Comments on: Public vs Private School

By: Terry

Terry — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:38:52 +0000

I think your situation is specific and if I were in your place, and I could afford it, I would send my child to a private school. But many years ago, my husband and I knew we could not afford to send our two children to years of private school starting in kindergarten so we were lucky to be able to purchase a house in a decent school district. I currently work with all the school districts in my state and have a lot of knowledge about how different they are and how they are sometimes the same too. What is most important is what will be best for your child and what you can offer as a parent. Even the best private school will not be better for a child if the parents act as if it were a boarding school or worse yet, send their very young children to boarding school. My son was accepted a few years ago to an impacted program at a local university and my daughter was accepted at the number one public university in the US so they did quite well in public schools but it took a lot of time and energy and volunteering (totally worth it, mind you) and that is possible a trade off people need to consider. Good luck and I one of the better aspects of growing older is that my children are much closer to being done with school than many of my younger peers!

By: Ethan

Ethan — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:49:53 +0000

I have attended 3 private schools so far. The first one which I which I attended grades 3-8 was poorly ran and barely had enough fund to operate. The teaching quality was often poor at times, but I managed and ended up making good friends. The next school I attended pretty much ruined my life for a year. The school was dirty, I didn’t have any friends, the stress was horrible, and I always, ALWAYS had problems. For the first time in my life I was depressed and stressed out to the point where I had to leave the school ( by the way that was my first year of high school). So I’m now attending a different high school. Everything started off fine.. I was getting good grades, making friends and such but then it all went down hill. I’m horribly stressed(more then I was last year) out, sometimes depressed again, and just feeling bad again. I mean it costs $16,000 to go to my school and the campus is amazingly nice but its all eye candy. The teachers don’t know what their doing and they don’t care about my grades, and that just makes me furious. Overall private schools are disappointing, because your really not getting a good education at all, its all bull****.

I hope this helps.

By: DJ Sara

DJ Sara — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:29:50 +0000

It sounds to me like your school’s Administation vs. Board may be having alot of tension…this kind of tension causes stalls in lots of places. They may refuse to publish salaries, but that is public domain, so you can find that yourself at the library. I’ve worked in districts and lived in a districts where the conflicts between educators, parents, board and Administration can cause all kinds of issues and education becomes less of a priority over making certain folks happy.

On a lighter note, Art and music being “facilitated” in the classroom can mean several things. They may be having the teacher come into the room to teach short lessons OR it may be “integrated” into the lessons in other subjects. Integrated curriculum gives learners of all types more opportunity to experience the material in different ways. Children learn in different ways..I’d consider that a plus. Theres constant discussion throughout the Years about how much time should be alloted to special area subjects and which ones are expendable. That too is a never ending story. However, coming from the field I can safely say there’s also this side of the coin. The time in the school day that is taken with “special area’ subjects also poses great scheduling problems for public schools and creates an ever growing struggle for teachers to fit the core curriculum into such limited time as the school day has become so very short…keep these things in mind.

By: Aahz

Aahz — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:30:19 +0000

It’s interesting that comments popped up on this post again today as I’m struggling with what to do about the latest affront by my daughter Zaira’s public school teachers. According to her choir teacher my daughter follows a “fake” religion.

If you’re interested in the details check them out at http://www.gilroyreview.com/2008/10/30/gilroy-teacher-lutheranism-is-a-fake-religion/

By: Lisa

Lisa — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:24:13 +0000

Thanks Marisa! I believe a lot of what you said. The attitude I am getting from the school district is that I am the problem. I didn’t realize that caring about my child’s education was a bad thing to them. My fear is that if they are acting like this already and she doesn’t go to school there, how much worse is this going to get?

I found a private school that we can afford, and I like. It was deamed by the archdiosese as the best kept secret in the south suburbs of Chicago. I know someone who sends their daughter there, so I am hearing how it really is for the students. Bill’s aunt also works with a teacher who sends her daughter there and loves it. I went to the school open house for the kids back in September and got to see what the kids were working on and how well behaved they all were. I loved that they expected the parents to be accountable. They have certain rules like where you pick up your kids and the principal actually said that if 99% of the parents can do it the right way, we expect everyone to do it that way. I am just seeing so much more accountability with the private school than the public. Every time I have called the private school, they have answered every one of my questions and never have given me the run around.

Feel free to continue this conversation, because I definitely want to hear your point of view. You’ve been through this and I can definitely learn from your insight.