Hogworts. Definitely Hogworts.

what about posse

Hey everyone -- poise is not synonymous with "manners" or "politeness."

14:20 here. Sorry, didn't see the "this area" bit.

Miss Porter's.

Anonymous wrote:Sidwell.

[donning flame-retardant suit ....]


-- love, not a Sidwell parent or grad, just a Washingtonian who has lived here a long time and has noticed the exact thing OP is discussing.

Oh my gosh, no. The Sidwell kids I know, including DD's BFF, are NOT poised.

What do you mean, anyway, OP? Do you mean confidence? Do you mean being articulate? Polite to your elders? I assume you don't mean confidence that comes from knowing which fork to use, and schools don't teach this anyway. Do you mean the sort of confidence you get from knowing you went to an elite private school? In the latter case it's nothing the school does, it's the fact of the school's existence....

AA's used to speak of "home training." That says it all.

Agree that poised children can come from anywhere (including the ghetto). Great parents teach their kids great values. You can't put a price tag on that and poise is not relegated to the well-off who happen to have the money to go to private schools.

My dd went to Holton. I think she already had poise before she went there. I have some friends who came from very poor backgrounds and they had poise. I've found that many African Americans tend to have better manners/poise because they have had some 'southern grandmas' who have taught them to have poise even in the throws of racism.

Anonymous wrote:Poise comes largely from the example set at home, not from school.

Some schools pointedly develop the raw material brought from home better than other schools do. I disagree that home life factors more heavily than the 35-40 hours a week spent on school property.

Poise isn't something that a school can produce in a child.

Any school, anywhere, can have children who are poised.

Anonymous wrote:Langley High School

Poised for what?

Poise comes largely from the example set at home, not from school.

Langley High School

Sidwell.

[donning flame-retardant suit ....]


-- love, not a Sidwell parent or grad, just a Washingtonian who has lived here a long time and has noticed the exact thing OP is discussing.

I know kids with poise are everywhere. And I know every school will have at least one who is the opposite of poised. I know, for instance, that every person I have met from Groton seems poised. Are there any schools in the area for which you have the same impression?