Private School or Public School

[Danno]

Agree with OSECS - go public if the school system is high-grade. The savings can pay for a boatload of crayons and tutors. Public is way more real life, and the socialization skills will be a major benefit.

EDIT: Best HS's in USA - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1498034.html

Woohoo, my school's in the top 100!

[jfost]

#323 for me!!!

Best of Seattle Public at least, but lagging Friday Harbor High in the State Rankings, YIKES!

[hitek79]

2fer!

Obesity thread vs public school thread. GO!

http://foxnewsinsider.com/2012/05/08...on-bake-sales/

[Tippster]

#84 for me!

What do I win?

[jSki]

Private school if at all possible. Public schools are prisons. Armed cops walking the halls, metal detectors, cameras everywhere and no constitutional rights at school.

[jfost]

Private school if at all possible. Public schools are prisons. Armed cops walking the halls, metal detectors, cameras everywhere and no constitutional rights at school.

even in Vail?

[Hugh Conway]

even in Vail?

I'm pretty sure Vail is a prison like the one in the Prisoner

[jgb@etree]

Can't speak from experience as my son isn't school age yet, but our current game plan is to send him to the excellent public schools for K-8, and then go private from HS on. We've talked about private all the way, but the private school we would send him to is... wait for it... $40k/yr, k-8. And there is the socialization thing too. We're already in a pretty homogenous town, and even if I could afford the k-8 day school, we feel it would further limit his social interactions.

Now the Mrs. does think that we'll be sending the boy to a local day school for HS, but based on my experience growing up it's just not going down like that. I did my freshman year @ the same day school that the Mrs thinks jr will end up going to, before heading off to a boarding school for the rest of HS. Not only was the education superior to what I was getting at a pretty well renowned day school, but the experience (for me) was priceless. Without the boarding experience, I doubt I would have made it thru college. I could get always A's in anything without trying as long as I completed the minimum requirements, but definitely needed a lot of help finding the maturity to force myself to even do that. The balance of not having your parents up your ass, while still living in a relatively structured environment was exactly what I needed.

That said, this could all change in the next 10 or so years. As someone else already said, you've gotta find the right school for the child.

[Alaskan Rover]

I've been to very good examples of both...in three different countries...Switzerland, Mexico and the US...and I can say forthrightly that it is less about the school itself and the curriculae than it is about the enthusiasm, creativity and talent of the teachers themselves.

Urban or poor area schools notwithstanding, I believe student/teacher ratio and the overall size of the school is also of primary importance. A smaller school may not always have proximity to the best of science labs or huge libraries...but they often make up for that with kinder student-teacher ratios and less burdened teachers. I've seen wonderful small rural schools with excellent programs, enthusiastic teachers and thus a concomitantly high college entrance rate.

I still think some of the absolute best small, arts and environmentally oriented schools are prvate as they are less constrained by decree of a jaded school board.

The public/private decision is multi-dependant on a bunch of factors: Ask yourself, is the community at large stoked on education and doing right by the kids? If not, private may indeed be the better option. Sometimes the percentage of non-religious home-schoolers is a general gauge of community schooling ethos. A higher than normal degree of home-schoolers may tell you that the local public schools have issues.

Make your BEST decision by visiting EACH of the schools in your area respective to your needs, public and private...try and talk to as many teachers as you can...school open houses are a god-send in this regard.

Good luck on your search.

--

[wooley12]

My brother sent his kids to private k-8 to give them the goods. Then to a public HS so they could get peak class ranking. It worked.

OTOH. Both of ours went public all the way. One graduated HS in the bottom half but ended up graduating from an Ivy.

[Mofro261]

#323 for me!!!

Best of Seattle Public at least, but lagging Friday Harbor High in the State Rankings, YIKES!

#323 for me too.

My kids are in private K-8, then likely off to #559 for HS.

[Tippster]

Private school if at all possible. Public schools are prisons. Armed cops walking the halls, metal detectors, cameras everywhere and no constitutional rights at school.

Show me one Private School where the students have more rights than at a Private School. Just one.

Hey - where's your tie?

[shroom]

if youre confident your kids will take full advantage of it, private school can obviously give an edge up on getting into a great college. But, you still have to come out of HS w/ a great looking resume to go anywhere, that caught up with a few of my friends who went the parochial school route.

I never see myself making enough money to want to spend it in that place. If your kids have the drive to get good grades and act to learn the material they're presented, public elementary school through a state uni can be a great [affordable] prospective path.

[userA]

i fully support my sons private school.

