Anyone know much about this school? I've heard mixed reviews about the quality of education there. Seems Fairfax public schools offer the same or better education. Just researching different private schools in the DC area.

Four words: Gonzaga College High School

Just do public , save your money

Potomac is a nice school. But I agree ..... Public Schools are much better in Fairfax County. Don't get on that break the bank private school treadmill. From what I've seen, FCPS kids fare better.

John lettow, president of vorbeck is yet another damaged alumni of the potomac school for the privileged class

Moving parent Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Anyone know much about this school? I've heard
> mixed reviews about the quality of education
> there. Seems Fairfax public schools offer the same
> or better education. Just researching different
> private schools in the DC area.

you gotta be kidding.
First off, try to get in. If you can't, it's pretty much a moot point now isn't it?

go to DCUM private school forum; hundreds of messages on private schools. Much wailing, gnashing of teeth, rending of clothes by those turned down or wait listed by Potomac

I went to the board DCUM, and man Potomac School sounds great. Feel guilty because I sent my kids to public schools, of course I doubt I could have afforded the place even if my kids could have gotten in.

Clearly, kids from there either are or are going to be running things. Hopefully better than things are being run now.

The Potomac School Reunion of 2011 honors Dr. John S. Lettow '91 for excellence in lying, deception and the overall lack of character, ethics and integrity in the conduct of his life.

John Lettow screwed with the wrong man's life

Tate Bed Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> John Lettow screwed with the wrong man's life


Details?

If you can afford it, send your kids to Flint Hill School in Oakton. They have an incredible faculty and curriculum.

Puhleeease!

I could not help but begin to reminisce over the 3 years I spent in McClean, Va. Yes, i speak of the potomac school...a school where below average females are considered "hot", a school where douche-bag lax bros become celebrities (within the school) and a place where the only Black Heads seen were the ones you saw when you looked in the mirror...good times.

The quality of the public education depends entirely on where you live. If you are in the Lake Braddock district and your kids are ready for anything beyond middle school, go private. While there are many good teachers at LBSS, the principal and many of his Assistant Principals (though, in fairness, not all) are driving the school into the ground. It's a disgrace.

privateschool Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you can afford it, send your kids to Flint Hill
> School in Oakton. They have an incredible faculty
> and curriculum.


I would love to hear more on this as it is not the school's reputation.
Any details on this incredible curriculum? And how about the college placements last year; Seems for 30K they should be getting into better than NOVA nd GMU.

­



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/2013 10:09AM by chuckhoffmann.

The Lettow family is a prominent Potomac School booster yet no one trusts them and only use them for their money. It's not a surprise that their son John Lettow is a self-absorbed loser

Tj is the number one ranked school in the country for 15 years and it's free.

It's always helpful to have a TJ student tell us this. Thanks for the useful information.

Moving to private school Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The quality of the public education depends
> entirely on where you live. If you are in the Lake
> Braddock district and your kids are ready for
> anything beyond middle school, go private. While
> there are many good teachers at LBSS, the
> principal and many of his Assistant Principals
> (though, in fairness, not all) are driving the
> school into the ground. It's a disgrace.


could you please elaborate - how so?

Some APs are power mongers who run their departments like fiefdoms. The Principal doesn't appear to have the guts to rein them in. I've heard from those inside the school that his main concern is managing up, not down, and so it seems that things are getting out of control. Teachers who wouldn't last a year at another school in the county seem to find a home here (parents letters can fill a folder, but nothing is done), and if your child happens to end up with one, good luck getting any support without bringing in the big guns. Instead of helping a child, they will build a case against him/her just to protect the teacher - in a resource scarce environment, that is complete waste. The school has a reputation among those in the educational community for not giving support to students when they need it.Teachers can bully with no consequence regardless of the harm done. Certain situations have been going on for years! Same goes for coaches -- they can demean, degrade, humiliate and drive a kid away from a sport -- again with no recourse. To be fair, though, that seems to be the way of the Northern Region, not just LBSS.

