<p>Hello- I have 2 boys, age 7 and 9. The 7 year old was accepted at BBN and Dexter. He loves the athletics of Dexter. I am worried that it does not have as well rounded an education and may be too rigid. My older is choosing between Brimmer and Dexter. any thoughts or experience of these schools? I worry that BBN won't have enough athletics for my 7 year old</p>
<p>What on earth are you talking about?</p>
<p>BB&N is a much stronger school academically than either of your other choices. I don’t know a lot about Brimmer and May but Dexter has a much different “feel” than BB&N…the students wear shirts/ties, all boys, much more formal and traditional approach to education. BB&N is quite rigorous academically but no dress code, co-ed school. They are very different schools.
As a BB&N parent I can tell you that the athletics are top notch in most sports and kids have an opportunity to play. In high school they are required to play a sport a season until junior year at which time they must play 2 sports/year.
Your sons are very young and my advice would be to decide on a school based on academic, social and athletic fit…practically speaking, do you want to schlepp one boy to Dexter and then one to BB&N…</p>
<p>thank you for your response. certainly dexter and bbn for my 2 boys would be very inconvenient. my little one loves the athletics of dexter, but I prefer BBN and worry that should we turn down BBN now, he won’t be able to be accepted in 6th grade when i would definitely want to transition him to another school from Dexter. Aren’t all private schools rigorous academically? What is the difference in BBN versus others in terms of “competitive” academic feel? It seems that BBN has other options aside from athletics and values the arts also. My older boy is not interested in athletics. I read that over 30 percent of all BBN students have outside tutoring either to maintain the “top” position or to maintain the academics. What are your thoughts on this?</p>
<p>All private schools are not “rigorous” academically…each fill their own niche. BB&N is consistently rated one of the top academic schools in area (along with Milton, Phillips etc). I do not think you will see that at Dexter at least at the upper school.
With my second child now a junior @ BBN (and my older son,a BBN grad in college) I have seen a bit of a shift from an academic pressure cooker environment to one that is still very challenging but there is no longer a sink or swim attitude. The new head of the upper school is a social worker by training and has a nice, balanced perspective on learning and the school environment.
Students do seem to have outside tutoring in many areas but it is not really necessary.
The teachers are very available for extra help. I think some parents push their kids to take honors classes and then hire a tutor to help them keep up when it might have been more appropriate to take a lower level class…
The arts are quite strong at BB&N and “jocks” and “artsy” kids hang out together which is very different than my child’s experience at public school…kids were much more segrated</p>
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