Colvin Run over private school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here - should have clarified. I was referring to FCPS elementary schools. Some of the high schools (notably Langley, McLean, Oakton, etc.) are excellent and probably comparable to a good private. But the elementaries are about as far as you can get.

So yes, if you have the type of kid who needs special coddling, small classes and lots of handholding, don't send them to one of FCPS's scary elementary schools. Please pay big bucks to go private, so the resilient public kids won't get in the way of your fragile snowflake's advancement.

FCPS's public schools, while far from perfect, are among the best in the country. Short of having a kid with some very special needs, people in this area who spend a lot of time agonizing over public v. private, either enjoy wasting time, or prefer keeping their kids in a bubble.

I'm the PP and have kids in public schools, not private. The reason I'm critical of FCPS elementary schools has nothing to do with my child needing "special coddling" and "lots of handholding," and everything to do with the incredibly weak curriculum. There's nothing "scary" about these schools, they just get away with teaching the barest minimum and never delving deeper or going further, in the way a private school can.

You've been drinking the FCPS Kool-Aid which would have us all believing these schools are actually "among the best in the country." Uh, no. Sorry.

The last thing I've been doing is drinking the FCPS Kool-Aid. The curriculum isn't perfect, but having lived all over the U.S. and the world, and had kids at both public and private schools, I can say it is among the most impressive I've seen. I don't know what school your kids attend, but mine have spent little time being taught the barest minimum and I've been impressed with how deeply they've gone into topics in class. Certainly, much deeper than either my husband or I did, and we both have advanced degrees. My biggest beef is the overemphasis on SOLs and teaching to the test, but that is a problem at all public schools.

At the end of the day, I'm happy that my kids have been able to go to diverse schools, where they've learned to work hard, be curious and discover their interests. Elementary school in particular, isn't all about academics. I've never felt limited by any curriculum because if you have kids who love learning they're constantly exploring on their own anyway -- particularly if this is encouraged at home.

[Anonymous]

NP here. With over 100 elementary schools in Fairfax County, the experience from one to another can be drastically different. In the schools my kids have attended, the fcps curriculum was viewed as the absolute floor, and most teachers went well above and beyond.