All in all, these folks preach character education to the kids, put it on their billboards, but don't model it themselves. The kids see right through it. It's interesting, too, how this all fits w/ the zero tolerance policies. THat situation is out of control based on what I've read, but at the same time, my children are well aware of kids getting baked before school, before practice etc. very near to school grounds. If you are a good athlete, heads turn the other way. If not, you're in trouble. It's hard to raise honorable teenagers in that environment.

There are many good teachers and great staff at LBSS. Our own AP is good. I know from some inside the school that they, too, suffer from the effects of poor leadership. THe school used to be in the top 100 in the country, but no more.

Moving to private school Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Some APs are power mongers who run their
> departments like fiefdoms. The Principal doesn't
> appear to have the guts to rein them in. I've
> heard from those inside the school that his main
> concern is managing up, not down, and so it seems
> that things are getting out of control. Teachers
> who wouldn't last a year at another school in the
> county seem to find a home here (parents letters
> can fill a folder, but nothing is done), and if
> your child happens to end up with one, good luck
> getting any support without bringing in the big
> guns. Instead of helping a child, they will build
> a case against him/her just to protect the teacher
> - in a resource scarce environment, that is
> complete waste. The school has a reputation among
> those in the educational community for not giving
> support to students when they need it.Teachers can
> bully with no consequence regardless of the harm
> done. Certain situations have been going on for
> years! Same goes for coaches -- they can demean,
> degrade, humiliate and drive a kid away from a
> sport -- again with no recourse. To be fair,
> though, that seems to be the way of the Northern
> Region, not just LBSS.
>
> All in all, these folks preach character education
> to the kids, put it on their billboards, but don't
> model it themselves. The kids see right through
> it. It's interesting, too, how this all fits w/
> the zero tolerance policies. THat situation is out
> of control based on what I've read, but at the
> same time, my children are well aware of kids
> getting baked before school, before practice etc.
> very near to school grounds. If you are a good
> athlete, heads turn the other way. If not, you're
> in trouble. It's hard to raise honorable teenagers
> in that environment.
>
> There are many good teachers and great staff at
> LBSS. Our own AP is good. I know from some inside
> the school that they, too, suffer from the effects
> of poor leadership. THe school used to be in the
> top 100 in the country, but no more.


This is interesting and disturbing. How did you gather your facts? Are you a student or parent of LBSS? Sorry, if you answered this question already, but I didn't read the complete thread.

Personal experience is all I can say. I've probably said too much already, but the bottom line is that if asked, I could not recommend the high school.

My child is in the LBSS GT middle school, and while it's far from perfect, she's definitely getting a great education.

Agree that the middle school isn't perfect, but my kids had a good experience there. High school is another story. It's good for kids that can survive anywhere although I've seen even really good kids go bad. Some of that is just high school in general, but the issues I stated above are very real.

With Fairfax having some of the best public schools in the nation, especially programs for gifted students, why would anyone pay $30k to $50k+ a year for private school? It would be interesting to see the average IQ of a private school graduate vs. the average IQ of a Fairfax or Loudoun High School graduate. I bet there isn't any difference.

moving... Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Agree that the middle school isn't perfect, but my
> kids had a good experience there. High school is
> another story. It's good for kids that can
> survive anywhere although I've seen even really
> good kids go bad. Some of that is just high school
> in general, but the issues I stated above are very
> real.

So after such a horrible high school experience, where are your kids now? Did they go to college?

eesh wrote:

With Fairfax having some of the best public schools in the nation, especially programs for gifted students, why would anyone pay $30k to $50k+ a year for private school? It would be interesting to see the average IQ of a private school graduate vs. the average IQ of a Fairfax or Loudoun High School graduate. I bet there isn't any difference.


