If you DON'T live in DC, why did you ultimately decide to go private?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Wow you totaly proved my point even further! Private school trash that is funny! Perhaps a want to be snob like yourself would think of me as private school trash. Luckily my DD is at a Big three with parents who do not seem to think so. So your opinion does not matter. As an AA parent, I have on occasion run into the likes of you who probably think my child is only there because of diversity. I still do not understand parents who have kids in public school jumping on these threads just to try to make families feel bad about sending their kids to private schools. I never saw such a thing when I used to go to the public school boards. As for you "elite" NE prep school, you are a wanna be elitist asshole. By the way, I manged to put my kid in private school by having a very smart DD and paying the $30,000+ tuition each year!

I'm not the PP you're responding to, but:

You pay full freight on $30K, but you only work 3 days a week?

And your kid may be smart, but kids with serious LDs generally don't get into big 3s.

And you need to get over your obsession with public school parents coming here. Many of us have kids in both. And public school parents are needed to correct the BS from posters like you - if you spout BS, somebody on DCUM will correct you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Wow you totaly proved my point even further! Private school trash that is funny! Perhaps a want to be snob like yourself would think of me as private school trash. Luckily my DD is at a Big three with parents who do not seem to think so. So your opinion does not matter. As an AA parent, I have on occasion run into the likes of you who probably think my child is only there because of diversity. I still do not understand parents who have kids in public school jumping on these threads just to try to make families feel bad about sending their kids to private schools. I never saw such a thing when I used to go to the public school boards. As for you "elite" NE prep school, you are a wanna be elitist asshole. By the way, I manged to put my kid in private school by having a very smart DD and paying the $30,000+ tuition each year!

No, the "wannabe elitist asshole" is the person who said, and I quote: "I see absolutely nothing positive about a public school education and many, many negatives." That's you, I presume.

Today's lesson: act like a jerk in a public place like DCUM, and people will call you a jerk and generally treat you badly. I'm surprised it took you 40+ years to figure this out. I don't care what race you are, jerk = jerk.

[Anonymous]

Many of you really need to read! I am the one who questioned public school parents coming on to the private school forums to dog out parents who have made the choice to send thier kids to private school. I have not seen such a thing in the public school forum when I used to go on there. I am not an attorney, I work full time and my child is not LD. So pp I do not know what you are talking about! If you actually read my original post you would see that I mentioned parents may have kids at both. That makes sense. What does not make sense is coming to a forum to start shit and try to make yourself feel better by putting down other parents who have made a choice you do not agree with!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many of you really need to read! I am the one who questioned public school parents coming on to the private school forums to dog out parents who have made the choice to send thier kids to private school. I have not seen such a thing in the public school forum when I used to go on there. I am not an attorney, I work full time and my child is not LD. So pp I do not know what you are talking about! If you actually read my original post you would see that I mentioned parents may have kids at both. That makes sense. What does not make sense is coming to a forum to start shit and try to make yourself feel better by putting down other parents who have made a choice you do not agree with!

You need to read. Nobody, I repeat nobody, has criticized parents who choose private school. They have instead criticized certain attitudes, namely the poster who said that public schools have no redeeming qualities, and all good privates are better than all good publics. How could you have missed this distinction?

The other mistake you are making is to assume that anybody who disagrees with the snotty private school parent (again: for her reasons, not for private school per se) must have kids only in public school. Wrong. Several posters here have said they have kids in both public and private. This means that (a) we have every right to be on the private school thread, and (b) we are in a better position to talk about the differences than the snotty parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Maybe a good private is universally better than a good public. This is a point that can't be proved - hence impossible to really debate.

Actually, parents with kids in both public and private schools, of which there are several on this board, can indeed make this comparison. Certainly we are in a better position than you, because you have never done public and have all sorts of misconceptions about it.

Anonymous wrote:
No redeeming - so you are right - public has many redeeming qualities but for many kids it does not. Unfortunately - because I rather have a beach house then a tuition but that is not an option right now because a public school could never meet my kids needs.

So now you're saying that anybody who chooses public must prefer a beach house? Give me a friggin' break. You must have missed the many posts pointing out why some parents choose public. Go back and read them.

Anonymous wrote:
You are only qualified to comment on your particular private school and your particular experience with the magnet program. I am sure it looks pretty peachy. Take an average kid with LD's that don't qualify for help in the public school and I wonder if your opinion would be the same.

Actually, MoCo provides excellent services to kids with LDs. Most private schools can't handle serious LDs because they don't have the specialized staff to handle them. If LDs are the issue for you, you may be making a serious mistake.

Actually parents who have done their research have a better position to voice an opinion than those that base their opinions on their limited exposure. I was told by the local public that they could not accomodate my child, that a private school (not every private school) could. Many people are faces with this issue. I have talk to administrator, learning specialists, and psycologist before choosing my school.

There are many private schools that can handle serious LDs and many privates that can handle mild LDs. Public can handle serious LDs too - but do not have programs nor are they federally mandated to accomodate kids with milld LD's.

There is a federal mandate to accomodate GT kids but not mild LD kids.

BTW - I said I would prefer a beach house - not you or anybody else. I don't actually want to spend my money on tuition. I - not you - I would prefer a beach house - but I am forced to spend my money on tuition because public school is not set up to meet my childs needs.

There are definitely some privates I would never send my kids to because of their learning needs and there are some public schools I would never send my kids to because of their learning needs.

