Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who thinks this article isn't "credible" needs to take a good long look in the mirror. She hits the nail on the head.

Eh. What is she trying to say? I can't quite figure out from the article. Aggressive parents at an elite school in a high-pressure city? That's not particularly new.

I think she's saying that paying $45k in private school tuition no longer guarantees you admission to an elite college and that this is enraging rich, white private school parents and making them do insane things.

Yep, that's it (for those here with limited reading comprehension skills).

Fun article from a strong writer about a topic that's already been hashed to death. She's good enough to make it more than a just-kill-me-now topic. This should serve as a warning to the rest of us: Sidwell-type parents, in true Trumpian fashion, aren't just going to let their kids' "birthright" slip from their hands as a new generation of motivated public school kids challenge the legacy system. They want their own little Ivankas and Tiffanys and Jareds to go to Harvard, too!

The best parts, for those who won't get around to reading it:

"Earlier this month, Sidwell Friends School, bastion of the Washington, D.C., elite, was the site of a fantastical, Real Housewives of the Independent Schools cavalcade of hideous parental behavior, which apparently included a “verbal assault” on college counselors, secretly taping conversations with them, calling them from blocked phone numbers to run down other kids in the applicant pool, and trying to obtain copies of other students’ records.

At this point, we’ve reached peak private school. The shortage of spaces at elite colleges has driven these people mad, and there is nothing at all left to contain their behavior; their true motivation for sending their kids to these schools has been laid bare."

And this, although the mention of Duke is kind of off, because I don't think these folks would be satisfied with Duke, just as many here apparently think that U Michigan is not quite snobby enough for the younger Obama daughter:

"Sidwell Friends, like most Quaker schools, has been able to retain many of its faith traditions despite welcoming a diverse student body; it’s the least oppressive religion on Earth. But the silent search for the inner spark of God is not much help when rabid parents are underfoot. Quakers are pacifists, for God’s sake. Conscientious objectors. If they weren’t going to take on Adolf Hitler, they sure as hell aren’t going to take on a Kalorama mom with blood in her eyes and Duke on her mind."

Doesn't the Atlantic have anything else to publish? I ignored before the fact pointed out by others that the editor in chief is a GDS parent who seems to relish publishing inside school gossip as news and erudite commentary. (See his smug insider columns on the important people in the GDS drop off line). If this is his idea of one-upsmanship of a rival school from the GDS perspective, it's a weird hobby.

Anonymous wrote:This is an excellent article.

Really? It's barely readable. Maybe you have to have an emotional investment in hating the Sidwell parents to trudge through it? I don't live in DC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who thinks this article isn't "credible" needs to take a good long look in the mirror. She hits the nail on the head.

Eh. What is she trying to say? I can't quite figure out from the article. Aggressive parents at an elite school in a high-pressure city? That's not particularly new.

I think she's saying that paying $45k in private school tuition no longer guarantees you admission to an elite college and that this is enraging rich, white private school parents and making them do insane things.

The last line actually describes our president and many in power. "That money, brutish behavior, and selfish demands will always get you what you want."

This is an excellent article.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who thinks this article isn't "credible" needs to take a good long look in the mirror. She hits the nail on the head.

Eh. What is she trying to say? I can't quite figure out from the article. Aggressive parents at an elite school in a high-pressure city? That's not particularly new.

Anyone who thinks this article isn't "credible" needs to take a good long look in the mirror. She hits the nail on the head.

It’s all true.

Before giving it too much credit, I would read Flanagan's past writings and then evaluate just how credible you find her.

It's a rehash of the article from January and the article from March and the article from May.

The two people leaving, one was a horrid hire that the other stood by, rather than admit it was a bad hire.

Now, the one, is burning every bridge on the way out.

i have not seen another thread on this.

Pretty sure there is already a thread on this. Also I am personally skeptical of basically anything that Caitlin Flanagan writes at this point.