Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In a city where private schools proudly champion inclusivity and social justice, there’s an ironic twist: these values are nurtured within exclusive bubbles, far removed from the diverse realities of public schools. Parents preach the virtues of equity but often pay top dollar to avoid sending their children to public institutions—the very environments where their talent, privilege, and resources could have the most transformative impact. Instead, inclusivity becomes a brand, polished behind ivy-covered walls, while public schools, brimming with untapped potential, are left out of the equation. Is it inclusiveness we seek—or insulation?

OP, I don't get the point of your question. Is this supposed to be some philosophical debate on a slow day during the holidays?

I've had kids in DC private schools since about 2008, and still do. I couldn't care less if they are in a "bubble," but then, I don't "preach the virtues of equity," because I do not believe in equity, nor think it is a virtue.

You're painting all private school parents and schools with the same brush. You are speaking here about a subset.

And please name the private school in the DMV that has ivy-covered walls. I've yet to see it.

At least you're honest about it. We have a neighbor with a Sidwell bumper sticker and a BLM, no human is illegal, love lives here... yard sign.

These are not contradictory.

Opting out of public school is totally consistent with beliefs in non-discriminatory hiring in the workplace; beliefs that law enforcement officers should not engage in vigilante justice; beliefs that the value of a person does not turn on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

? Correct

Anonymous wrote:Like OP and others (I think) the problem is not so much the exclusive nature of the schools as their simultaneous preaching of inclusion. It’s really weird. And particularly grating at religious schools, although the non-religious ones tend to have their own kinds of invented religion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In a city where private schools proudly champion inclusivity and social justice, there’s an ironic twist: these values are nurtured within exclusive bubbles, far removed from the diverse realities of public schools. Parents preach the virtues of equity but often pay top dollar to avoid sending their children to public institutions—the very environments where their talent, privilege, and resources could have the most transformative impact. Instead, inclusivity becomes a brand, polished behind ivy-covered walls, while public schools, brimming with untapped potential, are left out of the equation. Is it inclusiveness we seek—or insulation?

OP, I don't get the point of your question. Is this supposed to be some philosophical debate on a slow day during the holidays?

I've had kids in DC private schools since about 2008, and still do. I couldn't care less if they are in a "bubble," but then, I don't "preach the virtues of equity," because I do not believe in equity, nor think it is a virtue.

You're painting all private school parents and schools with the same brush. You are speaking here about a subset.

And please name the private school in the DMV that has ivy-covered walls. I've yet to see it.

At least you're honest about it. We have a neighbor with a Sidwell bumper sticker and a BLM, no human is illegal, love lives here... yard sign.

Anonymous wrote:Do kids at these schools ever look at the cost of their education and the people they go to school with next to the inclusion and diversity rhetoric/workshops/required assemblies and ask how to reconcile the two? How can a school that costs so much and has so little actual diversity preach social justice?

Just be a rich exclusionary school that doesn’t try to pretend it’s not. At least that would be honest.

Anonymous wrote:I can see many parents that their kids couldn’t get into GDS, Maret, and Sidwell 🤣.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In a city where private schools proudly champion inclusivity and social justice, there’s an ironic twist: these values are nurtured within exclusive bubbles, far removed from the diverse realities of public schools. Parents preach the virtues of equity but often pay top dollar to avoid sending their children to public institutions—the very environments where their talent, privilege, and resources could have the most transformative impact. Instead, inclusivity becomes a brand, polished behind ivy-covered walls, while public schools, brimming with untapped potential, are left out of the equation. Is it inclusiveness we seek—or insulation?

OP, I don't get the point of your question. Is this supposed to be some philosophical debate on a slow day during the holidays?

I've had kids in DC private schools since about 2008, and still do. I couldn't care less if they are in a "bubble," but then, I don't "preach the virtues of equity," because I do not believe in equity, nor think it is a virtue.

You're painting all private school parents and schools with the same brush. You are speaking here about a subset.

