Reply to Landon vs. Georgetown Prep Upper School

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[quote=Anonymous]"Interesting, so where does St John's fit in in the "old money" vs out of town newbie Catholic hierarchy ? "

That's an interesting question. But this isn't an "old money" vs. "new money" discussion. This is about being a full-fledged member of this community.
 This is more about "insiders" versus "outsiders". You'll occassionally read comments on this forum from Catholics who sent their kids to independent schools complaining that they are being treated as less-than authentic Catholics by some in their neighorhoods and parishes.

The large Catholic community has St John's very clearly positioned in their minds. St Johns is a once-great school that now serves a large minority population fleeing the DC public schools and Catholic families, who are connected to the school or for whom Gonzaga is perhaps too academically challenging. When someone announces their son or daughter is going to St John's the assumption is that there is an academic problem of some sort.

This is much different from someone announcing that they are sending their son to Landon, which is generally seen as a thumb in the eye to the concept of Catholic education.

When our sons went to Georgetown Prep, by far the largest group of fathers were St. John's graduates. No school has benefitted as much from the long decline of St John's than has Prep. And these GP fathers maintained a great loyalty to and affection for St John's .... but not so much they were going to send their sons there.

Through the 1970's, St John's was the equivalent of Gonzaga academically and athletically. The school was a favorite of Chevy Chase / Blessed Sacrament families.

But begining in the late 70's and though the 1980's, St John's went into a long decline. In it's current state, in the early 1990's it was barely breating. Since then it has staged a significant comeback. Alumni contributions have greatly improved the facilities. But it has never recovered completely to what it was in the 1960's and 1970's. St John's is now seen as being roughly equivalent to Good Counsel and DeMatha.

It has great faciliities. A great location. A diverse student population. A lot of tradition and a large and  powerful alumni group.

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