) for early years: what are the differences? "

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]PP, I get that you want to sound earnest, but you come across as smug and self-righteous.  These are attitudes I'd hope to avoid.  [/quote]
Referring to PP at 17:16.[/quote]

I disagree.  PP at 17:16, thank you for your thoughtful and detailed discussion.  I have many of the same thoughts/concerns.  My background is not nearly as illustrious; I've got a lot of Stanford baggage, but since I was raised in California, less of the East Coast knowledge of/concern with names/prestige.  Notwithstanding my parents Exeter/Stanford pedigree, I went to excellent public schools all the way through.  And I absolutely appreciate the exposure to different types, different backgrounds, ethnicities.  I had jobs (retail, restaurant), beginning as soon as I could - even now, 30 years later, I marvel at the people I met, the different realities I saw.  It still stuns me that kids these days for the most part don't work. (Other than unpaid internships).  That (early, menial) work experience is invaluable, in my opinion.  So, turn to now - we have our child at Brent - public on Capitol Hill - it has been phenomenal (currently in K).  But the writing is on the wall -our public middle school S.U.C.K.S.  So, not going to happen.  But I have great concerns (similar to yours) about private school.  We absolutely can easily afford it.  But, generally (I hold out hope for CHDS, which I hear is "different') don't want to, for many of the same reasons you have articulated.  Our child is young - we shall see!  But, ideally NOT private, if we can find a good public option.[/quote]

God, I hope this is a parody.[/quote]

Sadly I'm afraid not.  [/quote]

It's got to be a joke. Good luck to her in terms of getting her kid in anywhere once the schools meet her.

[/quote]

What is your problem?  What is wrong with what PP said?  It's her view and her experience.  I don't get your hostility.[/quote]

Ok, I'll bite, since I was the poster who (sincerely, actually) hoped it was a parody -- in which case it would have been a work of genius rather than a case- study in the lack of self-awareness.

What was jarring in both this post and 17:16's was the ambivalent obsession with wealth and status.  So on the one hand, there's a "don't send your innocent children to the land of viciously nasty rich people who will judge you by where you went to school and what handbag you carry" and at the same time, there's the almost genealogical presentation of the poster's own wealth and status, coupled with the assurance like "we absolutely can easily afford" private school.  There's an endorsement of diversity, but also what seems like a real like of empathy or respect for people whose lives really are challenging (see, for example, repeated references to "Yale or Jail" and the embrace of "menial" jobs as eye-opening).

And all this takes place in a context where the choice isn't public vs. private in some abstract sense, but specific upper NW privates known for their high-performing students and relative diversity vs. specific upper NW neighborhood elementary schools known for their high-performing students and relative affluence/lack of diversity.  And where the people who face this particular type of choice are often if not literally neighbors, then people who have chosen to live in demographically quite similar upper middle class neighborhoods in NW.  That matters, in part, because the "choose public if you want diversity" argument becomes less than compelling if the public in question is one of the JKLM schools (and the private is Sidwell or GDS).  And that's especially true when the plan is to exit at middle school, when the student body actually does get much more diverse.

FWIW, I read the calls for adherence to the thread's topic in this light.  Basically, let's not have a generic public vs. private debate, but a what's the trade-off here discussion.  Which is also what makes things like characterizing mothers who chose private schools as vipers obsessed with their status at the country club seem kind of over the top.  Seriously, do you know people like this (I don't) -- or do they only exist on DCUM?   Again, they'd pretty much have to be your neighbors.[/quote]

Wowza, I've avoided clicking on this thread until just now - and first, I have to say that this ^ is amazing - you must be a sociology professor home on a snow day.

Secondly, where the hell is anyone talking abut their kid's sense of happiness in this thread?  This is such a problem in this society, and in this city in general.  It's this same awful pyramid that we have all been shoved into: Good school leads to good connections leads to good job = happiness ? Oh, guess not.  Just because PP waited tables and "slummed" when he was in college it doesn't mean he ever actually connected to any of the humans he encountered during that "phase" of his life.

Are we raising another generation of miserable "big law partners" or do we actually give a shit if our kids are happy?  Do you OP?  What are your hopes and dreams for your kids?  Is this the question you should be asking?[/quote]

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