This is not a review disparaging BVWS. It is about the lack of transparency and consideration my…read morefamily and I were given through the application and enrollment process. My daughter is no stranger to BVWS: she attended in early childhood and has spent a couple of summers there and loved it. When I reached out to the admissions director, (s)he expressed that my daughter would be welcome back and that there was space for her, so I submitted an application and she did a 3-day shadowing. To my surprise, my daughter's application was rejected. I spent several months trying to get a clear answer as to why, unsuccessfully. The following is a summary of events post-shadowing.
My husband and I met with the teacher who discussed my daughter's shadowing experience and stated multiple times that (s)he "saw no red flags". I then asked questions about the founder's philosophy including topics that touched upon racism and how they have evolved, as my husband and I come from diverse backgrounds. The teacher answered them with openness and transparency, which further solidified my decision to send my daughter there.
A week later, I receive an email, "after careful consideration...we do not feel that (student) is a good fit for our program." I requested a meeting to better understand the decision and sent numerous follow-up emails over the next 2 months to which I received no response, or the admissions director was sick, out of town, or catching up on work. Upon finally setting a meeting, I mentioned that I had emailed the teacher to get more specific feedback regarding my daughter's experience and if (s)he could be encouraged to respond. The response from the admissions director: "to be clear, I will be talking you through the application process...but not discussing re-opening the process". I thanked them and wrote, to "make sure I'm understanding correctly - you will not ask (teacher) to give me information about my daughter, nor will you speak about her experience at BVWS," to which I received no reply.
On the call, the admissions director explained that the enrollment process was a collaborative, complicated and nuanced process. It included not just the teacher's opinion, but also input from ALL the Grade teachers, consideration on the age and maturity of the class, and the fact that the teacher is new to Waldorf teaching. If that were the case, then the shadowing, which caused disruption for everyone involved, was pointless and in fact, no new student could join.
My insistence on following up was to have an opportunity for an open and transparent discussion regarding my daughter's application. If the teacher had told me during our debrief that (s)he felt the class dynamic with my daughter was not right, I would have respected the opinion. Funny that while my daughter attended BVWS there had never been any concerns raised. I can only deduce from the lack of response and transparency that this decision had less to do with my daughter and more about the questions I raised during our meeting with the teacher.
In my last email after our final call, I expressed my hope that this experience be shared with the faculty and board as a learning experience and that I would always be open to dialogue. Since I never received a reply, I assume this issue had been swept under the rug. Though I know no big change will come of this, this experience will serve as a lesson when my daughter is older so that she may learn to advocate for herself with awareness and discernment.
BVWS states they support DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) and boasts that it cultivates a welcoming, inclusive community. A few qualities of inclusive leadership include fairness and respect, collaboration, empowerment and growth, and emotional and cultural intelligence, none of which I received. It is a shame that fear and avoidance of tough questions will now directly impact a 7-year-old's education.
DEI has become very trendy in the past few years but simply taking a training without putting the principles into practice is not enough. Let's do better for our children and set the examples we want to teach them, not just have empty words on a website. That is when you muster the courage to step forward, not back.
