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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Did you see the title of this thread? It's about the decision to go private when you have good public options. All kinds of parents will click on this thread - some to respond, some to see what the responses are. Hell, my daughter is in a great charter in DC (I know, I know, I should be investigated for child abuse), and I'm interested in the responses because it may be relevant in the next few years. Well, I'm interested in SOME of the responses - the "all privates are better than all publics" nitwit wasn't particularly enlightening.

Anyway, thanks to all the parents who actually responded to OP's question. Many things to consider as my daughter gets older.

[Anonymous]

Once again: I haven't seen ANYBODY criticize a parent's decision to send their kids to private school. Many (all?) of us HAVE kids in private school.

The vociferous posters came on to argue against the "no redeeming qualities in public schools" nitwit.

These are TWO VERY DIFFERENT subjects. In fact, I think even you would agree the nitwit is wrong and needs to be set straight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Once again: I haven't seen ANYBODY criticize a parent's decision to send their kids to private school. Many (all?) of us HAVE kids in private school.

The vociferous posters came on to argue against the "no redeeming qualities in public schools" nitwit.

These are TWO VERY DIFFERENT subjects. In fact, I think even you would agree the nitwit is wrong and needs to be set straight.

Before the snarky "no redeeming qualities" post was the privates suck post...

"DC's private schools can't offer what the public schools do .... DC's are bored out of their minds, .... ... They aren't challenged and I wish we could just "rewind" and put them in public. ... May as well go public."

Yada yada yada...

So yea - people went into the private vs. public debate. It took the thread off topic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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."

I think this is good analysis. I agree. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: 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."

I'm the OP and have been amazed at all the meanderings this thread has taken. That being said, PP above hit the nail on the head regarding the reason for my question. And, I have gotten lots to think about. We still haven't made a decision what to do wrt public v. private for our daughter, and we have time to think about it, but there are some reasons here to consider. Basically the two biggest things that have me personally leaning private are the class size and the potential desire for a single sex education, but I'm not sure if those alone outweigh all the benefits of our local publics (no cost, proximity, outstanding schools, and so on), and so I appreciate hearing about the other factors that led people to choose one way or another.

fwiw, I didn't ask the question the other way around since I can think of many good reasons to go public. With the exception of one or two kids in parochial school, all the kids in our neighborhood go to our local public, and so I can have that conversation with friends and neighbors, and get the specifics regarding our particular school pyramid.

[Anonymous]

FWIW, had I been in your position, I'd have tried public first. Then if you're not happy, you'll know what you're looking for/missing. If you are happy, you've saved lots of $$ and made a choice that's socially and logistically much easier.

These aren't irreversible decisions. And in situations where kids don't have special needs and where parents themselves are well-educated/educationally-oriented/have resources, a less-than-optimal K-2 placement isn't going to have any significant consequences. In short, even if you ultimately decide you'd rather go private, you haven't taken a big risk by trying public. (Whereas if you experiment with private and decide public was the right choice, you're out $90,000+ dollars in three short years!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once again: I haven't seen ANYBODY criticize a parent's decision to send their kids to private school. Many (all?) of us HAVE kids in private school.

The vociferous posters came on to argue against the "no redeeming qualities in public schools" nitwit.

These are TWO VERY DIFFERENT subjects. In fact, I think even you would agree the nitwit is wrong and needs to be set straight.

Before the snarky "no redeeming qualities" post was the privates suck post...

"DC's private schools can't offer what the public schools do .... DC's are bored out of their minds, .... ... They aren't challenged and I wish we could just "rewind" and put them in public. ... May as well go public."

Yada yada yada...

So yea - people went into the private vs. public debate. It took the thread off topic.

But that came on page 3.

