Anonymous wrote:Our kids attended St. Veronica's. We move for work, so let me tell you what happened when we applied for our kids next school (also private and we're now overseas so international). My oldest child was a full grade ahead in math. He's doing high school math in 8th grade. He's in advance Latin class.

My middle child is considered FAR ahead in math for his grade and is making straight As and some Bs. He comes home and says 'mom we covered a lot of this already at my last school'.

So I'm here to tell you my oldest two children are massively ahead of their peers at the new school. And this is the school the local rich parents send their kids too.

Now it may be that we lucked out with St. Veronica's. I cannot attest to other Catholic schools in the area. I know other parents who are equally as happy with St. Joseph's in Herndon and I know many parents that apply to both schools equally.

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Anonymous wrote:Private schools don't have the same issues as public schools because they can turn away anyone they want to: troublemakers, kids who are very low achieving, FARMs kids, ESOL kids... etc.

Apples to oranges comparison.

Yes, and that's a good thing. I'll take the apples over the oranges any day!

Well, you’re honest. Most private school parents would never admit how much they dislike the poor and immigrants. At least Catholic schools have stuck to the part of their mission to educate a wide variety of kids, including the poor, immigrants, different learners, different races.

It's not about socioeconomic status, race, or disabilities. Plenty of diversity in our Catholic school, and my daughter has severe ADHD and gets a slew of accommodations. It's about coming from families that value education and keep their kids accountable. That's who I want to surround my kids with. Unfortunately because public schools have to take everyone, you are going to be exposed to the slackers. Some kids come out just fine regardless, but I want to stack the deck so that my kid will succeed.

So the PP (you?) should have said slackers rather than “kids who are very low achieving, FARMs kids, ESOL kids... etc.”. You do your Catholic school no favors by saying the school would turn away different learners, immigrants and the poor.

Do you really think the immigrants and/or poor are applying to Catholic high schools in droves? Yes, there is financial aid at these schools but the parents are (usually) still paying at least some amount of the tuition.

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Anonymous wrote:Private schools don't have the same issues as public schools because they can turn away anyone they want to: troublemakers, kids who are very low achieving, FARMs kids, ESOL kids... etc.

Apples to oranges comparison.

Yes, and that's a good thing. I'll take the apples over the oranges any day!

Well, you’re honest. Most private school parents would never admit how much they dislike the poor and immigrants. At least Catholic schools have stuck to the part of their mission to educate a wide variety of kids, including the poor, immigrants, different learners, different races.

It's not about socioeconomic status, race, or disabilities. Plenty of diversity in our Catholic school, and my daughter has severe ADHD and gets a slew of accommodations. It's about coming from families that value education and keep their kids accountable. That's who I want to surround my kids with. Unfortunately because public schools have to take everyone, you are going to be exposed to the slackers. Some kids come out just fine regardless, but I want to stack the deck so that my kid will succeed.

So the PP (you?) should have said slackers rather than “kids who are very low achieving, FARMs kids, ESOL kids... etc.”. You do your Catholic school no favors by saying the school would turn away different learners, immigrants and the poor.

Where did I say this? I said our school generally doesn't have students with parents who don't keep their kids accountable. There are plenty of students on financial aid and who are different learners in our student body as well as great ethnic and racial diversity. Difference is the families value education and engage with the school community. That is what we pay for.

Reference to "slackers" are the kids who come from families who just don't care and don't engage. We prefer to surround ourselves with other families to value good education and hard work.

(oh my)

So the PP at 19:18 should have only listed slackers?

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools don't have the same issues as public schools because they can turn away anyone they want to: troublemakers, kids who are very low achieving, FARMs kids, ESOL kids... etc.

Apples to oranges comparison.

Yes, and that's a good thing. I'll take the apples over the oranges any day!

Well, you’re honest. Most private school parents would never admit how much they dislike the poor and immigrants. At least Catholic schools have stuck to the part of their mission to educate a wide variety of kids, including the poor, immigrants, different learners, different races.

It's not about socioeconomic status, race, or disabilities. Plenty of diversity in our Catholic school, and my daughter has severe ADHD and gets a slew of accommodations. It's about coming from families that value education and keep their kids accountable. That's who I want to surround my kids with. Unfortunately because public schools have to take everyone, you are going to be exposed to the slackers. Some kids come out just fine regardless, but I want to stack the deck so that my kid will succeed.

So the PP (you?) should have said slackers rather than “kids who are very low achieving, FARMs kids, ESOL kids... etc.”. You do your Catholic school no favors by saying the school would turn away different learners, immigrants and the poor.

Where did I say this? I said our school generally doesn't have students with parents who don't keep their kids accountable. There are plenty of students on financial aid and who are different learners in our student body as well as great ethnic and racial diversity. Difference is the families value education and engage with the school community. That is what we pay for.

Reference to "slackers" are the kids who come from families who just don't care and don't engage. We prefer to surround ourselves with other families to value good education and hard work.

