Our first days of public school after private, what I've noticed.

[Anonymous]

What do they have in the bathrooms of private school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do they have in the bathrooms of private school?

Usually there's a nice basket on the sink with an array of hand lotion, hair spray, tampons (for upper level girls, obv.), breath mints, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do they have in the bathrooms of private school?

Usually there's a nice basket on the sink with an array of hand lotion, hair spray, tampons (for upper level girls, obv.), breath mints, etc.

I refuse to believe that this is true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do they have in the bathrooms of private school?

"GO BACK TO PUBLIC" written in lipstick on the mirrors in the girls bathroom.

'SHOW US YOUR PRIVATE(S)" in spray paint in the boys bathroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But let's be candid here: a huge percentage of these masters degrees ^^ are distance learning degrees from online-only "universities", or the Continuing Education wing of [not at all competitive] State U. And they're completed in < 13 months. Whoop de Do.

Not saying some percentage of modern teachers aren't smart -- clearly, some are. But I pay zero credence to this "and public teachers must have a MASTERS!!" boosterism. Seriously, the stupidest person in my family is a teacher with a Masters. The most incurious, anti-intellectual person in my family is a principal with a Masters. She can make the ship run smoothly, but she's a drooling Creationist at Thanksgiving dinner.

How do you know this?

Just ask the schools themselves. Or work backward and talk with the local higher ed places like Towson. Think critically - the teachers who obtain their masters *while teaching kids * -- how could they do that simultaneously, in one year, if many of the hours WEREN'T distance learning? And that's how it works, you start teaching with the contingency that the masters will be completed by date X.

In VA, there is no education major for an undergrad degree. Teachers must get a undergrad degree than get a teaching certificate. Once completed, there is usually only a few classes left to take and one completes a masters so yes, many teachers start to teach and then take the last few clases to get their masters degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, at our public school, many parents know each other, the staff are very pleasant and friendly, and they even had a welcome back "breakfast" for parents in the gym after drop off (where we got to walk our kids to their classes). So you can't assume all public schools are the same.

Our public had the breakfast also and it was poorly attended even thouh there were plenty of sahm at the school so it wasn't a case of everyone needing to get to work that day.

[Anonymous]

Why are public school parents so defensive?

[Anonymous]

But let's be candid here: a huge percentage of these masters degrees ^^ are distance learning degrees from online-only "universities", or the Continuing Education wing of [not at all competitive] State U. And they're completed in < 13 months. Whoop de Do.

Not saying some percentage of modern teachers aren't smart -- clearly, some are. But I pay zero credence to this "and public teachers must have a MASTERS!!" boosterism. Seriously, the stupidest person in my family is a teacher with a Masters. The most incurious, anti-intellectual person in my family is a principal with a Masters. She can make the ship run smoothly, but she's a drooling Creationist at Thanksgiving dinner.

How do you know this?

Just ask the schools themselves. Or work backward and talk with the local higher ed places like Towson. Think critically - the teachers who obtain their masters *while teaching kids * -- how could they do that simultaneously, in one year, if many of the hours WEREN'T distance learning? And that's how it works, you start teaching with the contingency that the masters will be completed by date X.

In VA, there is no education major for an undergrad degree. Teachers must get a undergrad degree than get a teaching certificate. Once completed, there is usually only a few classes left to take and one completes a masters so yes, many teachers start to teach and then take the last few clases to get their masters degree.

Huh? I sure hope you are a not a teacher. This makes absolutely no sense, and contains spelling, punctuation and syntax errors.

[Anonymous]

Why are public school parents so defensive?

What are private-school parents so high-maintenance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For us the start of public school felt like a slap in the face. It did get a little better as the year went on - met plenty of very nice parents and kids - but you kind of have to "suck it up" to get through a lot of it (the take or leave attitude of the administration, silly grading, unwelcoming front desk, poor communications, etc). It is not just the parents - kids who have experienced a good-fit private who switch to
an average public do pick up on these things as well.

That front desk thing...I just hope none of that impertinence rubs off on DD. Teachers and administrators need to remember that they are setting an example for our kids.

As a previous poster said, both systems, public and private, have a ting or two to learn from each other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There may be two challenges here.

In the public schools, to get beyond this negativity to see what is good.

In the private schools, to get beyond the polite office staff and fancy bathrooms to evaluate whether the education is really better than the public schools.

Agree

[Anonymous]

The main reason teachers obtain their Master's degree is because they have to. I had 5 years from when I was hired to obtain my Master's degree. The pay increase from earning my Master's degree was a whopping $1000 per year. I was reimbursed half of the cost of my degree and I estimate it cost a total of $25K to earn it (this was many years ago).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There may be two challenges here.

In the public schools, to get beyond this negativity to see what is good.

In the private schools, to get beyond the polite office staff and fancy bathrooms to evaluate whether the education is really better than the public schools.

Excellent points.

[Anonymous]

Yeah. In our private school, the bathrooms are not fancy. They are the same as public school bathrooms. However, there are about 14 kids in each math section so the teacher can really focus on each kid as needed. Every kid comes to school well supported so there are precious few behavioral detractions from instruction time. The school is small so we feel like we get to know kids and families over time even though getting together outside of school is harder. The kids come from all over DC/MD/VA so it can be hard to get together with friends outside of school -- we don't like that. The school has several traditional activities that bring everyone together. The one time I had a concern, I made a phone call and it was taken care of immediately. I appreciated the ability to respond quickly without a lot of handwringing.

[Anonymous]

We had small classes in private school too, but the teaching was so poor that I had to reteach everything at home.