2014 Glen Frst #101
Saint Louis, MO 63124

I did not like it there and it’s the worst school in the world

The district as a whole isn't bad, it will in fact provide an education for your child. However, it's expected that you as the parent have limited involvement, and only the activities and roles they deem appropriate. As the parent you are to accept the school staff and faculty are the experts and do in fact know what is best for your child. Even if there is direct evidence to the contrary you will be told they will handle it, and that is the end of it do not expect there to be follow up, nor are you expected to bring up issues that persist.In reality the district is better than a number of the districts, and very well may be the best in Missouri, I wouldn't recommend it. Not because it doesn't have the resources, quite the contrary Ladue is quite adept at covering up its failings with its resources.The teachers are not to be questioned, nor their style or ability to be considered an issue, your child will be expected to manage the issues as there isn't really meeting halfway or the student where they are, they either figure out what the teacher is aiming at or their grade reflects it. This goes moreso for the regular classes than the advanced classes (kids have taken both). Athletics & Clubs, Ladue has a considerable amount of clubs, they facilitate access to the sports/clubs by providing 2 late buses. As far as sports, they have issues, as does any high school. The Dunning-Kruger effect is alive and strong in their coaches who will disagree with the science and medicine, because they are the coach..... For team sports they do cherry pick their opponents to improve their rankings for team sports. The more you delve into it, it becomes quite impressive the lengths the school/district goes through to appear to be much better than it actually is. A significant claim is the number of people that have graduated from the High School and now teaching there. In fact it appears to be a significant factor in determining if a person will be hired. Think about that for a second, a school that arguable has the resources and draw to attract talent from across the country and they focus on hiring those having graduated from the school. This has resulted in an echo chamber and a growing cadre of individuals that are unwilling to correct issues as the mere existence of anything but amazingness would reflect poorly and tarnish the school. If you're a fan of group think and indoctrination (or ostracization for failing to) then Ladue's for you.

It wasn't great at times and good at others. I served 5 years at Reed and a lot happened. The bullying that I and other kids went through was bad. Worthy of middle schoolers. The teachers really did nothing about it. We weren't really watched during recess. I remember it being very easy to slip into forbidden areas including the woods behind school. A gate that's not even locked sits out of teacher site. A curious kindergartner could easily slip behind the fence and get lost. The teachers s I said were GREAT. Besides the bullying thing of course. Also, kids were allowed to have bikes and scooters at recess and ride them around the track. That's cool, but no teacher watch them. I WAS RUN OVER by a kid on a bike and the teachers didn't come over even when I started crying and screaming. On the other hand, Reed had lots of cool stuff for us kids that we did throughout the years. State-of-the-art tech was available at all times. Each kid had there own laptop or iPad. The library was huge and allowed us to check out 2 books a week and we could come back in the middle of the week for more. Art class had lots of fun projects, and Spanish is great too. You learn all types of instruments in Music class. However, they took away computer class and replaced it with free time for some reason. The class sizes were huge and the Spanish room and Computer Lab were lost to this. But they never expanded! No, that was beneath them. Why give the kids room to move a pencil in their classrooms?? Overall, it was a pretty "meh" type school. Maybe it's improved. I don't know or really care. All I can say is be ultra-careful when you are picking between Reed and the private schools.

My son had only been in the district for 2 years before going to Ladue Fifth Grade Center, so he didn’t know a lot of other children when he started. But the supportive nature of the teachers, staff, and other families made us feel at comfortable and at home. And the diverse and expansive curriculum help to make it a stellar educational experience. I can’t tell you how many times my kiddo gets off the bus and proceeds to tell me what a great day he had. How many parents can say that? Don’t bother listening to people who don’t have first hand experience with this school. Knowing that my son is so happy going to school makes this worth every tax dollar that we pay!