Sound off - Ivy grads & high income earners who chose public schools over privates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My dog finished her training class at the local public rec center. However, her grade was an"incomplete" because she couldn't do one of thr tricks. She has friends who go to private dog camps, but that's because they live in a bad neighborhood.

Nice try, but are you ivy or $350k? Hmmm? That dog didn't stand a chance!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a pp with multiple Ivy degrees and a child in public school. People need to remember that Ivied have very generous financial aid. Many of us grew up working clas or middle class, and have retained those values. We had good public school educations, and want the same for our kids.

Agree with this. It is about the values you grew up with and those you want to instill. Went to public where most kids went to state schools and going to an elite college was a big deal. I got a great education nd wasn't an asshole surrounded by assholes. I want the same for my kid. Top 1%, double ivy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a pp with multiple Ivy degrees and a child in public school. People need to remember that Ivied have very generous financial aid. Many of us grew up working clas or middle class, and have retained those values. We had good public school educations, and want the same for our kids.

Agree with this. It is about the values you grew up with and those you want to instill. Went to public where most kids went to state schools and going to an elite college was a big deal. I got a great education nd wasn't an asshole surrounded by assholes. I want the same for my kid. Top 1%, double ivy.

Oops, i didnt mean that i want top 1% and double ivy for my kid, just forgot to state the stats at the top of the post. Just realized i sounded like a private school asshole there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a pp with multiple Ivy degrees and a child in public school. People need to remember that Ivied have very generous financial aid. Many of us grew up working clas or middle class, and have retained those values. We had good public school educations, and want the same for our kids.

Agree with this. It is about the values you grew up with and those you want to instill. Went to public where most kids went to state schools and going to an elite college was a big deal. I got a great education nd wasn't an asshole surrounded by assholes. I want the same for my kid. Top 1%, double ivy.

Oops, i didnt mean that i want top 1% and double ivy for my kid, just forgot to state the stats at the top of the post. Just realized i sounded like a private school asshole there.

Yes, in fact, you are an asshole because of your assumption that because someone is wealthy it automatically follows that he or she has poor values.

[Anonymous]

Ivy, big 3 grad, sending kids to public (they're toddler age now)

[Anonymous]

So it's dumb people with money that send their kids to private schools. It's sort of like a "Lexus" right just a status symbol- okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So it's dumb people with money that send their kids to private schools. It's sort of like a "Lexus" right just a status symbol- okay.

Uh, sure. Whatever you say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So it's dumb people with money that send their kids to private schools. It's sort of like a "Lexus" right just a status symbol- okay.

What are you smoking, lady? At least a few posters have said they grew up middle class and valued public education, and are therefore doing the same thing for their children. Nowhere did I read that "smart" people with money send their kids to public and "dumb" ones do private. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say most people try to emulate the positive experiences for their children that they had growing up, whether private or public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it's dumb people with money that send their kids to private schools. It's sort of like a "Lexus" right just a status symbol- okay.

What are you smoking, lady? At least a few posters have said they grew up middle class and valued public education, and are therefore doing the same thing for their children. Nowhere did I read that "smart" people with money send their kids to public and "dumb" ones do private. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say most people try to emulate the positive experiences for their children that they had growing up, whether private or public.

Bingo. I had a miserable public school experience so we're doing private, but I know people who have experienced/chosen the reverse. We all make the best decisions we can in light of our own resources and experiences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a pp with multiple Ivy degrees and a child in public school. People need to remember that Ivied have very generous financial aid. Many of us grew up working clas or middle class, and have retained those values. We had good public school educations, and want the same for our kids.

Agree with this. It is about the values you grew up with and those you want to instill. Went to public where most kids went to state schools and going to an elite college was a big deal. I got a great education nd wasn't an asshole surrounded by assholes. I want the same for my kid. Top 1%, double ivy.

I went to a private school and wasnt surrounded by assholes either. What are you implying?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^I agree. In addition, I'd say that as a 2 Ivy couple with kids in public, we saw a lot of classmates in college who had attended very expensive privates/boarding schools. Not always such a pretty picture! Sometimes people look at those schools with rose colored glasses. That much affluence or access to the trappings of affluence can be detrimental to young kids (even at the high school level). Many of us know that a good public school will give a motivated, smart kid a great start in life (without all the pitfalls that can come with privates).

I went to Harvard. I certainly met nice well-adjusted people who attended expensive private schools. I also met children from very wealthy families who were sent to boarding schools because after their parents' divorce, the parents needed to focus on their new families or re-entering the dating scene. I met families who had long traditions of outsourcing childrearing. I met people who responded to the regimented scheduling of boarding school by going hog-wild and taking as many drugs as their ample allowances permitted. Wealth doesn't necessarily mean an absence of values, but studies show that the wealthy are less sensitive to the needs of others. Wealth also enables crap parents to meet their kids' daily needs without any emotional involvement.

[Anonymous]

When everyone talks about I went to private and did fine...just as my husband argues...the missing piece of the discussion is that public school circa 1980s or whenever you went is very different from how kids are being educated today in public school. They will not be going to school under similar teachers, curriculum, peers or environments as we did in the olden days. In addition, those who graduated from publics that were not in major metro areas similar to DC had a different experience than our kids will have as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When everyone talks about I went to private and did fine...just as my husband argues...the missing piece of the discussion is that public school circa 1980s or whenever you went is very different from how kids are being educated today in public school. They will not be going to school under similar teachers, curriculum, peers or environments as we did in the olden days. In addition, those who graduated from publics that were not in major metro areas similar to DC had a different experience than our kids will have as well.

I meant "I went to public and did fine"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When everyone talks about I went to private and did fine...just as my husband argues...the missing piece of the discussion is that public school circa 1980s or whenever you went is very different from how kids are being educated today in public school. They will not be going to school under similar teachers, curriculum, peers or environments as we did in the olden days. In addition, those who graduated from publics that were not in major metro areas similar to DC had a different experience than our kids will have as well.

Are you remembering the 1980s as the good old days in public education? The facts don't support you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When everyone talks about I went to private and did fine...just as my husband argues...the missing piece of the discussion is that public school circa 1980s or whenever you went is very different from how kids are being educated today in public school. They will not be going to school under similar teachers, curriculum, peers or environments as we did in the olden days. In addition, those who graduated from publics that were not in major metro areas similar to DC had a different experience than our kids will have as well.

I meant "I went to public and did fine"

I went to public school in a NYC suburb that is very much like the suburb where we live now. I didn't receive any acceleration until middle school. I only took 3 AP classes. Our kids are getting much more out of their public education than I got out of mine, and it still got me into a couple of Ivies. My niece is graduating from the very same public high school I attended 30 years ago. She is trying to choose among acceptances from Brown, Barnard and Princeton as we speak.