Cons of private school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fewer opportunities. Our private is 90 kids per grade. Our public is 500 kids/grade. It's a lot easier to find enough kids to form a robotics club, debate team, or rowing team with 500 to choose from.

This. There may be more money and coaching support for teams and activities, but the bottom line is there are only so many warm bodies to distribute.

[Anonymous]

Only negative is that it costs money. But so worth it in my opinion compared to sending my kids to DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depending on the school the class sizes can be really small. For example i just moved DC from a Middle School with a total class size of 21. DC really struggled socially because of it. We moved her to a bigger school with 3 classes of 8th graders school and she's much happier. Also, if the school is on the smaller size it's easy to attract too much attention for being different or getting corrections.

Agreed. Christ Episcopal School had a 7th grade class last year of 7 students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wish I had dug a little deeper and realized how little they push the kids in math.

I stupidly went into this thinking that smaller class size means my kid gets a lot more attention than in public. Actually my kid is getting a little bit more attention, because all of the families are expecting their kid (and themselves as parents/consumers) to get a lot more attention than in public. I also stupidly thought that all the kids at our not-that-competitive private would be bright and have no major issues, when in fact many of them are at this school precisely *because* they need extra help and were falling behind.

This was the big surprise for me. I pulled my public school kid thinking they would be more challenged and surrounded by better behaved kids and it was exactly the opposite. Be very careful where you go. We had lots of behavioral problems - including one girl who basically should be institutionalized yet was allowed to remain in the class terrorizing all of the boys and girls and barely passing - mostly Ds and Cs. But she would not have survived public school - she would have drowned - so we were "graced" with her presence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wish I had dug a little deeper and realized how little they push the kids in math.

I stupidly went into this thinking that smaller class size means my kid gets a lot more attention than in public. Actually my kid is getting a little bit more attention, because all of the families are expecting their kid (and themselves as parents/consumers) to get a lot more attention than in public. I also stupidly thought that all the kids at our not-that-competitive private would be bright and have no major issues, when in fact many of them are at this school precisely *because* they need extra help and were falling behind.

I'd love to move my child to private but this is holding us bacon MS. Child started Algebra in 6th grade and most privates don't start till 7-8th so they couldn't provide it in MS as their MS/HS schedules were different.

[Anonymous]

Lack of much racial/ethnic diversity

Lack of economic diversity

Lack of working mothers

More limited opportunities for friendship/more social drama

[Anonymous]

Conspicuous consumption competition. The other kids have designer this and limited edition that and all the latest tech. It’s impossible to keep up. We preach non-materialism at home and our kids are mostly believers, but having constant conversations about reigning in jealousy and us always having to say no really drains me. And it drains the kids.

[Anonymous]

The geographic spread, definitely a consideration for seeing friends.
Also the degree to which athletics dictates/influences other aspects of school life--it is definitely prioritized over other extracurriculars.
Also agree with PP who said they thought their kid would get extra attention in smaller classes and that other kids would be bright/motivated. Haven't found either of these things to be true.
This is at a fairly well regarded but second-tier private.
So why are we still here? Starting to wonder...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wish I had dug a little deeper and realized how little they push the kids in math.

I stupidly went into this thinking that smaller class size means my kid gets a lot more attention than in public. Actually my kid is getting a little bit more attention, because all of the families are expecting their kid (and themselves as parents/consumers) to get a lot more attention than in public. I also stupidly thought that all the kids at our not-that-competitive private would be bright and have no major issues, when in fact many of them are at this school precisely *because* they need extra help and were falling behind.

This was the big surprise for me. I pulled my public school kid thinking they would be more challenged and surrounded by better behaved kids and it was exactly the opposite. Be very careful where you go. We had lots of behavioral problems - including one girl who basically should be institutionalized yet was allowed to remain in the class terrorizing all of the boys and girls and barely passing - mostly Ds and Cs. But she would not have survived public school - she would have drowned - so we were "graced" with her presence.

Yes! And the parent denial of special needs. Oh, she just needs a smaller class size. Oh, he's an active boy. No problems here. In the public system, disruptive kids are often identified as ADHD or ASD and sometimes the parents try private school to avoid a diagnosis. So the kid struggles. It's hard to watch.

[Anonymous]

Not typically mentioned on dcum or IRL, but private schools are often the haven for public school students who’ve had repeated discipline problems. Sending to a private school then is akin to an old fashioned reform school.

[Anonymous]

Gate keeping on advanced classes. My 7th grader likes math and always gets As but wasn't allowed to take pre-Algebra this year because her end-of-year standardized test scores from last year didn't meet their threshold.

[Anonymous]

Wow. With everything said above, what exactly is the point of private school? Seems like it’s worse than a good public school.

[Anonymous]

Entitled kids who are mean but whose parents are big donors so will never face consequences
Long drive to/from school
Friends live far away

Despite these, it was a net positive for my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. With everything said above, what exactly is the point of private school? Seems like it’s worse than a good public school.

Not everyone can afford the real estate for a good public. You can get a scholarship to private school but nobody's going to award you financial aid so that you can buy a house in-bounds for Janney.

But for us the point is that we're Catholic.

[Anonymous]

Tuition goes up every year. Expect that tuition will increase by more than 50 percent (in some cases a lot more) by the time you finish if you do private from PK or K-12.