I think that's a valid point, but then you really cannot compare privates to publics simply because of this reason. The student body is different; the parents are different.

However, even in publics, the schools that have most families who do care about academics are decent. Not perfect, but decent enough where many kids end up at colleges, and some at very very good colleges to rival privates.

I'm the ^^PP who mentioned the different study body. I stated earlier: I went to a rough school, but in the upper grades, I took mostly AP and real honors classes. The kids in those classes care about education. Same for the publics today. The kids who take the AP classes are not slackers. They care about education, as do their parents. Kids who are on the most advanced track become a school within a school.

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Anonymous wrote:You know what “rigor” is? Not taking TWO YEARS off for a respiratory virus, like publics did. Catholics were smart enough not to fall for that insanity.

I hear this so much at our Catholic. Said with a little smile. No humility. So disappointing.

I am sure a lot of Catholic school parents pat themselves on the back for making the choice to send their kids to Catholic during covid. Sure, no one could have predicted covid and the response from public schools....but Catholic school culture teaches independence and critical thinking, so its no surprise they handled covid differently and correctly.

Consider also the criticism Catholic school parents face...my neighbors are annoyed we dont use the walkable neighborhood elementary...my close friends who work in public schools were horrified I am sending my kids to Catholic (underresourced, fewer support services etc etc etc)....and then there are the people like OP.

So yeah, if they crack a little smile when covid is mentioned, they deserve to give themselves a pat on the back for making the choice that was best for their families.

How do catholic schools teach independent thinking and critical thinking skills, whereas, you assume that publics don't? Public schools went over board on the "critical thinking" by pushing "explain your thinking" in every subject, even math. There was a big push a few years ago with common core to push for more critical thinking analysis in public schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools don't have the same issues as public schools because they can turn away anyone they want to: troublemakers, kids who are very low achieving, FARMs kids, ESOL kids... etc.

Apples to oranges comparison.

Yes, and that's a good thing. I'll take the apples over the oranges any day!

Well, you’re honest. Most private school parents would never admit how much they dislike the poor and immigrants. At least Catholic schools have stuck to the part of their mission to educate a wide variety of kids, including the poor, immigrants, different learners, different races.

It's not about socioeconomic status, race, or disabilities. Plenty of diversity in our Catholic school, and my daughter has severe ADHD and gets a slew of accommodations. It's about coming from families that value education and keep their kids accountable. That's who I want to surround my kids with. Unfortunately because public schools have to take everyone, you are going to be exposed to the slackers. Some kids come out just fine regardless, but I want to stack the deck so that my kid will succeed.

So the PP (you?) should have said slackers rather than “kids who are very low achieving, FARMs kids, ESOL kids... etc.”. You do your Catholic school no favors by saying the school would turn away different learners, immigrants and the poor.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know what “rigor” is? Not taking TWO YEARS off for a respiratory virus, like publics did. Catholics were smart enough not to fall for that insanity.

I hear this so much at our Catholic. Said with a little smile. No humility. So disappointing.

I am sure a lot of Catholic school parents pat themselves on the back for making the choice to send their kids to Catholic during covid. Sure, no one could have predicted covid and the response from public schools....but Catholic school culture teaches independence and critical thinking, so its no surprise they handled covid differently and correctly.

Consider also the criticism Catholic school parents face...my neighbors are annoyed we dont use the walkable neighborhood elementary...my close friends who work in public schools were horrified I am sending my kids to Catholic (underresourced, fewer support services etc etc etc)....and then there are the people like OP.

So yeah, if they crack a little smile when covid is mentioned, they deserve to give themselves a pat on the back for making the choice that was best for their families.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools don't have the same issues as public schools because they can turn away anyone they want to: troublemakers, kids who are very low achieving, FARMs kids, ESOL kids... etc.

Apples to oranges comparison.

Yes, and that's a good thing. I'll take the apples over the oranges any day!

Well, you’re honest. Most private school parents would never admit how much they dislike the poor and immigrants. At least Catholic schools have stuck to the part of their mission to educate a wide variety of kids, including the poor, immigrants, different learners, different races.

It's not about socioeconomic status, race, or disabilities. Plenty of diversity in our Catholic school, and my daughter has severe ADHD and gets a slew of accommodations. It's about coming from families that value education and keep their kids accountable. That's who I want to surround my kids with. Unfortunately because public schools have to take everyone, you are going to be exposed to the slackers. Some kids come out just fine regardless, but I want to stack the deck so that my kid will succeed.

So the PP (you?) should have said slackers rather than “kids who are very low achieving, FARMs kids, ESOL kids... etc.”. You do your Catholic school no favors by saying the school would turn away different learners, immigrants and the poor.

Where did I say this? I said our school generally doesn't have students with parents who don't keep their kids accountable. There are plenty of students on financial aid and who are different learners in our student body as well as great ethnic and racial diversity. Difference is the families value education and engage with the school community. That is what we pay for.

Reference to "slackers" are the kids who come from families who just don't care and don't engage. We prefer to surround ourselves with other families to value good education and hard work.