[summit]

I attended a fuck ton of schools on account of moving so much:

Private and Public preschool and kindergarten
Catholic, Montessori, and Public primary education
Private Preparatory and Public secondary education
Jesuit University, State Universities, and Community Colleges

They all have their pluses and minuses. The Catholic elementary was too rigid. The Montessori allowed me to learn at an incredible place but instilled no discipline, which I am still learning. The private school allowed more academic creativity, but the public schools had extended learning programs for that too... but none of them could cope with my advanced math learning needs and I lost years of potential learning: I could have taken AP Calc in 8th grade instead of 10th if I hadn't wasted years doing nothing. Then, after I took Calc the private school struggled to find classes for the next two years.

In all of these schools the only art/music I ever learned and cared about was: 1. photography (prep school) 2. perspective line drawing (prep school) 3. playing the recorder (public school) 4. finger painting (public school). It created a life long love for photography, but music I learned from piano lessons that my mom started for me in preschool.

Those are my random thoughts... but ultimately 3 things matter most:

1. The kid's attitude
2. The parents' attitudes
3. The teachers' attitudes

[hutash]

^^^and you don't want to end up like Summit

If you have enough money to do it, private school is probably better. Just saying that looking at the small amount of people I knew that went to the local private school and their general success in life. My sample is small. But around it's hard to afford on even a decent family income -- cause the more you make the more you spend.

My experience has been just the opposite. Private school kids I grew up with were failures, while the public school kids went on to be something.

More important question. What kind of parent are you?

This

What is most important is how involved are you as parents? If you are involvedmit really doesn't matter. Might as well go publicans let the kid learn how diverse the world really is, because if you are involved they will learn either way.

[Dexter Rutecki]

If you live somewhere with good public schools those can be fine (especially if they're competitive admission schools), but the fact is that places with good public schools generally have private school options that can be even better.

What you'll get at a good private school, to a degree probably impossible at a public school, is a more responsive and attentive environment. There's no way around it as a private school should have 15-18 kids in a class (and really never more than 20), while even good public schools can have significantly more (I know that there are studies that show class size isn't so important, but as a former teacher I can tell you that class size is quite important). The fact that private school teachers are usually not certified is pretty irrelevant, but what is important is the control that administrators have over teacher hiring and firing. A good private school will probably not have a single teacher who isn't highly skilled, dynamic, and passionate about teaching. (Some teachers will still suck for certain students, but that's life and actually something kids need to learn to deal with.)

There are some social arguments to be made in favor of public schools, but even with the option to send our kids to a truly excellent public school we went private. When they hit 8th grade I'd be fine if they applied to a local competitive admission public school (which may well be the top public school in the country), but I still believe that their current school (which is just unbelievably good in all honesty) would probably be better.

Of course the above is said without considering financial issues and a lot of other things.

Taught in independent schools for about ten years and did a little work (as a test prep teacher) in a few public schools. Am generally horrified by what I see/hear of public schools, in general (lot of shitty private schools out there too, though). PM me if you like.

[DasBlunt]

Private school if at all possible. Public schools are prisons. Armed cops walking the halls, metal detectors, cameras everywhere and no constitutional rights at school.

Show me one Private School where the students have more rights than at a Public School. Just one.

Hey - where's your tie?

Most Tipp, maybe not full on Urban schools, but liability and rules at public schools is becoming nuts. Also, public Colleges things are changing, getting more locked down every year. Private colleges are way more accessible too.

[bagtagley]

I'm just a parent that wants the best start for my kids. I'm also a person who floated through public school, never really being challenged. I'm in my mid 30s, and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

No ties or religion. It's a small school, probably most easily comparable to Montessori as far as mindset, though without any of that particular education theory. It's very personal (students call the principal by first name) and social. It's on a nice piece of land, so they've got a great 'campus', with lots of trails, gardens, and room to run around.

The biggest issue, aside from the financials, is that it's out in the sticks, so we'd be adding a good bit of driving to our morning commute. We checked with the public school she'd be going to, and her bus ride would be about the same as the car ride to the private school. So, the drive wouldn't be too bad for her, but it would add a lot of driving to our day. Complicating things further is the fact that we currently live about 20 minutes outside of town, and in the next 5 years, would like move back to town. I'd rather she not have to switch schools, so private school would prevent that. The drive to the private school would be the about same from either place.

If it was just my daughter we had to worry about, it would probably be a no brainer. But, if she goes, my son will go as well, and that's a somewhat scary thought for the future, financially.