What if your kid doesn't get into the gifted program? Is Fairfax still the best in the nation? Is it the best in the nation because of its schools or despite them? How much attention does the average kid get in FCPS? The kids in the middle are the ones getting left behind these days. It's not all about IQ. It's about achievement and how much it goes up as a result of what the school is doing. If any kid can make bigger gains in achievement in private school as opposed to public, I would say the private school is doing a better job with the kid. It doesn't matter if the kid is "gifted" or not. It's about progress made for the individual student. IQ and achievement are not the same thing. Giving kids the environment that inspires and helps them achieve is the issue. You can have a high IQ and not achieve if you aren't motivated or don't have access to the teacher or to a good teacher. I've seen it happen. FCPS is lucky to have a fairly large number of educated parents who help their kids at home.

why private Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> eesh wrote:
>
> With Fairfax having some of the best public
> schools in the nation, especially programs for
> gifted students, why would anyone pay $30k to
> $50k+ a year for private school? It would be
> interesting to see the average IQ of a private
> school graduate vs. the average IQ of a Fairfax or
> Loudoun High School graduate. I bet there isn't
> any difference.
>
>
> What if your kid doesn't get into the gifted
> program? Is Fairfax still the best in the nation?
> Is it the best in the nation because of its
> schools or despite them? How much attention does
> the average kid get in FCPS? The kids in the
> middle are the ones getting left behind these
> days. It's not all about IQ. It's about
> achievement and how much it goes up as a result of
> what the school is doing. If any kid can make
> bigger gains in achievement in private school as
> opposed to public, I would say the private school
> is doing a better job with the kid. It doesn't
> matter if the kid is "gifted" or not. It's about
> progress made for the individual student. IQ and
> achievement are not the same thing. Giving kids
> the environment that inspires and helps them
> achieve is the issue. You can have a high IQ and
> not achieve if you aren't motivated or don't have
> access to the teacher or to a good teacher. I've
> seen it happen. FCPS is lucky to have a fairly
> large number of educated parents who help their
> kids at home.

True to all of the above, but the private school admissions process screens out a lot of these kids similar to the way the GT screening process works.

"True to all of the above, but the private school admissions process screens out a lot of these kids similar to the way the GT screening process works."


I think you can find some private schools that specialize in teaching kids who are outliers---that is, kids who are bright, but not motivated by the cookie cutter public school routine. Lots of boys are falling into this category these days (look at the stats on boys going to college---they have gone down substantially from in the past and it's not because boys are dumber than girls). These are schools that have very different models for learning---they have lower class sizes so they can actually do REAL experiments in the science classes, take field trips, and do independent projects because there are no SOL tests. The focus is on skill development and lots of attention is given to each student. These are things that inspire boys and are make them feel there is a logic to their learning process. Sitting with a pencil and multiple choice tests is not the only way to learn. The whole world can be a place to learn---it can happen. Lots of private schools pride themselves on being the very place that is NOT the public school. Success in public school is not all they look at. If they see IQ and promise and desire and parental support, they can do a lot even if a kid has not had all A's in public school. Even though the subject of "The Blind Side" was accepted into a private school for athletics, there is a much deeper message in that movie about family support and success. If you put a kid in the right environment, he will make progress. I think the focus on GT screening is misplaced. Parents and the public schools need to stop putting kids in boxes and that's when they will start to see some real success. Unfortunately, when you are in a big system like FCPS, the boxes are all over the place. Throw in the state and federal educational mandates and you've got a real octopus. It takes on a life of its own and the kids are just numbers. The public school teachers are becoming exhausted by all of it. It's really not entirely their fault, but they are being made the demons.

Yet another Potomac School alumni Reed Landry, assaulted my friend Liz Glover at the Young and the Guest List party thrown by Washington Life magazine. It was pretty lame behavior for an aspiring media mogul.

