Charlotte Country Day School

[Believe-In-Charlotte]

Country Day is a high quality private school-- but so is Charlotte Latin. Knowing folks at each, I would be more comfortable with the values at Latin.

Some of my opinion is colored by recent info from my 20 year old daughter, a recent graduate from an affluent S Charlotte school, a 4 year cheerleader on an academic scholarship, who frequented all the private school parties.

Just my 3 cents.

[dorado0359]

Originally Posted by carolina_guy

I wish everyone felt like you do. I am 100% for equal opportunity and 100% against quotas. It should be about who can do what and at what level. Good grades, good jobs, etc should be given to those that earn them because of their skills, not because of their color.

Huh..., "100% for equal opportunity and 100% against quotas" sounds like a contradiction to me.

[lovethebigcity]

Pretty much all the private schools in the Charlotte area are good & in each one you will get a great education.

[BarbJ]

Hi Jasykaur,

You may never read this post since you wrote your original post was back in July, but here goes anyway.....

Both of my kids went to CCDS; my daughter from K through 12 and my son until he left after his sophomore year to go to NC School of Science and Math.
Both got a great education there and from what I hear from friends, it's even a better school now. So academically there should be no doubts about it.

Now as for diversity - that's a tough one. The very fact that the tuition would be what a single mom from the projects might earn in a year, pretty much limits financial diversity. As to racial and ethnic diversity, there is some and the school tries very, very hard to expand this aspect of the school. They are generous with scholarships and have many projects which send their students out into the community as volunteers or donors. They try to let their students see what life is like beyond Eastover. They also have a rich international exchange program. One of my friends has had a young man from Mexico at her home for an exchange several times and another has had a French girl at her home. Their children have then visited the homes of the exchange students. Over the years CCDS has been a favorite for international business families' children - to the point that they have an ESL program at the school.

Of course, one has to ask if this is really diversity and I would have to say not really. Most of the students come from a limited privileged area of pricey homes. They take costly vacations and have all of the advantages that money can buy. However, most of the kids that come out of this school are not snobs and definitely leave with a developed social conscience. Take my daughter for instance. She now works in international development focusing on Francophile West Africa, Morocco, India and Viet Nam. She lives in DC in Mount Pleasant - hardly an exclusive white neighborhood. She has friends of every color and dates anyone she sees as a good person regardless of skin tone. What's more she frequently volunteers on weekends and when she cooks always makes extra for the homeless people of her neighborhood.

So did lack of diversity in the student body harm her? - I think not.

Now that is not to say that she was not quite bored with the sameness for 13 years. But when asked if she would do it again, she always answers affirmatively. She had great relationships with the teachers (as did I) and made some lifelong friends there.

We originally chose CCDS because of its history - it was founded in 1941 before the era of white flight schools that sprang up in the 70's: the only non-sectarian private school that was not founded after 1970. This was important to us.

If you want to contact me through the Forum Administrators, I'd be willing to talk to you. Choosing a school is a big and hard decision. I remember how we agonized over it.