Public schools
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Anonymous
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Our kids go to public school and they are really young now. I have always seen parents whose kids go to private schools passionately talk about private schools and how public schools are bad, but I have never known the exact reasons from them. We can't afford private schools, but I wanted to know what exactly are we missing by not sending kids to private schools. Are the academics different? Are there more extra-curricular activities that public school kids are missing? Does the difference become more evident with middle and high school age?
NOTE: This is not for getting anyone to fight. I just need some genuine facts. Thank you! |
Anonymous
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This is very district and school dependent. I've worked in both public and private schools. I used to say that I didn't see the value in private elementary... but now I absolutely do. A LOT of teachers' and administrators' time and energy is spent dealing with the 3-4 kids in class with behavioral, psychological, and academic issues. Kids are pushed to mainstream when they have significant needs. The top kids get ignored. The middle kids get by.
There are also plenty of problematic private schools. |
Anonymous
That said, I have my elementary child in public. I don't want to spend $20k a year and have him be snooty. I have kept him in public and tell him to be kind, help other kids, listen to the teachers, and to do his best. We add more math and literacy at home, as we learned way back in kindergarten that he wasn't getting nearly enough of it. |
Anonymous
| A lot less red tape when you need something to happen at an administrative level. |
Anonymous
There are also way more extracurriculars and specials. My child is in a top public and pretty much all his activities are things I research and put him in outside of school. So much driving. You're also lucky in publics if you get quality music, instrumental, and language instruction. |
Anonymous
| The expectations are much higher. It’s sad I have to pay money for this but I do. My son went to public ES and MS and got all As. Very little of what he handed in was A work though. He expended as little effort as possible. He got satisfactory effort grades and all As. He learned that he could hand in work, not even on time, and still get an A. I think school is just as much about life skills (punctuality, good attendance, meeting deadlines, etc) as learning content. |
Anonymous
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Public school has a lot more behavioral problems and a lot more low performing kids. Teachers have to spend majority of energy on behavior redirection and (attempting) to bring the low performing kids at least to grade level. Above average kids pretty much learn no new material in school.
Private schools have a lot less behavior issues and most of the kids are at or above grade level. Plus private schools have a lot more leverage with telling a family their kid isn’t a good fit and needs to leave. Public schools can’t do that. To a degree, it depends on the specific public and private school and of course there are exception. This is a generalization- but it is mostly true |
Anonymous
| No better outcome for college comes from private. FULL STOP |
Anonymous
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OP here. Thanks. So how do private schools handle students with special needs? Do they have separate classes and separate special-ed teachers?
What kinds of extra curriculars? As in more math clubs and things like? |
Anonymous
Kids with significant needs tend to go to schools that cater to that population. It’s self selecting. More mainstream or “college prep” privates do not enroll the kids who need such extensive support. What kind of extracurriculars? Runs the gamut. And students often have clubs they want to start and have school fund them. |
Anonymous
It depends on the school and what the special need is. Private schools with a more rigorous academic expectations are just not going to admit kids that aren’t able to keep up. Likewise, they are unlikely to admit kids with severe behavioral problems. If your child has an IEP and the school can’t/doesn’t want to make those specific accommodations, they will just tell you it isn’t a good fit. Sometimes parents provide their own 1:1 aide but again it depends on what the issues are. Some private schools do have specific programs for learning disabilities though |
Anonymous
First, private school could kick kids out if they behave badly, and public school has to educate anyone. If your kid's class is fine, it's fine; but if your kid's class has one behaviorally challenged kid, the education get disrupted. This is why public school is a crab shot. We live in a middle to upper middle class school, and their class sometimes got chaotic. Second, this doesn't apply to all private school, but some of them can teach ahead for overperforming kids. Some public school has gifted program, in that case it's similar. You can get extra-curricular on your own. So I don't think the difference is there. |
Anonymous
Yep. My kids started attending a private prep school in middle school. No children with significant behavior issues or learning needs are admitted there and the classes are very rigorous. But I purposely made my kids to go to public school for the elementary years so that they could develop empathy and understanding of people with special needs. You can really only do that by being in a classroom with kids with learning disabilities, autism, intellectual disabilities, etc. |
Anonymous
| C’mon, OP. Be sensible. There are all kinds of private schools and all kinds of public ones. You can’t make sweeping generalizations. |
Anonymous
| My DCs are older now, but if we were starting out now I would seriously consider putting them in private school, if not in ES then for MS. The teacher shortage is a real issue and the work load we are asking of them is unsustainable, not to mention the discipline problems. I think the teachers that want to teach are going to gravitate towards private schools where many of the behavior problems don't exist and they'll just be able to teach. |