Reply to NPS

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "NPS"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NPS is constantly telling people "it is come as you are"  "we are such a warm nurturing environment"  "we have no bullies.  we have core values".  I feel like if all of this were true you wouldn't need to constantly say it.  We would all just see it. [/quote]

You do see it as a parent there. Core values are discussed regularly so young children internalize them. Not all things are for parents. [/quote]

I didn’t see it as a parent there but that’s why we didn’t stay long.  We’re also a family of color.  I could see this as being a wonderful place for white children.[/quote]
PP, what led you to leave the school?  Did you find it unwelcoming?  If you did, was it the students, the teachers, or the parents?  What could the school have done better?  Was attending a tough commute?

What did you do next?  Was trying out a private, majority white school in ward 3 a mistake, or a useful experience?

We have young children at NPS.  If they notice the race of their classmates, they have never mentioned it.[/quote]

I’m curious too. I’m willing to commute for what best for my kid but I don’t want him in an uncomfortable situation as an AA kid. My friends whose daughter is AA and now attends Holton swears by NPS[/quote]

We are another family of color who didn't stay long. Felt the school had a long way to go, but seems they've made some ground since.[/quote]

What drove you away?  The kids?  Parents? Teachers? Too few AA families? Location? Unwelcoming vibe for you? For your child?[/quote]

I will say this -- I have never spoken ill of the school or even posted about it until now. I'm not writing to complain, but to offer a perspective that might be helpful and that's because your question. It's not my intent to criticize the school because we did thing it was a nice place with a lot of nice families and kids. At the time we were there, I would call it well meaning. The main challenge is that it's just too darn white and that creates a lot of blind spots for the school. It's a nice community overall. We were an affluent family of color. To be honest, I got the sense that many in the community assumed most of the families of color were on aid. I saw a lot of the problems stemming from lack of diversity overall and with implicit bias.  For example, if there were three black kids in a grade, it seemed that the school would put one per class. That's diversity to benefit white kids, but for black kids, that makes them the "only" in their class. Does that make sense? I remember an incident in a younger grade where someone egged my child to do something, and only my child was reprimanded. Maybe bias, maybe not -- but I didn't like being in a place where I had to keep questioning it.  My husband would stand in line at the pancake events and felt like people he had met on numerous occasions would look "through" him as though they didn't see him. He was the one who had to make the effort to remind. We moved to a different school and felt an immediate relief and a sense of belonging that we didn't experience at NPS. Again, it's not to criticize NPS. It was just that we didn't feel a sense of belonging and I was worried that my kid was going to be subject to implicit bias and that it would mess with self esteem. My biggest recommendations would to hire more diverse teachers and to really have the whole parent body (not just the diversity crowd) attend workshops on implicit bias/or equity and inclusion. [/quote]

PP here. Just to note the above is intentionally general. There were a couple of specific incidents that we experienced but I didn't want to detail because they could be identifying. I honestly think they were mostly related to lack of diversity/diversity training. That could go a long way. Like I said, I truly believe the school is well intended and has a lot going for it. At least when we were there, it seemed to be a great place for white kids. Hopefully that's applied more broadly now. Another positive I saw was the establishment of the Diversity Institute (I think that's what it's called) with Rosetta Lee. She's well respected. Beyond that, is that I think there's a fundamental diversity challenge when the school is so closely tied to the church. Just by definition, you're going to get a large population of people with Scottish ancestry, which is fine but not exactly diverse. The Episcopal schools seems to do a bit better with diversity and I'm not sure why. Anyway, I do wish NPS the best.
[/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