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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Not either of the above posters, but the oft-repeated claim that private schools offer more diversity than publics is what seems lie "lunacy" to many of us, not private schools per se. Several posters have shown on other threads that even Chevy Chase public schools have lots of poor kids. Private schools may have a handful of 100% scholarship kids with more $80,000 families getting $5,000-$15,000,

We chose private for other good reasons. But c'mon, where diversity is concerned, private schools are bubbles.

Let's not kid ourselves. It's that bubble factor of private schools that actually appeals to many patents.[/quote]

The facts are laid out above - the "Chevy Chase" schools draw from areas that include subsidized housing and the school district is NOT uniformly well to do --MOST elementary schools in the southwestern part of MoCo have fewer than 10% black students - many less than 5%.   I don't know of a private school with a lower percentage of black students.  Parts of MoCo and NW DC are certainly in the bubble as well.[/quote]

How about Hispanic students? And you've completely ignored the whole SES question.

The biggest problem with your argument, however, is this: just because SW MOCO is not diverse, that in no way means that private schools ARE diverse in all the usual meanings of the word.  That's like bragging, "I got a C which is better than Jimmie who got a D" - nobody is impressed because the bar is so low.

Bubble is right. You can argue that private schools are good for art and gym and small class sizes. But you can't argue that they're "diverse" on the grounds that they have a *few* more (usually well off) minorities than some non-diverse place like Potomac.[/quote]

Agree.  We liked the diversity in our private ES, which was predominantly AA, but were surprised to find a totally different kind of diversity in our Bethesda public school.  Despite being in a wealthy area there is more SES diversity.  The SES diversity that exists in our cluster is at the public school.  Definitely people with financial struggles, parents with a range of jobs from cabinet secretaries to painters and landscapers.  We didn't have that in our private school where pretty much everyone was a white collar professional.  There are also tons of international students, from Europe, Asia, India, etc.  While some of those may be white and wealthy they still bring an interesting and different perspective to the mix.[/quote]

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