I found this string on Google and was surprised to see the conversation referencing John Lettow. I am an alumni of The Potomac School and was not surprised to see the interesting commentary. John Lettow is a fake.

y'all arent actually gonna believe this (I find it hard to believe myself LoLz) but I'm actually an alumni of the Langley School, Potomac's sister school

pretty good school, IF you are part of that richie-rich scene

I obviously, was not :)

GREAT faculty. My 7th grade teacher hammered English into us so hard, I didnt even know what I knew till Junior year when I found out I was ahead of the curve (Thanks, Mr Fall, wherever you are)

Mr Rinker and Ms Dagget, the science teachers at the time were a friggin Beakman's World. If you could afford it, they did trips to the Galapagos during Spring Break.

And i dont remember the name of the guy who taught us Art, but he taught us how to really appreciate what the art of Film is, taking it beyond just "watching a movie"

Got to go on a Whale Watching field trip and stay at Chincoteague - so AWESOME field trips, gotta admit :)

Yeah, there are stuck up kids, but a LOT of good ones, too.

And the faculty will be (or at least was when I was there) on top of things when shit goes down.

Someone spray painted a swastika on a wall once when I was there, and the school had a Holocaust survivor come to talk to us about why it was an asshole thing to do. I'll never forget seeing that dude's number tattoo :(


Anyways, that's my 2 cents



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2011 03:36PM by Gordon Blvd.

No one gives two shits where you claim you went to school. Ass clown

apparently you did enough to write all that

LoLz

No one gives 2 shits where you went to school. Ass clown

Lolz

apparently you did enough to write all that twice

LoLz

No 1 gives two shitsvwhere you went to school.

Lolz

you are a grand debater, butter

I bow to your great oral skills LoLz

you are a GRAND......................



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2011 09:01AM by Gordon Blvd.
Attachments:

to OP: apologies for polluting your thread with the bickering

No one gives two shits, ass clown, where you went to school.

Lolz

That guy is a douche bag anyway. No one trusted him

91 alum Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That guy is a douche bag anyway. No one trusted
> him

I was referring to the Lettow string...what an asshole. Glad to see someone is calling that guy out

I am a friend of John Lettow's estranged wife and finally someone has the guts to stand up to John Lettow and his crazy family. Thank you whoever you are for calling him out. He is damaged goods and has had this coming for some time.

I will be attending the upcoming 20th reunion of the Potomac School Class of 1991 and I know John Lettow personally and no way does he possess the backbone to attend given the attention that has now come his way. Everyone is curious about these posts about him but we all know that he has been super coddled his entire life. Everyone I know is talking about this conversation and many are relieved that he will be a no-show.

who is this? i wont be there but heard his wife caught him red handed

No one really cares about John Lettow's soap opera

Potomacalum Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
Everyone I know is
> talking about this conversation and many are
> relieved that he will be a no-show.

Wow, what a pathetic group of people you are, if you're relieved that someone won't show up at a high school reunion because of that. Are your lives so shallow that someone who's banging a chick on the side is going to ruin the whole night?
It makes my public school education seem a bit more viable in that i'm hoping that people banging other chicks, and fat homecoming queens, and jocks who are now living in trailer parks show up, so that I can be a dickhead and make fun of them behind their backs!

except for the girl he's been banging :)

After weeks of harassing and untraceable texts and phone calls my wife admitted to having slept with a man named John Lettow when attending a conference here in Boston. I searched this guy's name and came across these posts all over the web. Who is this guy and what the hell is going on? PLEASE let me know

call John Lettow @ 2023291636

I found the best way to get honest school reviews (without off topic and/or inappropriate forum convos) was to use SchoolDigger and Great Schools and look up the school there. Families leave reviews about their experience with the school. I used these sites in my private school search and ended up enrolling my children at The Green Hedges in Vienna. We are so happy with the atmosphere and education our kids receive and glad we used honest School review platforms to help us find the school. Green Hedges starts for PreSchool 3s and goes to 8th grade so you only have to do the private school search once for a LONG time (which can be time consuming, extensive and beyond stressful, speaking from personal experience) Their website is: http://www.greenhedges.org/