If it came down to a question of which school deserves to retain the word “Commonwealth” and truth in advertising came into consideration, the Webster’s definition of Commonwealth as “a space or state…founded… in the agreement of the people for the common good” its pretty clear which is more deserving. (I acknowledge that neither of those things are part of this issue)
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I told you I’m no graphic designer.
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I once heard somebody report status-confusion; they were admitted to The University of Chicago; a classmate thought that that was The University of Illinois at Chicago and remarked “But I thought you were smart?!”
Aside from that one anecdote, which I mention because it seems situationally appropriate and it did happen, I’d be shocked if reputation loss through misunderstanding is much of a factor with anything below the college level.
I’t sort of a jerkass thing to do; but some people do preen about what college they went to for their entire lives; but even those people typically go to ‘the right school’ in order to get in to The Right College and then brag about it forever.
Especially given that both schools are pretty tiny(though Commonwealth has a decent reputation in the MA independent school circuit) on a national scale; and the people who are mostly going to care are college admissions counselors(who sort of professionally know about different high schools and judging students thereof), I’m just not seeing much scope for confusion.
That’s honestly why I find this so weird: I’d be the last to deny that “Independent Schools” don’t have a serious elitist edge to them; but (at least in my experience with them) the demands of education-crazed middle to upper-middle class parents and the existence of some pretty good public schools(not all MA public schools are any good; but there are enough of them that your college admissions numbers would be embarrassing if you just tried to coast on hereditary privilege) do drive them to offer a genuinely good product in addition to the reputation and the fancy college counseling and so on.
Unfair that it’s pay-to-play? Yes. A bunch of idle rich kids receiving As as long as daddy’s money is good? Not really. The tuition pretty much closes the door on the poor-and-dedicated students who sometimes emerge through sheer intelligence and grit at public schools; but within the population who could afford it, they weren’t kidding about getting real work out of you.(the one major concession to privilege was the tradition that instead of being ‘expelled’ or ‘not invited back’ for academic inadequacy; the washouts would typically be told that the handwriting was on the wall; but they had the opportunity to ‘withdraw’ and avoid further unpleasantness.)
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Strongly disagree. It’s something that happens all the time, and it should; where someone went to school is as important as what classes they took and what grades they got. Admissions officers keep lists of schools and have systems that help they rank those schools, so that someone with a GPA of 3.1 who comes out of a school where the “gentleman’s B” is in effect isn’t rated the same as someone coming from a school where the average grade is actually a C.
Please don’t confuse my attempt to clarify the legal matters with support for any particular side, or ascribe views to me that are not part of my comments. I don’t think where one goes to school or how much money someone pays should lead to automatic advancement. I was simply saying that one school’s reputation might be evaluated one way, the other school’s is evaluated differently. Which one is considered the higher quality education, I have no idea. I certainly hope it’s the “pay what you want” school, not the expensive one.
I think the institution could claim a loss of reputation and value based on the confusion without suing on behalf of its pupils. If parents don’t see their children getting in to good colleges, and getting good jobs, they’re not going to be willing to spend $40,000 a year for their kids to go there.
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“no one planning to go to the Commonwealth School will have their pilot chopper them over to the Commonwealth Academy, shrug, and assume that the exclusive private school has been transformed into a place where the poors go)”
As a “poor” who worked my ass off to get accepted and win a scholarship to CS this statement is quite offensive. I took a bus and 2 different subway lines to get to school. It took over an hour each way on a good day, but a chopper sounds nice. Legalities aside I personally don’t want the reputation of where I went diluted. Any lawyer would have advised Commonwealth Academy to run a copyright check so they obviously knew of CS and decided to risk it. This isn’t as simple as “poor” vs “rich” and it reads like your views on copyright laws in general have led to a knee jerk reaction.
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Why can’t the rich simply enjoy their freedom from want and existential threats granted by their wealth without constantly pushing down on the poors?
It’s almost as if half the point of being wealthy is the assurance that lots of people are suffering while you enjoy plenty…
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Personally attacking new users like @TheGreatLarue1 who try to offer some valuable insight is not who we are at BBS. I’d rather have her “new member” constructive commentary than your “senior member” attitude any day.
Obviously the rich “Commonweath School” is trying to look like it’s run by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, so the state ought to sue them for trademark infringement.
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Do you sincerely believe that your school’s reputation is diluted?
Welcome to Boing Boing!
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I’ve personally had people send me links about Commonwealth Academy asking if it was where I went to school. I realize it’s only anecdotal but this leads me to believe that my school’s reputation is being diluted. Commonwealth Academy could have chosen a different name, and they add to the confusion by referring to themselves online and even when answering their phone as only "Commonwealth " They’ve had numerous inquiries from prospective parents and students who were actually looking for CS. CS has an over 60 year history of academic excellence as well as community service. The torch and pitchfork reaction to a hatchet job poorly written piece by the Boston Globe is I guess to be expected, but this isn’t about rich vs poor. I was poor and now in a large degree thanks to CS I’m not.
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There’s another aspect to this story.Commonwealth Academy takes money away from public schools special needs students under Chapter 766 which allows for “public/private partnership” These special needs mills are notorious for partnering with dubious mental health providers and suddenly kids who are good at Basketball have a diagnosis that allows Commonwealth Academy to steal public $ . The founder of Commonwealth Academy is who ends up getting rich.
Who cares?
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Those seeking equity must come with clean hands. You do your credibility no service if you start slinging mud. If you have proof of what you imply, cite it. Otherwise, best to just remove your comment lest people start thinking you’re a shill.
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We really need to reform the legal system to automatically saddle losing plaintiffs with the defendants’ legal costs. Frivolous and belligerent ligation like this would become much less common. I can think of no single change that would do more to fix the broken and abused courts.
According to Guidestar- They’re using another nonprofit as their “parent agency,” and are not, themselves, a nonprofit entity. They don’t seem to report their finances, including salaries, to the state or to the IRS. http://www.guidestar.org/profile/27-0644072
Using a “fiscal sponsor” is common practice while newly formed organizations are seeking 501c3 status, which can take as long as 18 months. There nothing inherently nefarious about it.
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This has got to be the worst case of attribution error I’ve seen in quite some time. Normally it’s seen on the fringe right. Pity to see it show up here.
I find it hard to get too worked up over one private school suing another. The fact that one is cheaper or less selective is not automatically something in its favor; this was part of the attraction of the for-profit college industry.
CA seems to have started from day one as a sports prep school. I don’t know what to make of that. My area probably has more private high schools per student than anywhere in the country (Obama famously attended one of them), and athletics is important at all of them, but I don’t think any of them actively recruit student-athletes from out of state. That just seems strange to me.
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