If you can afford a very good private school but chose public instead, what made you decide that... - Page 2

[mommyshoppinghabit]

Both my kids attend a reform jewish preschool right now, so it straddles the fence in terms of quality, I think. Both of them seem to be getting along quite well there. That's not to say I will continue them in a religious school. I just can't get my head around what is the "ideal" setting for them, and even if I could, I don't think that exists. Would they do good in a Montessori setting? Quite possibly, but the Montessori school near us seems old and tattered looking. Could they do good in the local public school system? Quite possibly. We live in a nice community, somewhat upper-middle class. The district has won these "blue ribbons" although I have no idea what that's worth to me. There are some Quaker schools near me that philosophically speaking, offer a great environment, but either b/c of location or facilities, aren't a good match in my mind for my ds's. So it almost boils down to biting the bullet and just trying what seems to be the best choice for one year and see how that goes. But I don't think it's fair to keep pulling them out of one environment and sticking them in another. What I had wanted when I first started looking was a place they could attend all the way up to 12th. I wanted consistency

[ecoteat]

We aren't into elementary school yet, but the options we are considering for the year after next are the Waldorf school and the public school I teach in. I have some reservations about both schools. Currently I'm leaning to my school. I think if I'm going to spend that much money on school it should be PERFECT. And the Waldorf school is not. I also think that if we aren't spending the money on school we would have more available for other experiences like traveling or music lessons or whatever.

[mnnice]

OP-- I think you should seriously consider setting up visits when student are learning and teachers are teaching.

I think the condition of the facilities can sometimes mislead people in a variety of ways.

[JollyGG]

I always assumed we would send my kids to Catholic school. We have a large Catholic School system in my town and I felt the price was very reasonable.

But as my son started approaching K age I decided to take a look at all our options. I ended up discovering that our public school system has open enrollment (well the whole state actually does). Our district offers a lot of different school options at the elementary level. They have a math and science school, a fine arts focused school, a VS learning environment program, a full time gifted program, a parental involvement focused, a Spanish immersion program, etc.

With all the options in the public schools and with the knowledge that my son was probably going to require some gifted services and differentiation the public schools started looking like an option.

Then I looked at the Catholic schools and they had class sizes that were comparable to the public schools and not a whole lot of differentiation for either below average or advanced students. Though there were always willing to talk with me about our concerns

I eventually decided on the public schools and we did end up placing my son in the full time gifted program.

In a couple years we will reevaluate what all the options provide. We plan to look at continuing with the public schools, the catholic school system, and a new middle school program that is more a college prep style school.

[Miss Information]

It's my humble opinion that school only accounts for a fraction of the education your child gets. There's many ideas to be gotten from the book:

Guerilla Learning - How to Give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School.


I think it might help you relax about what schooling options you choose. It's less about the school and more about the attitudes you and your spouse have for learning.

What I think the goal is to encourage life-long love of learning. The schools don't "teach" this. It's not in a book and you can't memorize it. Nor would I want them to. It has to be a lifestyle, I think, not just what you do between the bells.

We learn as a family, even though my daughters go to a public school. They learn lots of things outside of school too, by going on family field trips, doing backyard nature exploration, growing flowers from seeds, raising toads from tadpoles, collected from an aunt's pond in her backyard.

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by Miss Information

I think it might help you relax about what schooling options you choose. It's less about the school and more about the attitudes you and your spouse have for learning.

I like your post.

My kids have homeschooled, they currently attend a traditional public school, and next year they will attend a private alternative school. There are good things about bad things about all the options, but the most important factor really is the family.

[CatsCradle]

I like MissInformation's post too. I really do agree that learning and love of learning has its foundation in parental attitudes about the same. I also think that people tend to put the idea of learning or education into a box - rather than view it as an organic, life-long pursuit. DD is in a private school right now (pre-school through 8th grade equivalent), but we certainly aren't ruling out the possibility of public school if and when the circumstances permit. Our goal is to provide her with the best fit for her - and perhaps the school she is attending right now will not be right for her a few years down the road. Our approach is not whether public is better or private is better, but what is best for her at a given time and place. We live in a city where the public school system has generally gotten a bad rap over a long period of time. It seems that is changing and I think part of it is that more parents are becoming actively invested in the education system.

[Emmeline II]

Originally Posted by mommyshoppinghabit

Would they do good in a Montessori setting? Quite possibly, but the Montessori school near us seems old and tattered looking.

The first charter school we visited was scary looking. It was practically under an intersecting overpass, in the middle of a parking lot, and appeared to be a converted store with no playground.

We were actually quite impressed with what was going on inside as far as curriculum and instruction. We later found out that the school was only two years old and was putting in a playground for next year.

The second (sister) school we visited looked fabulous, but they were a few years older; they had also begun in an old store.

I actually preferred some things about the "store" school; I liked their reading period in the morning, that they started language instruction earlier, and the uniform code was a little more particular (easier for me). But the "nice" school was easier to get to (traffic wise) and dh would be able to drive him (and is close by to deal with discipline issues) so I was hoping for the "nice" one...and they ended up offering ds a place (the "store" school had not).

Ds' current school is brand new with all the bells and whistles including a purpose built stage but the environment just is not right for him, and there is still another school is being built down the street from us; if the "store" school had been the only one to offer a spot we would have taken it.

[lach]

I agree with others that it's more about the specific schools than about generalizations. It's also about different kids. My parents were huge supporters of public education, but my the time my sister and I were in 4th and 9th grade respectively, it was obvious that we were being totally failed by our very good public schools. I was put in a private high school, and my sister in a very good prek-8 school.

For me it turned out very well. I blossomed in the very small environment (the largest class I had there I believe had 14 students, the smallest had just me), very academically intensive. I loved it because it was very diverse in many ways, unlike the very white and very upper middle class public school I was attending (it was more like the very diverse elementary school I attended). I probably would have just wilted and not gone anywhere after high school if I had stayed in public school, despite having very educated and academic-oriented parents.

The less said about my sister's private school experience the better. She got an amazing education, but was horribly bullied and still carries scars. My parents learned nothing about it until she had left (though the whole school knew), and they decided to put her back in public. She really blossomed being a small fish in a big pond.

My daughter attended a private Montessori prek-8 this year, and we are hopefully moving her to another private Montessori next year. Even besides the Montessori philosophy, I appreciate these school's diversity. My town is pretty white, and all of the people of color I know send their children to private schools, with the exception of a friend who is Hispanic but has a severely SN child who gets her needs met through the public schools. A good private will also work hard to make sure that there is economic diversity, in the form of recruiting and funding students whose parents otherwise wouldn't be able to afford it. One of our complaints with the school we are leaving is that they don't seem interested in this at all. In my personal experience of public schools in a range of communities, the "rich kids" self-segregate socially and the "poor kids" get grouped into the lowest reading level and are largely ignored. I know this isn't true of all public schools everywhere, but my personal opinion is that a good private school will work very hard to make sure that this doesn't happen.

I think that a child can get a very good education and be well socialized in both public and private schools. I think there are a lot of bad public schools and a lot of bad private schools. But I also think that a really good private school is a better environment, both academically and socially, than a really good private school. If the choice is between an eh private or a pretty good private and a great public, I would go public. If the choice is between a really good private and even a really good public, I would go private.

[squimp]

We chose public school because frankly they are better than the private school options here. The teachers are certified, they have more experience, they are paid better, and they are more capable, as a whole, of differentiating their teaching to individual kids. We are lucky to live in a great area with lots of involved parents and smart kids. We spent 2 years at a private pre-K thinking we'd go to grade school there, but the more research we did, we realized that the only advantage of the private school was smaller class sizes. This did not matter that much to us, after weighing all aspects. For some kids, a small class size would be really important, but not so much for my DD.

[mommyshoppinghabit]

After visiting a bunch of private school options, I visited my first public school yesterday, during school hours. I guess I'm biased now, but everything about it put me off. I'll be visiting two more public schools before the summer starts, hopefully, they are better. I'm in love right now w/the most expensive of the private schools I visited (surprise, surprise).

[cedoreilly]

My kids attend public for many reasons. A big one is my DD and DS2 have "special needs" and the public school is much more ready to handle these issues than the private school in the area. My DD did attend private preschool and had a lot of issues which were quickly resolved the next year when she was in public school. This pulls in the other two kids because I do feel strongly about the kids attending school together. Also my oldest two did attend a private preschool. My middle boy attended public preschool because of his speech issues and I found the public preschool much, much better than the private one my kids attended. Due to this, my youngest will be attending there in the fall.