Anonymous wrote:Well, one fourth grade class is.

Great. Pull all your kids out and open up spaces. How ludicrous.

Can you elaborate?

Well, one fourth grade class is.

Anonymous wrote:I have heard that comment from many parents who do not send their children there. Do parents WITH children at the school feel this way?

Fourth grade certainly is.

Kids get quarterly grades.

I thought Sidwell tries to take focus off of grades by only giving them by semester, so that kids don't feel the pressure of every quarter?

I think its equally possible that the OP is a parent of one of the kids who are so focused on school work that they are not really participating in regular high school life.

Some people aren't up to the academic challenge to a school like Sidwell. I suspect OP may be one of them. Then, a school not meant for a dummy would be "joyless".

It's a highly academic environment. there are some kids at the very top end academically who are so focused on work that they might be classfied as joyless - but they would be at any school they attended. Then there are kids who are struggling at the bottom end - they may not be very happy and maybe for them, it's the wrong school. The 85 percent in the middle are having the normal ups and downs of high school.

I get "academic pressure." But wth does "social pressure" mean?

This is a strange question to ask unless you are trying to knock Sidwell...

Woops: 23:41 "doesn't"

Sidwell always seems to be picked on - is there a history here?

Honestly, I don't think that it should "depend on the class". Schools have an overall culture that a class by class breakdown don't penetrate. If you have to say that then I'd wonder whether it is joyless.

Like every other private OR public, at least in MoCo.

My MoCo son truly experiences joy every day he goes to school.