Anonymous wrote:anyone else in the same boat?

I'm from here and I know lots of people in your boat.

Anonymous wrote:I'm kind of in the opposite situation. I went to a public high school around here and now send my kids to private. I feel like some people think that I don't think public schools are good enough for my kids and that I'm just a social climber (plenty of comments on this thread alone like that).

same here!!!

Anonymous wrote:I'm kind of in the opposite situation. I went to a public high school around here and now send my kids to private. I feel like some people think that I don't think public schools are good enough for my kids and that I'm just a social climber (plenty of comments on this thread alone like that).

same here!!!!!

DH and I attended public schools. We get a lot of flak from MIL for sending our kids to private schools. "Public schools aren't good enough?" Noo, they're not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Went to Sidwell.
No desire to be part of the current community of parents and I don't think the environment is great for kids.
Going public.

Op here. Interesting. Would you mind saying more about what bothers you about the community?

When I went there, it was a unique and diverse environment. The recent culture of celebrity has made it a hotbed of social climbers and other types that we don't feel comfortable associating with. Many of my classmates feel the same way. It's a culture of elitism and snobbiness that I don't feel is outweighed by the quality of the education.

I'm also a Sidwell alum with kids elsewhere. Same reasons. Money not a factor at all, although it is for some of my classmates who chose public. One of mine is in private and one in MCPS. Only a couple of my classmates sent their kids to Sidwell.

I didn't find it to be a social problem though. Other Sidwell alums aren't at all surprised that alum kids don't go. And at our public school no one is surprised because the public school is so highly regarded. There are actually quite a few Sidwell alums among the parents.

Im the PP. Very, very few of my classmates are sending their kids back there. Like you said, money is a factor for some, though not for us for various reasons. It's more about the culture than anything for most of my classmates who choose elsewhere. I also happen to believe that the quality of the education is not worth the cost. You have to be extraordinarily wealthy to not feel a dent from that level of expense over 18 years, especially if you have more than one kid.

I've also come to the conclusion recently that I want my kids to be happy and fulfilled as opposed to focusing on an Ivy education (after feeling it drilled into me for many years). As a Sidwell and Ivy grad myself, now that I'm in the real world I see virtually no difference in the level of happiness in my peers who went to lesser known institutions. If anything, they're better off.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Went to Sidwell.
No desire to be part of the current community of parents and I don't think the environment is great for kids.
Going public.

Op here. Interesting. Would you mind saying more about what bothers you about the community?

When I went there, it was a unique and diverse environment. The recent culture of celebrity has made it a hotbed of social climbers and other types that we don't feel comfortable associating with. Many of my classmates feel the same way. It's a culture of elitism and snobbiness that I don't feel is outweighed by the quality of the education.

I'm also a Sidwell alum with kids elsewhere. Same reasons. Money not a factor at all, although it is for some of my classmates who chose public. One of mine is in private and one in MCPS. Only a couple of my classmates sent their kids to Sidwell.

I didn't find it to be a social problem though. Other Sidwell alums aren't at all surprised that alum kids don't go. And at our public school no one is surprised because the public school is so highly regarded. There are actually quite a few Sidwell alums among the parents.

I'm kind of in the opposite situation. I went to a public high school around here and now send my kids to private. I feel like some people think that I don't think public schools are good enough for my kids and that I'm just a social climber (plenty of comments on this thread alone like that).

Lots of parents at our public school went to the local private schools. Not unusual at all OP. You are in good company.

I went to an exclusive boarding school that cost $17k when I went. Now it costs $65k. All the alums I know understand why I won't send my kids there, and if uninformed people ask me why I will explain it to them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Went to Sidwell.
No desire to be part of the current community of parents and I don't think the environment is great for kids.
Going public.

Op here. Interesting. Would you mind saying more about what bothers you about the community?

When I went there, it was a unique and diverse environment. The recent culture of celebrity has made it a hotbed of social climbers and other types that we don't feel comfortable associating with. Many of my classmates feel the same way. It's a culture of elitism and snobbiness that I don't feel is outweighed by the quality of the education.

Op here - thanks. This is helpful. The school I went to was already a social climbing/aggressively snobby culture for parents when I went there. My parents just stayed completely out it, which was a great decision for them, but was hard on me since it felt like everyone else's parents were around constantly... I hadn't thought about what private would be like for me, but your post made me reflect that I don't want to end up in that one-upping environment.

I went to a good private but send my kids public, even though we could easily afford private.

I think that while going private might be better from an academic perspective, it limits them in other ways. I want them to be more rounded humans, not like the spoiled little brats I have met coming out of DC privates.

grew up privileged

Money comes and goes.

We are solidly middle class.

I tell the truth - don't candy coat a damn thing about my life.

My kids are fine. great school cluster

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Went to Sidwell.
No desire to be part of the current community of parents and I don't think the environment is great for kids.
Going public.

Op here. Interesting. Would you mind saying more about what bothers you about the community?

When I went there, it was a unique and diverse environment. The recent culture of celebrity has made it a hotbed of social climbers and other types that we don't feel comfortable associating with. Many of my classmates feel the same way. It's a culture of elitism and snobbiness that I don't feel is outweighed by the quality of the education.

Our youngest is about to graduate from SFS, and we've had kids there for just over a decade. The school has changed in that time, definitely, though I think there's still a core of folks who are down-to-earth and genuinely interested in the education, rather than just the networking opportunities (gag). In any case, when we meet SFS alums who don't send their kids there we don't blink an eye -- there are just so many factors that go into the decision about where children would be best off.

This thread is really interesting to me because DH and I both went to public schools (not in this part of the country) and never anticipated sending our kids to private. We feel like there were a lot of good things that came out of our decision to send them to SFS, but I do hope they won't feel obligated to send their own kids to private school (doubtful that it would be SFS in any case since they're probably not going to come back to the DMW after college).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Went to Sidwell.
No desire to be part of the current community of parents and I don't think the environment is great for kids.
Going public.

Op here. Interesting. Would you mind saying more about what bothers you about the community?

When I went there, it was a unique and diverse environment. The recent culture of celebrity has made it a hotbed of social climbers and other types that we don't feel comfortable associating with. Many of my classmates feel the same way. It's a culture of elitism and snobbiness that I don't feel is outweighed by the quality of the education.

I went to Exeter and send my kids to a Title I DCPS. We probably wont do private school later, either. It was an amazing experience for me that my parents sacrificed a lot for, but we think out kids growing up in DC And going to public will have other advantages, like not growing up in a wealthy bubble. Not ruling it out, but not seeking it either. We're doing great camps, vacations and other cultural and learning experiences that werent avsilable to either of us growing up.