Reply to Bullis v. Landon v. St. Andrews

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]:06 here again:  Apologies for confusing earlier post -- I shouldn't attempt to post after midnight. The coed environment for our children has been a positive at St. Andrew’s and not  a distraction in any negative way, as they each have friends of both genders. I am sure that probably depends very much on the individual kid.  There are a lot of tuned in teachers/ staff to watch for social stuff at St. Andrew’s. .

To answer a PP's question, my child at St. Andrew's in junior year English is also reading Twain, Fitzgerald, Wharton, Invisible Man (the one about race, not the horror story), poetry, and a number of other books I can't name off the top of my head with a lot of  writing/literary analysis, My child is in the AP class, but I hear good things about the regular class as well, the primary difference being that the AP class covers more in part because those kids simply read faster/retain more or are willing to put in the extra time needed.  St. Andrew’s juniors all take US history which includes a unique oral history project in which all students are trained and conduct original interviews with a witness to history, context research papers about that period of time, and prepare analysis papers after the interviews, etc., as well as cover all the usual history content (this oral history project is a requirement of both the regular and the AP US history classes).  The project got our child using one of the local college libraries for research which itself was a great experience, and all the kids experience needing to contact prospective interviewees, explain the project, obtain consent forms, and a lot of valuable practical research experience. .  They can pick up parts of some of authors noted in the Landon Humanities class in various other history, philosophy/religion, English or civics classes, but no single class is focuses on the classics per se.  Most  St. Andrew Students – as is true at most independent schools – take 5 academic subjects per year, but they are also all required to take one trimester of religion/philosophy (which counts as a 6th academic subject) each year as well as the usual electives in visual or performing arts/music.   Senior year, students at all three schools can take one advanced course through a consortium including other privates in the area as well.

When you factor in that St. Andrew’s by design is a smaller school than Landon and that it is appealing to kids on a wider part of the academic spectrum, and that Landon has almost certainly more athletic recruits,  I don’t think the college comparisons support the conclusion that Landon is stronger academically.  Landon is a fine traditional boys school, no doubt, and has an important place in the private community.  St. Andrew’s is focused on continuing to innovate the most effective teaching approaches in the classroom in ways that are getting a lot of positive feedback from peer independent schools. All these schools probably can no doubt provide a good education, but I don’t see the evidence to support the idea that Landon has some clear advantage in the classroom. 
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+1
I have a DD at SAES who started in 7th, and is now a freshman.  We are thrilled with the rigor of the curriculum, and the opportunity for personal growth, and service learning.  The faculty and staff continue to strive to bring out the best in all the students, and my daughter is thriving.  She is bright, but shy, and has learned how to self advocate, take risks, and push herself academically, socially, athletically.  I think that because SAES is a newer school, they can be more nimble and innovative and adopt up-to-date educational pedagogy.   The kids continually impress me with their esprit de corps, no matter whether it be at a lacrosse game or during an honors assembly.  It is a fantastic community.[/quote]

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