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]The issue is not whether you have a "moral problem" with sending your child to private school per se, but [b]whether said child will emerge without a moral compass, or having had their self esteem shredded, both of which lead to different types of "problems" in the future.[/b]

All I am saying is go in with eyes wide open.  And to be WIDE OPEN, you should spend some time on the private schools DCUM forum, since you have been on here for a while, and compare the conversations.... for the sake of your child(ren)[/quote]

You are crazy.
[/quote]

Actually, if you're right, then arguably 17:16 is right.  She's a product of the system she's condemning.  [/quote]

So am I and if she thinks sending a kid to private school will result in a child "without a moral compass" or "having had their self esteem shredded", she is nuts.  These are things will can happen no matter the school.[/quote]

These things can happen no matter the school and had nothing to do with whether one pays tuition or not.[/quote]

these things [b]can happen no matter what[/b].  The question is [b]where are they more likely to happen[/b], and do you want to take the risk if you are [b]not a one percenter[/b] of rich kids running roughshod over your child.... and do you want to expose them to the feelings of entitlement and superiority that seem so prevalent at these schools now...

IMO the private school parents today and the kids are a different crowd from the one that was in my DC private school when I was - I chose, and I was not alone,  to leave NCS to go to GDS, which was still an underdog at that time, working out of the converted office building on Macarthur Blvd.  I begged Earl Harrison, the headmaster at Sidwell, not to accept me because I wanted to go to GDS, and my parents would have forced me to go to Sidwell if they had accepted me, and he honored my request, God Bless him.

My parents thought I was ruining my life but they knew I was so unhappy that if they did not let me make a change I would ruin my own life in terms of grades and just absolute misery.  GDS was so different from NCS.  No cafeteteria thus an open campus by necessity, no regulation size gym, no sports teams to speak of.  Completely different group of people who did not operate in my parents' social circle.  First racially integrated school only established in 1953 and technically non-denominational.  An intellectual paradise for me, and it saved me from NCS which IMO was toxic even then, graduates I keep in touch with have confirmed that things got worse in high school............  GDS now has all the money and the status of the other schools, and I do not want my kids there at all...

My kids are at Basis, which was Title I the first two years, and we had one there at the start, and they are happy.  We took a huge risk and it has paid off in ways I could not possibly have imagined.  I think the education is stellar for kids who are willing to work and are good at math and science.  Children have solid groups of friends where the friendship was, like it was at GDS, begun because they were put with smart motivated kids.  These kids have no clue what we have in our bank account, and most have never been to our house.  No one seems to really care.  They are teens and are focused on their teenage angst, whatever the source, and they are bonding so well that I have to monitor the time spent on google chat because these kids are solid with each other and can waste their time remotely without having to be in the same room or same neighborhood...

My kids are as off the grid as possible, zoned for Wilson but staying at Basis, and we live our lives off the grid so my kids don't interact with kids from the big 3 or 4 and don't feel inferior in any way.  Basis is as close as we can get to my experience at GDS in terms of the intellectual opportunities, but the diversity is mind blowing.  My kids have friends who have been through stuff that we could never "preach" to them about and get anywhere.  And I am so happy about the friendships they have formed that are based on being intellectual equals, where color and SES status is totally irrelevant.  May help that we are not white, but we could have afforded private school and our kids would have gotten in, but no one is ever going to ask my children for the (pick your minority) opinion on any issue. Our kids are happy.

Just from a non-white perspective but same SES strata and kids started off at JKLM.  We were really happy with the "early years" - less happy once kids started peeling off to privates, and Basis has been a game changer for our family.  We feel so grateful because we were really conflicted and confused about what to do.  Right time, right place, Thanks be to God.  We feel incredibly lucky and have no clue what we would have done had they not opened in 2012....[/quote]

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