Reply to Landon vs. Georgetown Prep Upper School

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[quote=Anonymous]One area that hasn't been discussed in this Landon vs. Prep is the whole idea of just how much animosity exists between the two school (alumni, students, parents and even staff members) and the impact of all of this on the high school years and beyond on both the boys and the famiales.

Now this idea will be pooh-poohed by a few and there will be some anecdotes about individual boys being friends after high school offered as proof. But most people who have been close to either school are fully aware that this extreme dislike exists and that it carries over into later years. I attended a meeting of Fathers from both schools held at Landon in the 1990's when weekend fist-fighting had escalated to a really unacceptable level.

So when you decide between the two it's like choosing sides for life. (I actually am surprised this is a topic. We had three sons go through GP and we never heard of anyone applying to both schools. GP and Gonzaga maybe. But never, ever GP and Landon. These must be families from out of the area who are applying to both schools).

Even if boys are friends in middle school and one goes to Landon and the other GP all real friendship gradually or even quickly stops. Our neighborhood is full of kids from both schools and pretty quickly new high school friendships are formed and the older ones discarded. I've been to too many GP weddings to count and I have never ever seen a Landon kid at any of them.

As everybody understands, GP is a Catholic school. The majority of the non-Catholics that go there are boarders and are from countries like Korea. The non-Catholic percentage of the commuting students is quite small and is pretty much limited to the few African-Americans that attend. And my observation is that the Catholic families whose sons attend GP are more likely to be practicing Catholics. So its quite a Catholic place. And given the history of the DC area and the demographics, many of these GP familes are of Irish extraction. The same is largely true at Gonzaga also, although its more diverse.

Seeing Catholics at Landon -- given the availability of GP and Gonzaga -- raises a few hackles at GP. GP parents seeing a Landon football or lacrosse with a name on the back that they think might be a Catholic name always seem to react with a rolling of eyeballs and muttering about "commitment to Catholic Education".

I have seen a few people who were part of the Maryland-DC Catholic Community send their kids to Landon. After that decision there was always a little tension in the air. Once you do that, you aren't really "in the club" anymore. One of the Catholic at Landon fathers aways gave me a laugh. At football and lacrosse games, he would position himself against the fence in the end zone a few feet on the Landon side. He was surrounded by GP people but it was as if he was saying I'm on the side but just barely.

GP isn't for everyone. It is not diverse. Instead its insular, if anything.

But the decision which school to attend -- for those few familaies that apply to both schools -- is a true fork-in-the-road defining minute. You and your son(s) aren't going to have it both ways.[/quote]

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