Private School or Public School

[The Reverend Floater]

I'm a native PDX kid since the early 70's and thing have NEVER been that bad across the board. If you lived in the burbs of PDX there has always been fear of the urban environment.West side always thumbed their noses to the east side but it's just 60 year old perception . My kids went to college with quite a few kids that were straight up afraid of coming into the city because their families watched too much TV and thought they were going to get car jacked and then sexually traffic'd.

I didn't say across the board. Schools like Lincoln/Grant/Wilson etc certainly didn't have that sort of issue.

And we were west siders but my sister went to school at Humboldt...I don't think all of us westies were thumbing noses. I'm also not aware of anyone believing that they were going to be sexually trafficked. Step on a needle and die of AIDS? Definitely.

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[fatnslow]

I didn't say across the board. Schools like Lincoln/Grant/Wilson etc certainly didn't have that sort of issue.

And we were west siders but my sister went to school at Humboldt...I don't think all of us westies were thumbing noses. I'm also not aware of anyone believing that they were going to be sexually trafficked. Step on a needle and die of AIDS? Definitely.

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Not pointing at you, just repeating some stupid shit I have heard people from the burbs say. I was a west side kid until I was an adult with certain biases myself.

[Hood26]

Public.

Worried about the local options? Get involved. Coach a sport. Start a ski bus. Help get a club going; guarantee there are teachers there that will help. Join or start a booster club. Don’t have much time, then talk others in to joining you and sharing the load. Pay attention to school board elections.

A free and compulsory education is one of the greatest experiments of democracy and our collective future hinges on its success. Get your kid in the arena and they will be better for it.

[nickwm21]

This thread is comical.

They’re shitheads and superstars at every school. All these anecdotal stories don’t mean shit.

No one has brought up the most important factor - the kids friends. The Curriculum, teachers, the brick and mortar, the programs, the athletics don’t carry nearly the same weight on your child’s success as their peer group does.

Unfortunately, like everything in America - It all comes down to money. Spend more money to send your kid to a private school or live in the fancier part of town where the schools are “better” then that means your kid is going to be friends with kids who’s parents spent more money…..


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[MakersTeleMark]

This thread is comical.

They’re shitheads and superstars at every school. All these anecdotal stories don’t mean shit.

No one has brought up the most important factor - the kids friends. The Curriculum, teachers, the brick and mortar, the programs, the athletics don’t carry nearly the same weight on your child’s success as their peer group does.

Unfortunately, like everything in America - It all comes down to money. Spend more money to send your kid to a private school or live in the fancier part of town where the schools are “better” then that means your kid is going to be friends with kids who’s parents spent more money…..


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I got a full ride to a private school for HS. I didn't have any friends, commuted 2 hours each way every day, and can't tell you a single name of a person that I went to school with, except for the teachers.

I don't know what to tell you about that, but it's the truth.

[oldnew_guy]

There were a series of articles in the Seattle Times early last year describing how people with money pulled their kids out of Puget Sound area public schools and put them in private schools and home schooled during CoVID and the following years (and their associated behavioral issues) and haven't put them back in public schools. Seems like that's a recipe for disaster in the long run, but I'm sympathetic to parents looking a schools not serving their kids needs and looking elsewhere.

[Harry]

I got a full ride to a private school for HS. I didn't have any friends, commuted 2 hours each way every day, and can't tell you a single name of a person that I went to school with, except for the teachers.

I don't know what to tell you about that, but it's the truth.

Exact opposite here. This guy was in my kindergarten class. We are both in our 60s in this pic.


Him= left, me=right


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[Cisco Kid]

6 years with the same kids in my class and I can remember all the names and something about each person. But I haven't seen any of them in ages.

[californiagrown]

Gonna be sending junior off to school in the next few years. I was talking with my neighbors whose daughter is the same age- they are both middle school teachers in neighboring school districts. They were saying that homework isnt a thing anymore. Apparently teachers are not allowed to give out homework in many cases, and in others they are severely limited in the amount they can give out. Parents of TGR, are you seeing this happen to your kids? I understand the pushback on HEAVY homework loads on kids that us millenials dealt with (2-3 hours per night), but apparently the pendulum has swung wildly the other way. I was a kid who never learned in classrooms, i had to work it out on my own and if not for homework i would have been screwed. Are the smart kids just going to afterschool tutoring like Kumon, etc? Whats the deal with school these days?

[summit]

Dang really? Homework was my academic weak spot. I just didn't do it but could ace tests. I'd crush school today sounds like!

[liv2ski]

I was never a big fan of the ridiculous homework loads put on my children. I mean maybe an hour but 3 hours or four, it's just silly.
My biggest concerns are the social aspects of school and all the bad input kids get from their peers. If money was no object, I would have the kids go to a private school that did not allow phones on campus. I know myself and my oldest daughter got into lots of mischief come Middle School and I really think many private schools would have limited our dumb shitness.

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[Yonder_River]

If you are looking into SPS, I will say that The pendulum is finally swinging back a little to cater to better advanced learning. It took a hit for the last 5 years with an emphasis on equity, which really meant just dumbing everything down for everyone. Enough people started going private that they got the message I think. You will probably get a little more rigor at private schools around here, but you'll also be paying 25 to $40,000 a year. You may find sticking with public and supplementing with a tutor to push them a little further maybe the smartest option. My high schooler has plenty of honors and AP options so no problems there.

Both of our kids middle and high schools do emphasize phones away, but particularly the middle school where they are essentially banned during the day, even during lunch.

