Is the obsession with private schools justified?
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Anonymous
Keeping digging that hole, OP. |
Anonymous
Of course, not all have the money to access solid private schools. |
Anonymous
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I mean, to get back to the original question at the top of thread.
Whether private school is worth it or not is dependent on how much money you have, how bad your alternatives are, and what you want to optimize for as a family. If you have access to good public schools and the cost of private will cause stress / meaningful trade-offs, then no -- probably not worth it. If your public school is terrible or your kid truly needs something that the public school can't offer -- then yeah, probably worth stretching the budget a bit to try private. And if you have enough money that the $40-60K a year truly doesn't create any financial burden, then do whatever you want. Truly, there's no perfect answer here -- it depends on what YOU and your family want to optimize for. Our kids are in a DCPS charter and we always thought we would leave for a private sometime in early elementary. Now our kids are in 3rd and 5th. Are there things about a private which would likely objectively be better than a charter? For sure. But our kids are super happy, have incredible friends, are learning a ton and getting support in school to advance quickly, and we have a very close group of school neighborhood friends. When we took a step back as a family, we realized that whatever marginal 'benefits' we would get from a private weren't worth either the financial cost or the potential disruption of switching schools. That might change as the kids get older and we recognize that might mean the 'option' sets are smaller, but we're ok with that. Other families might make a different choice than us, and that's ok!! You just need to be very clear about your family values, what trade-offs you are making, and what you are optimizing for. |
Anonymous
🥱 |
Anonymous
Private schools have the advantage that they can counsel kids out that aren't doing well. So yeah, the kids that they keep do better, but there is really no way to tell if it is because the teaching and environment is truly more effective for learning or if they are just choosing the students that are easiest to teach. |
Anonymous
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Even “solid” public schools have issues that make them undesirable to some parents who can afford to pay to not deal with those issues. I’ll add that private schools in my city(not dc) have much more economic, ethnic, and racial diversity than our local public school— this may not be true anywhere.
If one is unhappy with private, there is an easy solution. Don’t enroll your kids for the next year. |
Anonymous
The teaching and learning environment can be more “effective” if the student make-up is a generally easy lot, with more “difficult” students counseled out or, more likely, never admitted in the first place. |
Anonymous
We dealt with such public school issues until middle school, then went private. I wouldn’t change a thing, but certainly understand why other families would seek to avoid it altogether. |
Anonymous
And my point is simply that the "wait until MS or HS to switch from public to private" is not as easy as you claim. Also remember that your child, especially for 9th grade admission, will also be competing against those coming from K-8 privates that regularly place their top graduates into the most selective schools. |
Anonymous
And they can also select from the start for hooked kids. |
Anonymous
| That makes no sense. I thought the whole point of hooked kids is that they don't necessarily have to fit the right mold because the hook (they have a sibling who attends or a parent who works at the school) is what gets them admitted. |
Anonymous
In our experience, the home environment matters so much. Let them read books and expose them to curiosity-driven activities. Plus, academic records are only one aspect of how a child is doing. School is a social place. They need to find their own people. I think finding the right environment is the critical part, which includes both academic and social. The right environment build confidence and good habits and encourage the kids to their best. Whether that is private or public might depends on the kids. |
Anonymous
It is not easy. But based on our experience, it is not too hard either, unless your only focus is Sidwell Friends. All other schools are not that hard to get into from multiple entry points, 6th, 7th, 9th. DMV areas have many good schools. I can list at least 10 that will provide excellent education. There is no reason to go to NCRC or other equipment expensive pre-K-6. |
Anonymous
In-demand private schools intentionally select for hooked kids to boost their own college admission stats. It's an easy win for them. |
Anonymous
Yes, private school parents often choose private because they want to keep their kids away from the "bad" kids. And certainly there are public school environments that can be really bad for kids. But IME learning to be around kids with different needs and experiences is also really valuable. |