Reply to Sidwell parents — is your child happy?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We have many friends with kids at Sidwell and even the Sidwell boosters acknowledge that it can be a grind, with a lot of pressure on the kids. We discouraged our two from applying, for that reason: we have kids who do well academically but I just don't want them in that kind of hothouse environment.

Honestly though, we felt the same way about GDS, Maret and the Cathedral Schools, so in that sense I don't know that Sidwell is any "worse." [/quote]

SFS parent and I agree with this. SFS is no better or worse on this front than any of the other top schools.

OP, you've gotten a good picture here. If you have a perfectionist kid, any of these schools will intensify that trait and thus may or may not be a good match, depending on what you want for your kid ultimately. My DC is anything but a perfectionist, especially when it comes to studies, and, [b]ironically, is doing well at SFS, maybe because of that. Not top of the class by any means, but doing fine and is very happy there.[/quote][/b]

I am happy to hear this. My DC is in 8th at one of these schools is not particularly worried about their academic performance and evaluation. DC does ok, and contributes very well to the school in other areas, but is not going to win any academic awards, so to speak. I do worry that DC might develop a sort of inferiority complex in HS though, as more high fliers are added. [/quote]

This is the reason we did not want our kids at any of these schools (Sidwell, GDS, Cathedral, Maret). We worried that one of two things would happen: either DCs would remain their sweet, balanced selves, working hard but not to the point of fatigue or burnout, but would start feeling like second class citizens at schools that value the super high fliers more than the bright, creative but not turbo-charged kids, or else DCs, not wanting to feel like second class citizens, would knock themselves out to become super high fliers, with a resulting toll on sleep, balance, and general mental health.

We didn't think either outcome sounded appealing so we focused on the good-but-not-quite-so-high-pressure schools (Burke, Field, St Andrews etc.), which have worked well for our kids. They do well in school, work hard but not crazy hard, and seem to be pretty sane, relaxed people. We figure they have their whole adult lives to work under pressure: no need to make their teen years more miserable than teen years tend to be regardless.

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