[Garbowski]

We were one of the many that left Seattle Public Schools for private during COVID. Two of our kids were in the HCC (the highest level of advanced learning), one certainly would have been. We are back. We tried two different privates, one of them very highly regarded. They were all just as shitty and rigorous as our local public option. We just threw our hands up and figured our kids will be fine and the money will be far better spent enriching their lives in other ways. I share the sentiment that you are really buying a friend group- the social climbing scene was not for us as parents nor for our kids.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

Dang really? Homework was my academic weak spot. I just didn't do it but could ace tests. I'd crush school today sounds like!

I’d do homework in class while listening to the lectures in high school. I don’t think I had more than one or two nights of homework for four years. My parents thought I might be slacking but I graduated with a three nine seven GPA.

Every kid is different and I’ve seen my friends and coworkers kids go to school both public and private and they fail, thrive or just get by regardless of the setting. It’s about family, friends and the individual child. Raise them to value hard work and community, teach them to be selfless and kind and you’ll be a successful parent.

[summit]

Adding the tutor is a discount vs private, but it a time commitment in their limited time.

I went to public and various private (not boarding). The private was good for me. Private schools are cray expensive, it's like 4x what it was when I went well over 2x inflation.

[m2711c]

I was never a big fan of the ridiculous homework loads put on my children. I mean maybe an hour but 3 hours or four, it's just silly. My biggest concerns are the social aspects of school and all the bad input kids get from their peers. If money was no object, I would have the kids go to a private school that did not allow phones on campus. I know myself and my oldest daughter got into lots of mischief come Middle School and I really think many private schools would have limited our dumb shitness. Sent from my moto g stylus 5G (2022) using Tapatalk

Ha! As if! Dude, when i ended up in private school, cell phones were not even an engineers wet dream yet... but i can assure you, our dumb shitness proceeded at an alarming pace. Shenanigans indeed took precedence over our academic endeavours.

[mcski]

Concur. I was much more of a delinquent during my brief foray at a Jesuit-pedo high school. Plenty of shitty behavior and before even a glimmer of the internet

[civilcoconut]

Gonna be sending junior off to school in the next few years. I was talking with my neighbors whose daughter is the same age- they are both middle school teachers in neighboring school districts. They were saying that homework isnt a thing anymore. Apparently teachers are not allowed to give out homework in many cases, and in others they are severely limited in the amount they can give out. Parents of TGR, are you seeing this happen to your kids? I understand the pushback on HEAVY homework loads on kids that us millenials dealt with (2-3 hours per night), but apparently the pendulum has swung wildly the other way. I was a kid who never learned in classrooms, i had to work it out on my own and if not for homework i would have been screwed. Are the smart kids just going to afterschool tutoring like Kumon, etc? Whats the deal with school these days?

Legit concern but at this point i am far more concerned with scienced based teaching methods, no phones in school, class size (especially elementary), how they handle disruptive students and the ability for kids to advance beyond the lowest common denominator student.

[Cisco Kid]

I have 4 grandkids in 2 different highschools and homework has gone the way of inkwells in school. Their grades are way above average so it isnt genetic, must be the teachers.

[AmmergauerTele]

If going to public high school really take a look at the courses your kids are signed up for. Honors and Advanced will generally get you out of gen pop. The dye is mostly cast by the time they start 9th grade IMO regarding what classes they are taking and what they will be taking come 11th and 12th grade and I think colleges really look at this when applying. I found with my kids (public HS), once they got in to those types of classes, classroom distractions, expectations, homework, peer group that was on a four year college track all helped. My good friend's kid is going to private high school - In retrospect due to covid and the general apathy at the public school I wish we pulled them, but $25k x 2 per year is no joke. There is a high amount of apathy at my local high school - if you drive by there around noon on a school day the place is ghost town. My neighbors kid comes home everyday at 1030 all year as a senior, what a joke. I get that you don't have to take an extra class to get over the minimum for a HS diploma but take advantage of the opportunity......The parents know better and the let the kids do it. It is highly prevalent where I live. If you have an empty block they just go home and the school is happy to let them do it. As a parent and tax payer investing in our next generation it is terrible. Still I think the #1 factor in success is who you surround yourself with.

[Core Shot]

Paid for Catholic school. Would have rather had private non parochial. But they wanted too much money. Then again I have friends that paid college money for high school. Fuck that.
But they got Catholic girls. Kinda young kinda wow.

It’s always a tough call. Trust your gut decisions. Do the best you can.

As someone said above. Having finished high school at a private non parochial they had more money and better drugs. Actually phrase that. Having dropped out of a private high school and still never having a high school degree I kinda turned out ok.

[yeahman]

Public. Throw 'em to the wolves and let them figure out how to deal.

[old goat]

Our kids started in private school until we figured out that a lot of the kids were there because they'd been kicked out of public. They wound up in public in an advanced program. The general level of their HS was pretty bad but their program insulated them from that. It didn't hurt that the school was an "inner city school" which probably gave them a leg up, so both got into Berkeley. Which is not as great a school for undergrads who aren't self motivated and neither of my kids were when it came to academics.

[chaka]

CaliforniaGrown- I think you are Puget Sound based? We have twin boys, seniors in LWSD, one has a shit load of homework each night, the other has time to get most of his done during school day. The one with the shitload of homework is taking a couple more demanding classes. So, I guess my summary for you is a) homework is still a thing b)depends heavily on the class

[HappyCamper]

Just to add a data point: kids in SPS (grade school and middle school).

No homework for grade school and some limited homework for middle school. Seems to be working - although me and Mrs. Happy were public school kids so there's a bias.

My kids use certain apps in class on their devices that we can then review in the evening and do extra credit. When they were younger I thought it helped with basic math and learning to read and gave them a little boost.

I recall doing a shit-ton of homework in middle-school and high school and it sucked. Seriously, to prep for AP English, we had to read Crime and Punishment (irony) over the summer.