I appreciate the opposing view points. Some really insightful posts so far, thanks.

[HD333]

We went with a small private k-8 parochial school for our girls. They are in 2nd grade now and we couldn't be happier.

We interact with a lot of public school kids/parents through town sports and the neighborhood. Based on our girls development and social skills compared to most of the kids we see I feel we made the right choice. A lot of the public school parents vent about their opinions not being heard, while ours are heard load and clear. We are highly involved in our kids school from a parents association and volunteering/fundraising point of view, I don't see a lot of this with the public school parents we interact with as they seem to view the schools as a machine rather than a community that is helping to develop the kids.

For the record I was public k-8, private HS, State College. Wife was public k-12, and fancy pants private college.

[mobygrape]

I really like the curriculum at my daughter's private kindergarten. They are outside a good part of the day. She's learning to sew small stuffed animals and small objects, which helps hand-eye coordination and is just a lot of fun. Made a stuffed dog for mother's day with her last night

It's a pretty small school though. We're considering continuing until high school, then possibly transferring to public, where there will be more opportunities for team athletics and band etc. Depending on where here interests are. I was never a big team sports player, more into bmx racing and non-team sports. But my wife was a 4 year varsity athlete, so she has a different opinion on team sports. Not that we are trying to push sports at all, but I think some level of physical activity is key to growing children. I think cutting gym and recess time to focus on academics does not prepare kids well, as many need some physical activity to be able to sit for the rest of the day.

[bagtagley]

They are outside a good part of the day.

I think cutting gym and recess time to focus on academics does not prepare kids well, as many need some physical activity to be able to sit for the rest of the day.

I really think it is undervalued. The schools cut play time so that they can focus on curriculum. They're 5 year-olds, for crying out loud. It's their job to play and have fun.

We looked at a Waldof school early on. We passed for several reasons, but one thing I really liked about it was that the kids needed to be prepared for any type of weather. They'd have them out playing in rain and snow.

[OSECS]

I really think it is undervalued. The schools cut play time so that they can focus on curriculum. They're 5 year-olds, for crying out loud. It's their job to play and have fun.

We looked at a Waldof school early on. We passed for several reasons, but one thing I really liked about it was that the kids needed to be prepared for any type of weather. They'd have them out playing in rain and snow.

Yeah all the play time and cultural stuff is great, but the academic competition kids have to face today and going forward is much more rigorous than anything most of us had to deal with. Once they hit second grade they're gonna be tested into or out of academic groups that will factor heavily (and potentially limit) their school choices as they approach HS and beyond. Colleges look at high schools they select from and some schools do a much better job of getting kids into the schools like UVA, the Ivys, military service academies and sci/eng. technical schools.

I'd say kids are forced to grow up too soon, but if you don't stay with the pack you risk getting left behind. One of the very few times I think keeping up with the Joneses is warranted (even if begrudgingly so).

[Dexter Rutecki]

Yeah all the play time and cultural stuff is great, but the academic competition kids have to face today and going forward is much more rigorous than anything most of us had to deal with. Once they hit second grade they're gonna be tested into or out of academic groups that will factor heavily (and potentially limit) their school choices as they approach HS and beyond.

Not true in many (most?) good private schools. Our kids are in a great school (in the HYP index it was always in the top 10 nationally) and I don't think our third grader has taken a single standardized test or test for group placement. Not how private schools usually operate, thank god. Except for language, possibly, I don't think the high schools where I taught ever gave tests for group placement.

Of course, they rely (in large part) on standardized tests for admission, which is slightly ironic for the point I was making...

[OSECS]

Not true in many (most?) good private schools. Our kids are in a great school (in the HYP index it was always in the top 10 nationally) and I don't think our third grader has taken a single standardized test or test for group placement. Not how private schools usually operate, thank god. Except for language, possibly, I don't think the high schools where I taught ever gave tests for group placement.

Of course, they rely (in large part) on standardized tests for admission, which is slightly ironic for the point I was making...

We opted out of the private school route after 2nd grade (excellent public schools) so it very well may be different. But just as you said, getting into a good private school is usually by admission thru a standardized test, so it gets you in both types of schools eventually.

Private schools are only going to take those kids that fit the academic model they're looking for so they are the same with regard to how they manage the kids they teach. Public schools get everyone regardless of academic proficiency, so standardized tests are the way they move kids to the correct level of difficulty within a public school system.

And that academic competition is there regardless of private or public school route, cause in the end both are competing against each other for the same schools in many cases.