Reply to magnet schools for Bethesda kids?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Bottom line:  Bethesda kids are too rich and too smart to go to magnet programs. [/quote]

What role do you think complacency plays here?  If you're rich and white, and a double legacy at Harvard, maybe you feel like you'll land on your feet no matter what.  Are you really going to do all the extra work to get ready for the exam, to travel across town, to compete with the best and brightest?  Or are you going to figure that your safety net will work no matter what, and worst case scenario is that you end up at a "lesser Ivy" or a decent LAC.

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I think we need to realistically take note who the best and brightest really are in the equation.  Brightest means best test taker or digests complex math the best and in those cases a few of the magnet students are special but not even close to all. If we were to take it as the brightest future and most likely to have solutions to most of life's obstacles figured out with a greased path to the better things in life, then I would say Bethesda kids are much brighter than the magnet as a whole. No kid is rushing form the National Cathedral School to the Blair Magnet or TJ because intelligence isn't even close to being the most important development tool.

The magnet program is basically a tool to help upper society pick out a few middle class kids and give them a chance to get into schools where they can then meet the wealthy and make a case for their value. All "good" suburban school districts are set up to keep the middle class form regressing, city schools keep city kids where they are and elite privates keep the elite on elite tract, There is another layer of privates that equal "good" public schools for people who simply don't have access to "good" public schools but they won't get you on elite track.

Most jocking of schools come down to parents hoping their kids will make a leap at least a half level better, maybe if those magnet kids hit the books enough they can afford private schools for their kids. [/quote]
I can't believe I am responding to this person but here goes.
Looking at the top ten ranked univ. acceptances for Blair's class of 2016:
Brown:  5
Harvard:   2
Yale:   4
Princeton: 5
Stanford:  3
Columbia: 5
UPenn: 5
Duke: 4
MIT: 5
Uchicago: 3
Duke:  4
Johns Hopkins Univ: 4
[b]That is close to 50 acceptances- [/b]without the benefit of the great college counseling services a top private offers.  
I think you would be surprised how similar the program is to a top tier private in that they don't confine themselves to an AP curriculum- the program has developed its own curriculum.  The teachers encourage the students to stretch themselves, to think outside the box, to be creative and they set very high expectations.  They are NOT looking solely for students who test well.  The top private schools in DC are excellent and I am not going to say anything negative about them but I think you might not fully understand how a program like Blair works.  
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Are these numbers represent "acceptances" (i.e., same kids maybe counted multiple times) or "attending" (i.e., single count)?? [/quote]

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