Reply to St Alban's and NCS

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "St Alban's and NCS"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When people say competitive, you're actually competing on what dimension? Wealth? Unless you actually own a gold mine or an oil rig or employee number ten at Amazon or got lots of Apple stock I don't see how this can work.[/quote]
Competitive as in [b]they want to be the best at everything[/b], academically "I got an A on that last test, what did you get?" and in sports (which is much more of a focus for many families there than you would expect), and many girls also care about looking "the best" too (as in having the "right" ie expensive brands of clothing,etc). There is also competition for attention from boys within certain sets in the US and the dynamics between NCS and STA can be unhealthy, with a lot of toxic male behavior in certain groups. The workload gets intense at NCS so don't even consider it beyond LS if your child is not naturally organized and on top of things on their own. It only ramps up in MS and then again in US. 
The competitive environment actually stems from an underlying intense insecurity within many of the girl's, because they feel they can never measure up to the standards they believe are expected of them, and then it creates an uber judgmental environment rather than supporting each other. There was a MS teacher at NCS who would say to my daughter's class that NCS stood for "National Competitive School". We thought that was odd that a teacher would say that to the girls, as if it was part of their identity, instead of trying to reduce that behavior. 
NCS provides a wonderful education, and for some girls the competitive and intense environment rolls off their back more than it does for others. It really depends on your family and your child. Is your child athletic, socially aware, competitive (as in they are driven by the feeling of being "in competition"), organized and a rule follower? Then they will likely do fine. Also, [b]so much of the experience also depends on the cohort your child happens to have in their grade [/b]which is beyond your control (at any place). US there is very different than LS. Remember that you can also change at 6th or 7th should you decide your children are not a great fit. Best of luck to you.[/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