I find these "gauntlets" interesting as they are as discriminatory as they can be within an inch of the ethical and morals boundaries. And they all stand proud on their non-discriminatory philosophy. Bah!
Each private school forms it's own "tribes" with a uniform student body. They look for the commonalities that allow them to create insular worlds and for 30K per student per year to cater to the delusions parents have that their child is the next "Bill Gates." And if not, at least entrance into a top Ivy League school.
In Los Angeles there are 57, yes that's right 57, private schools that vie for a small percentage of students that qualify for entrance.
The private schools, funded in the past by tons of money from parents, allowed them to "overbuild." Every school had to offer it all in order to compete with each other.
That is exactly what has gotten them into trouble. 57 flavors of schools is NOT sustainable even in a large population center as Los Angeles. Parents able to pay for a customized education that emphasized their values, morals and delusions about their kids, are rare and far between.
I think the schools are now the ones with delusions! Offering to "mold" the students into perfect cookie cutters semblances of their parents expectations is ridiculous. Children are as varied as their parents and only those with the gumption and determination make it in life.
If I am to find the perfect "tribe" for D#2 then I guess I need to look at the commonalities of culture. Wonder where I can find that school, seeped in reality, with a touch of low-cost. That's my kind of tribe.
2 comments:
**sigh** Yes, education is such a difficult issue. My own oldest goes right now to private school and will continue to do so for as long as we can afford it. I would love to make use of the public system I already pay for but, sadly, this school district is so awful I won't even consider it.
You know, we need to get back to some basics here. I don't need my daughter's school to make her cultured or moral or an upstanding citizen, etc., etc., etc. I can do that stuff myself. What I really need them to do is teach her to read, write, to do math and offer her the opportunity to play a sport if she would like. The public education system seems to be failing in that particular mission. I don't know what the answer to that problem is, but I do know that I want something better for my kids, so I pay extra for it.
It's a minefield this subject because education touches every facet of life and it touches the core of expectations we have to this wonderful thing we call "the system" but we don't really understand. For this reason most of our comments are emotional.
Let me, if you haven't already come across this, introduce you to this article here:
http://understandingsociety.blogspot.com/2009/10/fair-prices.html
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