Reply to GDS Student Newspaper posts about the horrible incident

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "GDS Student Newspaper posts about the horrible incident "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are also real concerns about the school’s direction. Teaching practices feel dated in many places, and there’s a perception among other local independent school folks that faculty pretty much run the place, which makes meaningful change almost impossible.

And then there’s the school newspaper. It feels like it operates with little meaningful adult oversight. A high school paper isn’t the same thing as an independent press outlet — schools have a responsibility to set boundaries and ensure standards. Some of the content has crossed lines and felt wildly inappropriate for a school setting.[/quote]

Another GDS parent. On the newspaper, I'm very happy that the high school is teaching student journalists to act like journalists and supporting them when they do. I don't think the student journalists crossed any lines. They reported facts, have asked people for comment, and as far as I know haven't printed anything that wasn't true. They didn't engage in speculation or editorializing; they told people that an email was sent out, what it said, what the police said, and so on. Good for them. I'd be opposed to the administration doing anything to clamp down on the newspaper.

As for the teaching, I of course have things I'd change but one always will. There are some people who want GDS to try to be just like other "top" independent schools in every way. I think it makes more sense for each independent school to have ways in which it's unique, so one school might best serve a particular style of learner or kids with certain interests, and another could do the same for different students. But on this board there's a frustratingly constant attitude that schools exist along only one dimension, "better" vs "worse," and the only thing that matters is for a school to try to move up that ranking by duplicating everything another school does.

I'm happy for GDS to be doing well at some athletics, for instance, but I would never want it to be recruiting athletes the way some schools do. Nothing against those schools, necessarily, but it's not what I am looking for. GDS has an ethos and a type of parent that's not exactly the same as for every other school. I hope that continues. I don't care how many people here think it's "Big N" or whatever. I want it to be a great school for my kids and some of those other schools aren't. But that's fine and the families at those other schools can be happy at those schools too.[/quote]

If you aren’t outraged at the school, then you are clearly not paying attention.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics