Is the obsession with private schools justified?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People send their kids to private for all sorts of reasons. In my opinion, college admissions should be the smallest factor. If that’s your reason, it will likely not be worth it for you.

My main objective is getting high quality education. My only point is that college placement, something that is emphasized by schools as an indicator of quality of education, is extremely misleading by athletes and legacy admissions. In any case, I am not even thinking about what is going to happen 8 years down the road. I am concerned that my DC is not even learning the basics today.

Why can't your kid learn the basics? Do you spend any time working with DC?

Yes, it is supplemented outside school. They do not learn the basics at the 50k private school.

Sounds like your kid is unfocused and screwing around.

Not really. He scores perfectly in math, outside school. The thing is that math level at school is so low, it’s unbelievable. I would have preferred having good math education at the school.

So you have failed in your main objective of getting high quality education.

Why stay?

I am leaving. Precisely because of that.

Did you expect people to convince you to stay? Don't let the door hit ya on the way out. Nobody cares.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Help me understand the private schools. The teachers make half of public school teachers. How many private school parents would take a job for a much lower salary?? Private schools have wonderful sales people!

It's not surprising that some talented people will take less money to have a better work environment (don't have to spend time dealing with problem kids), and a lot more control/input over curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I observed there are some students who can go to schools with sufficient quality education rather than the highest quality education.

A bright motivated kid will do well anywhere.

+1. I wonder why the richest people in the US are typically from public schools. Think about Bill Gates.

You could not pick a worse example.

Most of the Epstein file dudes are from private schools.

The general prison population isn't exactly an endorsement of public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anyone whose kids actually spent time in local public schools before switching doesn't spend any time wondering. We're just grateful to have a better option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Help me understand the private schools. The teachers make half of public school teachers. How many private school parents would take a job for a much lower salary?? Private schools have wonderful sales people!

It's not surprising that some talented people will take less money to have a better work environment (don't have to spend time dealing with problem kids), and a lot more control/input over curriculum.

I'm not sure it's all better. Private school parents expect a certain level of responsiveness from their kids' teachers, and that can be a tough thing to handle!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s the thing….

People who can actually afford these schools and belong there don’t care about prestige, rigor or college admissions.

Your the rube trying to place yourself adjacent to them… which is why people will call you a striver,

The rest don’t care about those sophomoric concerns.

Do they end up with the end goal you sweat and toil over, yes but not why and how you hope it’s happening.

Inside the bubble it’s not opaque… it’s only opaque from the outside looking in.

You are a good example of what I am describing: people tying a school to their social status (“Inside the bubble, it’s not opaque.”)

My only metric is the quality of the education. And by that metric, the top private school my child attends is failing.

So why are you there? Serious question! If I were naming the top high school in the area as far as quality of education, by reputation I think it would be TJ. That’s a public school.

I also feel like if you really want to be “elite” in this country, you don’t stay in DC. This is the backwoods.

People just say anything on DCUM! 🤣
The Obamas, U.S. Senators, SCt Justices, billionaires, business titans, etc live and own homes in DC, but you are somehow the arbiter of what is elite?!

I agree, if you’re TRYING to be elite, you live wherever the wannabes live. If you ARE elite, you live wherever you damn well please, and that most certainly includes DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Help me understand the private schools. The teachers make half of public school teachers. How many private school parents would take a job for a much lower salary?? Private schools have wonderful sales people!

It's not surprising that some talented people will take less money to have a better work environment (don't have to spend time dealing with problem kids), and a lot more control/input over curriculum.

I'm not sure it's all better. Private school parents expect a certain level of responsiveness from their kids' teachers, and that can be a tough thing to handle!

Can’t escape behavior issues, they are there day in and day out, parents are a lot easier to avoid.

[Anonymous]

It isn’t politically correct to say so, but mainstreaming of special ed kids has occurred at a cost to grade level and advanced kids, especially at the elementary level. If I had to go back to public, I would only do so at a school system with a separate magnet track.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Help me understand the private schools. The teachers make half of public school teachers. How many private school parents would take a job for a much lower salary?? Private schools have wonderful sales people!

It's not surprising that some talented people will take less money to have a better work environment (don't have to spend time dealing with problem kids), and a lot more control/input over curriculum.

I'm not sure it's all better. Private school parents expect a certain level of responsiveness from their kids' teachers, and that can be a tough thing to handle!

That’s not tougher than what my kids’ teachers experienced in DC public schools (eg, having students throw chairs at them, push them, and curse them out (the cursing was a daily occurrence). On top of that, kids showing up unprepared and unwilling to work (but eager to cause disruption) everyday, yet the principal expects you to pass these kids. And this occurred at a “good” WotP school in Ward 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I want my kid to attend the best possible school. So far, so good. But my experience in DC has felt a bit off compared to my experience overseas: paying $40,000 for childcare at NCRC partly to get access to top private schools, hiring consultants to prepare children for admissions, dealing with opaque selection processes that seem influenced by connections, and seeing schools treated as symbols of social status.

And then, when you finally get into a top private school, you realize that the college admissions numbers may be distorted by athletes and legacy admissions, and that the actual curriculum is not necessarily stronger than what good public schools offer. So at some point you have to ask: is it really worth obsessing over something that may offer such poor value?

Your child is at NCRC?! Please return when your child is out of preschool and at an actual elite (high) school. If your children are still learning pre-reading skills, you don’t have the depth, experience, or range needed for this conversation. 🙄

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone whose kids actually spent time in local public schools before switching doesn't spend any time wondering. We're just grateful to have a better option.

Hope you are right on this. Our DC will be moving to private schools starting next year for middle school after having been in public school through the end of elementary school. We did not use any admissions consultants or pull any connections. We applied on a lark and were surprised that DC got in given how supposedly competitive the process is supposed to be. I think the supposed competition is more hype than substance to make people feel special that they got into School X or School Y. I suspect that there must be 20-30 kids at DC's current public school who are as capable (if not, in many ways, more capable) than DC, but who simply didn't bother to apply.

That said, I view this as a two year experiment and I am more than happy to pull the plug, if there's not a meaningful difference. As someone who went to public schools my entire life (but who is surrounded by coworkers who seem to all send their kids to private schools), I am skeptical that there's any substantive difference. When my family was debating what to do, I pointed out that studies show that, at least in terms of career outcomes, there is not a meaningful difference between public and private schools, once you factor in household income. Alas, others in my family, including DC, were swayed by the supposed prestige of the school and the nicer facilities and so a two year experiment begins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It isn’t politically correct to say so, but mainstreaming of special ed kids has occurred at a cost to grade level and advanced kids, especially at the elementary level. If I had to go back to public, I would only do so at a school system with a separate magnet track.

Wow, this comment is horrifying on so many levels. I have a severely disabled sibling who was mainstreamed as a child. I can assure you that mainstreaming took absolutely nothing away from my own public school education, and possibly even enriched my experience and those of the kids around me!

Non-special ed kids with behavioral challenges were a whole other story, and they absolutely did impact my education. But I assure you they always have been and always will be in every classroom in both public and private schools.

My own kids are in private school. But only because I selected one with a curriculum that I think really does teach them something very specific that is not available in the public schools. Not in any way because I am trying to get my own kids away from special ed kids. Wow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Help me understand the private schools. The teachers make half of public school teachers. How many private school parents would take a job for a much lower salary?? Private schools have wonderful sales people!

It's not surprising that some talented people will take less money to have a better work environment (don't have to spend time dealing with problem kids), and a lot more control/input over curriculum.

I’ve worked in both. I started in private and then gave public a try. It’s night and day, even at an excellent public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I observed there are some students who can go to schools with sufficient quality education rather than the highest quality education.

A bright motivated kid will do well anywhere.

+1. I wonder why the richest people in the US are typically from public schools. Think about Bill Gates.

Bill Gates did not go to public school in 2018-2026. Our public schools today are not what they were pre-tech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It isn’t politically correct to say so, but mainstreaming of special ed kids has occurred at a cost to grade level and advanced kids, especially at the elementary level. If I had to go back to public, I would only do so at a school system with a separate magnet track.

Yes - it’s horrible to admit but true. And I don’t have a great answer because without mainstreaming mandates, many of those kids would just get warehoused, if prior history is any guide.