On pages 1 and 2 there were some thoughtful statements about the posters' kids' needs. But we also had these incredibly offensive statements about public schools, in some cases from posters who apparently have no first-hand experience with the public schools they are slamming:
"DD met a better class of people."
"We gave MCPS a try but quickly found out that it is a one-size-fits all system that is mainly focused on teaching kids to be compliant. "
"a three-ring circus of "edu-speak", political correctness and a lack of discipline"
here are some echoes of the post you just criticized, but this one came first: "the public schools (ours is FCPS) teach to a test, one size fits all, memorization etc. This year's class size is 30. My child has spent most of the year complaining about being bored ..."
"Do public school teachers like teaching to the test, drilling kids, and encouraging memorization over imagination?"
And my personal favorite: "we could look back and see just how "girl-friendly" the public schools were."

Why is it surprising that public school parents took offense way before the nitwit poster, or even the quote on page 3 you cited?

Why would you want to create a forum where one group is free to insult another, because you have GAGGED the second group by not allowing them in?

Why would you want only a single point of view? Thereby creating an exclusive, private school-only forum where some of the stupider statements will never get challenged?

Signed,

Mom with kids in public and private

[Anonymous]

The bitter irony is the very parents slamming public schools (teachers, children and parents) are the stupid, dumb ignorami who received a public school education themselves. What do you expect from these UNeducated DCUMMIES who are only bubble literate.

[Anonymous]

18:54 here. OK, 19:14 wasn't really helpful. Including because it unwittingly associates ignorance with a public school education...

[Anonymous]

The statements that I wrote about why we chose private over public - teaching to a test, large class size and boredom were not meant to be offensive to those in public school, unfortunately public wasn't working for one of our children. Do I blame the teachers, of course not. Does it work for our other children, yes. Do those children go to public, yes. I guess the point I'm trying to make is, for the most part, we're all trying to do the same thing (whether public or private) - give our kids the "best" education in the "best" environment for them. If it's private Hooray! If it's public Hooray! We based our decision on the interests and needs of our children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The bitter irony is the very parents slamming public schools (teachers, children and parents) are the stupid, dumb ignorami who received a public school education themselves. What do you expect from these UNeducated DCUMMIES who are only bubble literate.

yes, because they know how bad public school is, whether the academics or the social aspects or the lack of values/morals/charater building....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bitter irony is the very parents slamming public schools (teachers, children and parents) are the stupid, dumb ignorami who received a public school education themselves. What do you expect from these UNeducated DCUMMIES who are only bubble literate.

yes, because they know how bad public school is, whether the academics or the social aspects or the lack of values/morals/charater building....

You're funny! Is it really all about who you meet? Because the list of famous graduates from humble places like Blair High School is pretty impressive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The bitter irony is the very parents slamming public schools (teachers, children and parents) are the stupid, dumb ignorami who received a public school education themselves. What do you expect from these UNeducated DCUMMIES who are only bubble literate.

Somehow I can't see myself trusting this poster as a judge of literacy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH and I are discussing public v. private options for DC. In Maryland MoCo, and in Virginia APS and FCPS are all considering generally outstanding school districts, with admitted pockets of less desirable schools.

If you live in one of these areas, what made you decide to put your DC into a private, which is far more expensive and possibly inconveniently located, when there are some who argue they could get just as good of an education at your local, strong public?

This isn't a snarky question geared towards denigrating anyone's choices. As I said, DH and I are considering what to do and want the input of a bunch of people on an anonymous board who readily bash each other.

We live in Howard County and this year took our kids out of private and put them into the local public school. We did it after visiting the local school and meeting with the principal and a number of teachers. We went private at first when our kids were pre-K and stuck with it because they thrived there. But a number of our neighbors moved their kids to the local school and were very pleased, so we thought it worth investigating. So far, we've also been very pleased and our kids are doing well.

Having spent elementary and middle school in DC in private school and then high school in public school in Howard County, I can say that private has one strength that public doesn't. Private schools can be choosey about who attends. I got a solid education in public school in Howard, got into a top college , top law school, etc. and never felt unprepared. But there was undoubtedly a disruptive element in my public high school that made the environment les enjoyable for virtually everyone else. That type of element is not a problem in private school. We'll stick with public for now and direct the savings to the kids' college funds.

[Anonymous]

16:09 to which private to public did you switch? We are deciding between private and public. However, most of our neighbors go to private.