Reply to Bullis v. Landon v. St. Andrews

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You don't have to be a Landon parent to see the obvious. The new headmaster of Bullis specifically wants to expand Bullis to be a powerhouse athletic school after many years of being a doormat similar to Good Counsel. You can deny it all you want but that's what they are pursuing. Bullis parents just seem so defensive about this especially when they are cheering the football team on.[/quote]

This is not really a Bullis issue, a Landon issue, or unique to any particular school. The problem is that for some reason heads of independent schools -- including both schools in the suburbs and in DC  -- have drank some spiked water over the past few years making them susceptible to believing a relatively modest number of voices telling them this is what kids/families want and that they need to do to recruit and build big time team sport athletic programs to remain competitive, to attract alumni donations, etc.   Parents who are not supportive seem to be silent in their own schools thinking that this does not affect my child.  But it does impact how school time, money and other resources -- including financial aid -- are allocated in schools.  For my tuition money, independent schools should not be attempting to compete with the Catholic private schools for dominance in team sports through recruiting.   I have no problem if one school does very well because it happens to have a student who is very talented and works to nurture that gift, but I do not want my children's school bringing in students who are there primarily to play a given sport and would not have likely found their way to even apply to the school (and the school would not be interested in them) but for their athletic prowess in a given sport.   I have nothing against students who enjoy sports (I have one), and schools that would be interested in a kid generally based on his/her academic profile independent of sports surely can take athletics into consideration as a factor of something extra they add to the school all other things equal in admissions, but recruiting students affirmatively for athletics seems to be where schools become at risk of bringing in students that cannot meet their usual academic profile.   Sadly, this is becoming a more common practice among DC independents.   [/quote]

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