If you live in area with excellent publics, why did you choose private?
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Anonymous
| Struggling with this decision and would like to hear others’ perspectives. Also worried that since we are in a top rated public district, the people opting for private will be extremely religious families and kids with behavior or social issues, neither of which describes us. |
Anonymous
| What are your reasons for considering private school then? |
Anonymous
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We're extremely religious (if you could weekly service attendance plus volunteering and making that the center of our identity as extreme).
But above and beyond the values match, there was: - FCPS watering down elementary school advanced math starting this year - Lack of writing instruction in FCPS (I hear this has gotten better with Benchmark) - Having kids at 1 school is better for my schedule than the staggered start times that have to happen in area publics due to bus schedules - Peer group was just a better fit for my hardest-to-find-a-peer-group for kid, and a good enough fit for my other kids. - Content subjects like social studies and science are just better in our private. This is fairly minor but continuously impresses me. I have voracious readers for children who would have learned a lot on their own no matter what, but I certainly don't mind them actually learning it in school. |
Anonymous
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Positive peer influence/environment: Even in a private school like ours that has a broad range of students in terms of academic ability and socio-economic status there's something different about the environment compared to our well-regarded public, despite having similar demographics. Kids are there because they want to be there and they recognize the privilege of being there. As such, they push themselves and each other to achieve academically, athletically and socially. This is a big difference compared to your in-boundary public school which has a lot to offer, but may be difficult to navigate for kids that aren't wired to fend for themselves in that way.
Emphasis on faith and service: We're not super religious but we are culturally Catholic I guess you could say, and value a Catholic education for its emphasis on community and service. Smaller community: Our school is small enough that kids are more than just a number, but big enough that everyone can find their tribe, and the school itself places a lot of emphasis on community building and friendship. Strong school spirit and alumni networks. Athletics and Clubs: Lots of elite athletes but also a lot of options for kids to get involved in other sports and activities even if they're not elite. Zero tolerance: No major behavioral issues. No violence in the halls or outside when school let's out. Piece of mind. |
Anonymous
School is overly focused (IMO) on edtech. IMO sometimes you have to do things like drill 7-3 and 2x2 and get the repetition in without trying to gamify all learning. School is overly focused (IMO) on PTA candy drives, special assemblies, special game days or sport days, PJ dress up days, and adding more and more social emotional learning initiatives. I’m all for SEL but it’s just too much. School has plenty of money and we don’t need endless fundraisers to get money to throw more parties or add more movie days. Lack of writing instruction (No spelling instruction. They don’t write enough by hand or at least I don’t see it. I’ve seen 2 pieces brought home this year) Math curriculum is a year behind and mostly done on math apps Behavior code. I’m down with kids learning manners and polite behavior. |
Anonymous
I'm a PP and I totally forgot edtech and the lack of textbooks. Cannot tell you how nice it is to have my kids bringing home worksheets they tore out of their workbooks for homework with a textbook (some of them online, but oh well) we can look at if I need to refresh my memory on something. My kids take notes. They do more than just learn cursive - which our public did - they actually have to use it. This is utterly different than my second grader still being given pandemic-era slide decks to do math assignments. The main time edtech is used in school for elementary is to teach typing, something our public didn't even bother with unless you took an elective in 7th grade. FWIW you won't see less fundraising in public though. Every possible opportunity the school will remind you to donate. |
Anonymous
| Lots of people think they live somewhere with “excellent public schools” or even move for the schools and then find out it’s not true. MCPS and APS are prime examples. |
Anonymous
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Low performance and crime are the two main reasons we’re at private.
The third reason would be the school board’s fixation on changing boundaries every four years. I want consistency for my DC, which is impossible with public. |
Anonymous
| Class size |
Anonymous
School size, too. Local HS is 5-6X the size. Small class and grade sizes allow a different approach. May not be better for all, but definitely better for our kid. |
Anonymous
We live in a highly regarded W cluster where many HS seniors matriculate to top 20 schools. My friends’ kids all had great outcomes. That said, we opted for private mainly for religious reasons many years ago and since then the academics have gotten worse at MCPS. Still the families with strong educational values and some level of wealth tend to have decent outcomes at our public. |
Anonymous
And you think your child is at an "excellent public school?" You're kidding yourself, OP. |
Anonymous
| I just wanted my kids to hang out with other Rich and connected families to increase their chances to get into an Ivy League school. |
Anonymous
I think you’d be surprised by how many people in your top school district neighborhood are at private with no social, no learning, and no behavioral issue and not for religious reasons. |
Anonymous
| I thought the behavior issues were at the publics. Privates aren’t as tolerant. |