Reply to Deep Racism Problems at NCS and STA: Questions/Answers we can't get through admissions

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am sorry but everyone needs to stop scapegoating these issues on the Chevy Chase Club. There are members at STA just like there are at many other schools in our area. The vast majority of STA parents are not members and there are tons of uber wealthy parents at STA who are not members. There may be Chevy members you don’t care for or agree with politically, but there are also very nice families who you would like and agree with. To blame all of STA’s issues on a handful of club members is ludicrous and absurd. STA’s issues run much deeper and are the result of an entrenched culture of elitism, privilege, and competition they foster with their messaging. [b]It is also the result of admissions and who they prioritize. Sure they have been working on prioritizing diversity, but they also prioritize wealth, ability to donate big $, and connected families. These two priorities have eliminated the middle ground population and created a dichotomy of have and have not.[/b] Then you throw in the constant message that your the best of the best and it creates the culture we are seeing. There is an underlying level of competition, especially among the parents. Whose child is truly the smartest, the best student, the best athlete, the most talented, the most popular, etc. The pressure is real for a lot of these kids and they’re pushed by their parents to perform. We pay $50k a year for you to be at this top school that we got you into and you need to succeed and achieve. The reality that no one wants you to know is that the majority of these boys are no more gifted intellectually or academically than the majority of boys at other schools in our area. Boys at STA are equal to boys at Prep, Landon, Maret, Sidwell, GDS, St. Anselms, etc. They are normal boys, some are brilliant and super talented and others are normal above average to average kids. It’s the same at most highly competitive schools in our area. The difference is this culture described above of constantly being told they are the best of the best and better than everyone else, the great divide in social economics (no middle ground/have and have nots), the constant stress to achieve, and the competition especially among parents which translates to kids. It’s a pressure cooker academically, socially, financially, athletically, etc. And guess what, it’s boiling over.[/quote]

How have the other top privates in DC managed to not be bipolar like this?  NCS, GDS, and Sidwell are all much more friendly to professional class, non-connected families.  We applied out of DCPS and each of these schools took kids from our school.  STA did not.  And the boys who applied were fantastic--straight As, great athletes, etc.  I know a handful of the boys that STA did take 
and they were more of the same: connected, wealthy and from a certain social set and a few feeder privates.  They were no more qualified than any of the boys I know who did not get in, in fact many were less so.  They were just wealthier and more connected.  
Will they (STA) ever stop this practice?  The new head of school could be then nicest guy on the planet and have the best of intentions but until this practice is changed it will be more of the same and it will continue to boil over.  The other top DC schools have a different value system and have no problem admitting the kids of the "middle ground" population.  Why is STA so different?[/quote]

This is an interesting question. I used to think I wanted my boys to go to STA but the longer I’m exposed to all of this in the DC independent school world, the happier I am that they are elsewhere.

I’ve rad through a lot of this thread and one thing keeps popping up that I do not see at the peer school my kids attend: the constant telling/ reinforcing to the students, through what appears to be both spoken words and related actions, that you are so fabulous. This “you’re the best of the best” mindset, explicitly told to the kids. Wow. As a parent I would not like that at all. I’m trying to build character in my children and that includes a sense of humility and gratefulness. If this is the true ethos of STA, all I can say is that we dodged a billet. 
[/quote]

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