Unfortunatelly, when a child is in a school district and are not GT they are left with few choices. Private often fills the nitch that public can fulfill.

The truth is that many kids are better in public and others are better in private and if we got rid of one or the other many more kids would fall through the crack.

[Anonymous]

What's so special about the private school forum that any citizen cannot read or post on here? Does this idiot know anything about civil and constitutional rights? Apparently not. A snotty private school wannabe without enough grey matter to fill a thimble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure MoCo magnet really counts as public - it's more exclusive than private.

Would you have sent your kids to that same school - not magnet?

No, I probably wouldn't have sent my kids to that particular school. However, I would be fine with other MoCo schools like BCC or Whitman. In fact, for a while we were looking for houses in those districts.

Yea - I think most people would send their kids to BCC or Whitman - still - pretty exclusive - how about something in a zip code that is a little less exclusive.

This misses the point. They're still public schools, regardless of what zip code they are in. The OP was asking why somebody would send their kids to private, even if they're in one of these exclusive zip codes with excellent public schools. Your point does raise an interesting question, though, which I'll bring to a new thread as it's somewhat off of the original point of this thread.

So the question could be if you MoCo school is in the green zone why do you send your kids to private. That is a different questions all together. There are many non green people in private.

I am not in the green zone but if I was I may need to send my kids to private because some mild LDs do not get IDP and my kids would fall through the cracks as do many smart non GT kids.

[Anonymous]

btw -- now everybody wants to be in the big 3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:btw -- now everybody wants to be in the big 3

i meant - not everybody wants to be in the big 3

[Anonymous]

Be my guest. Little 3 if you prefer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's so special about the private school forum that any citizen cannot read or post on here? Does this idiot know anything about civil and constitutional rights? Apparently not. A snotty private school wannabe without enough grey matter to fill a thimble.

Nothing at all. It just seems really odd that those parents who have chosen public school exclusively and and who feel public is a waste of money and inferior to public schools lurk around so often in the private school forum. I do not recall seeing a bunch of private school parents posting on the public school forum questioning their education decisions. Oh and the to the poster who told me I need to read you need to reread my first post...I said unless of course you have kids in both. Do your homework before you decide to check me. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Interesting how public school parnets get so worked up about private school parents saying they think private school is better/best. Really, what do you expect? Private school parents do not seem to care even slightly that public school parents think public school is better/best. They (private school parents) do not go onto the public school boards and try to start arguments and make inflammatory statements about the qualities (or lack there of) of public schools. It just seems that many public school parents (those who come to this Forum) have a bone to pick/chip on their shoulder about private school folks. It really is peculiar.

[Anonymous]

I am a private school parent (and erstwhile student) not afraid to call a spade a spade. I chose private school due to special needs. This does not make this $35,000/yr choice better than the excellent area public schools for high achieving students. Straight from a private school parent. No public school parent hovering here. It really not so peculiar!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting how public school parnets get so worked up about private school parents saying they think private school is better/best. Really, what do you expect? Private school parents do not seem to care even slightly that public school parents think public school is better/best. They (private school parents) do not go onto the public school boards and try to start arguments and make inflammatory statements about the qualities (or lack there of) of public schools. It just seems that many public school parents (those who come to this Forum) have a bone to pick/chip on their shoulder about private school folks. It really is peculiar.

It makes a certain kind of sense at both extremes. If/where the dominant comparative narrative is "public schools suck; I'm glad I was able to keep my kids out of them," then it follows that private school parents who subscribe to it ignore public schools (they've already dismissed them as not worthy of notice if you can buy your way out) and public school parents who resist it are eager to find cases where publics are better than privates.

The vast majority of parents probably aren't interested in the debate at this meaningless level (Public vs. Private). They look at their options and pick the particular school (public or private) that works best of their particular kid.

Wrt this particular thread, the inquiry was basically "if you had a good public option and still chose private for your DCs, what did you think the advantage of private was?" It wasn't "which is better: public vs. private?" Which is why the public boosterism seems off-point/gratuitous to some people. It's a thread that was deliberately set up to be one-sided and where one-sidedness can be functional. If I don't see the advantage of spending $30,000 a year on education and I listen to others tell me why they did so, I can see whether they considered factors I didn't vs. whether the difference is that they value different things than I do or just have a very different mindset/view of the world. The underlying premise is skeptical and the challenge is "so persuade me."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Actually parents who have done their research have a better position to voice an opinion than those that base their opinions on their limited exposure. I was told by the local public that they could not accomodate my child, that a private school (not every private school) could. Many people are faces with this issue. I have talk to administrator, learning specialists, and psycologist before choosing my school.

There are many private schools that can handle serious LDs and many privates that can handle mild LDs. Public can handle serious LDs too - but do not have programs nor are they federally mandated to accomodate kids with milld LD's.

There is a federal mandate to accomodate GT kids but not mild LD kids.

BTW - I said I would prefer a beach house - not you or anybody else. I don't actually want to spend my money on tuition. I - not you - I would prefer a beach house - but I am forced to spend my money on tuition because public school is not set up to meet my childs needs.

There are definitely some privates I would never send my kids to because of their learning needs and there are some public schools I would never send my kids to because of their learning needs.

Unfortunatelly, when a child is in a school district and are not GT they are left with few choices. Private often fills the nitch that public can fulfill.

The truth is that many kids are better in public and others are better in private and if we got rid of one or the other many more kids would fall through the crack.

Is this true? If so, how does DC get around it?