And please name the private school in the DMV that has ivy-covered walls. I've yet to see it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In a city where private schools proudly champion inclusivity and social justice, there’s an ironic twist: these values are nurtured within exclusive bubbles, far removed from the diverse realities of public schools. Parents preach the virtues of equity but often pay top dollar to avoid sending their children to public institutions—the very environments where their talent, privilege, and resources could have the most transformative impact. Instead, inclusivity becomes a brand, polished behind ivy-covered walls, while public schools, brimming with untapped potential, are left out of the equation. Is it inclusiveness we seek—or insulation?

OP, I don't get the point of your question. Is this supposed to be some philosophical debate on a slow day during the holidays?

I've had kids in DC private schools since about 2008, and still do. I couldn't care less if they are in a "bubble," but then, I don't "preach the virtues of equity," because I do not believe in equity, nor think it is a virtue.

You're painting all private school parents and schools with the same brush. You are speaking here about a subset.

And please name the private school in the DMV that has ivy-covered walls. I've yet to see it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The diversity and inclusivity at these schools is window dressing to make everyone involved feel better and deflect criticism. To some extent it's also to create an environment more similar to elite colleges, which do the exact same thing.

A lot of the diversity at these schools (both elite private K-12s and elite private colleges) comes from people with generational wealthy who have minority and/or international backgrounds. So children at these schools are unlikely to encounter ANY of the poor black and hispanic children who fill public school classrooms in the city, but they are highly likely to be with the children of ambassadors, people in the upper levels of the World Bank and certain NGOs, elite lawyers and business people, many of whom are not white. Also your kids are more likely to have classmates of Asian or South Asian descent at these privates than they will at any DCPS outside of upper northwest, many of which have zero or less than 1% asian students even when the surrounding neighborhoods have Asian families.

This is what elite education looks like in 2024. An all white school would not only be suspected of being racist, it would be considered a detriment in the market because parents want their kids to acclimate to diverse environments like those they will find in college and in elite workplaces -- you aren't going to find many investment banks, law firms, operating rooms, or board rooms filled exclusively with white, American born professionals these days.

But it's a certain kind of diversity. Elite diversity. International backgrounds are prized, the non-white population skews away from black and hispanic Americans and Latin American immigrant families (which is where most diversity in public schools comes from) and toward AAPI, mixed race, and wealthy foreign families.

I say this all neutrally. Not a criticism. Just pointing out that when people in elite institutions talk about diversity, they aren't really talking about the same sort of diversity that people in other settings are talking about. There is little economic diversity and the racial and ethnic diversity you find is fundamentally different as a result.

Diversity/inclusivitiy is not just ethnic/racial diversity. I would argue it's easier to be LGBTQ+, or even just nerdy or non-sporty at certain private schools. GDS has a very "you do you" culture where students are encouraged to be themselves, pursue their own interests, etc. Groups of kids intermingle vs jocks/non-jocks. This just isn't true at all schools.

How easy is it to be an english language learner at GDS? How easy is it to be poor (not we get aid and make 300k a year poor, but real poor)? How easy is it to be SPED?

This. The reason it's easier to be LGBTQ+ or a non-jock at GDS than at a typical public is because even the LGBTQ+ kids and the non-jocks ate united by being very privileged. It erases other divisions.

At a truly diverse public, a gay kid or an ASD kid or an unathletic D&D loving kid might be ostracized by whatever the predominant group on campus is. At an elite private, the predominant group on campus is "rich kids with rich parents" and that helps erase those decisions.

But you could be a straight, white athlete with middle brow interests and be ostracized at GDS because your parents are poor. Only that would never happen because no such student would ever set foot on GDS's campus.

Anonymous wrote:In a city where private schools proudly champion inclusivity and social justice, there’s an ironic twist: these values are nurtured within exclusive bubbles, far removed from the diverse realities of public schools. Parents preach the virtues of equity but often pay top dollar to avoid sending their children to public institutions—the very environments where their talent, privilege, and resources could have the most transformative impact. Instead, inclusivity becomes a brand, polished behind ivy-covered walls, while public schools, brimming with untapped potential, are left out of the equation. Is it inclusiveness we seek—or insulation?