If your parents scrimped and saved to send you to private school, do you appreciate it now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope you are saving enough each month for private college as well OP! That is one thing your kids won't thank you for later on, if you are prioritizing paying for private high school over private college (I can't tell from your OP if this is the case or not). In high school, they will be taught to aim high at the top universities and SLACs and it will come as a nasty shock to them if you expect them to settle for UVA or take out loans when theoretically you could have been saving all this time for them to attend their dream school. They will be surrounded by kids who wont' have to settle or choose and they will become bitter and resentful that they do. You are in essence teaching them to have champagne tastes on a beer budget by sending them to schools you can't really afford.

I am still paying back my student loans in my mid thirties and I wish my parents had prioritized the other way around. Private college first, followed by money for grad school (I went to law school), then private high school if there was any money left over, then k-8 if they really felt the need. But honestly, for most bright, motivated students, public school is "good enough." Yeah, if you have a lot of extra m one lying around, private k-12 is a "nice to have" luxury. But it's not a necessity, especially if you can't afford it.

Oh, please, UVA is hardly settling. The comments on DCUM are ridiculous.

It is if you've lived all your life in VA. Kids want to go away to someplace new and exciting for college. You sound like you don't know any teenagers. They are not known for practicality or financial prudence. All they will hear at private school, where they will be surrounded by families with more money then sense is, "Best friend A is going to Williams! OMG! Best friend B is going to Stanford! OMG! Kid C is going to U Chicago! OMG! That fucking loser is going to NYU! OMG. The Valedictorian is going to Harvard! OMG.". And your kid will be going to UVA Big whoop.

Right. UVA is a good school but to many teenagers growing up in state, it does feel like settling in the sense of not going anywhere exciting. The OP asked if his/her kids will be grateful that she scrimped and saved all their lives to put them through private k-12. And if they have to go public/take out student loans for college and grad school because of that, the answer is, probably not.

You people are raising future LOSERS. I bet your kid couldn't even make the cut for UVA. You'll probably have to buy her way into American with all the other entitled leftovers.

My kids wont be going to school for it to be exciting, they will be going for an education. Your attitude is for failures. #howtoraiseafailure #seePPforinstructions

NP. You don't read do you PP. The PPs you quoted were talking about top twenty schools, all higher ranked than UVA, all more expensive than UVA, all with much better national reputations than UVA, AND in more exciting places to be like Boston, NYC, Chicago, etc. No one turns down Harvard or the University of Chicago for UVA unless they don't have the money. The entire point of poster after poster in this thread is that at private school, your child will be surrounded by people who don't have to consult finances before making big decisions because they have SO much more money than the OP (hhi 320k), that they could literally burn some in the backyard and still be better off.

Odds are, the chances of their kids even making UVA are low, let alone a top 20. It's laughable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We went to private school but lived in a rundown dump of a house. Could never have friends over, spent all our time at other peoples houses. I would have preferred a comfortable family home.

I disliked private school for the same reasons. We didn't have anywhere near as much money as friend's classmates and it was obvious. We didn't go on vacations. I didn't have super awesome clothes. I didn't get a car when I turned 16. My parents didnt have nice cars. We didn't have a very nice house. I still remember a classmate talking about playing tennis w/Dan Quayle's son...that was so far from my reality that it really stuck out. In high school, so much of your identity is being developed socially, I would have preferred an opportunity to blend in a bit more w/others who were like me.

Then you are still a sheep

I am not that pp, but if you don't "blend in" somehow in high school you become a reject who never learns social skills. I, at least, had a few friends--but not enough to manage to acquire the social skills that would help me through life. Academically, it was great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to an elite private school...in my mid 30s now.... While I appreciate the fact that it likely helped me get into an Ivy League university, I sometimes wish I had gone through the public school experience to get a better understanding of lower middle class life. I think it would have helped me relate better to folks in my workplace now and in general, connect with other ppl. The vast majority of the US populace go to public schools so by putting kids in a rarified bubble of elitism, they miss out on understanding and being able to connect with regular lower middle class folk.

Would you really get a good understanding of lower middle class life at Bethesda public schools?