Is the obsession with private schools justified?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I want my kid to attend the best possible school. So far, so good. But my experience in DC has felt a bit off compared to my experience overseas: paying $40,000 for childcare at NCRC partly to get access to top private schools, hiring consultants to prepare children for admissions, dealing with opaque selection processes that seem influenced by connections, and seeing schools treated as symbols of social status.

And then, when you finally get into a top private school, you realize that the college admissions numbers may be distorted by athletes and legacy admissions, and that the actual curriculum is not necessarily stronger than what good public schools offer. So at some point you have to ask: is it really worth obsessing over something that may offer such poor value?

Just skip the NCRC routes. Go to a neighborhood public schools for grades for K-4 or K-6 or k-8 and try independent schools that fits your child for middle or even high school. You can hire a consultant or two then. This saves 200K or so and let your child know the kids in neighborhood.

+1 This is the way. Our kids did public for elementary and moved to private for middle school. No regrets!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

It’s another world once you reach middle school. Your children are still elementary aged. Public is great at that level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

In-demand private schools intentionally select for hooked kids to boost their own college admission stats. It's an easy win for them.

How would admitting students whose parent work at the school or siblings of current students materially improve their college admissions stats, especially when they are 3 or 4 years old and you have no idea whether they will even be remotely strong enough academically to have a realistic chance at top colleges?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

In-demand private schools intentionally select for hooked kids to boost their own college admission stats. It's an easy win for them.

How would admitting students whose parent work at the school or siblings of current students materially improve their college admissions stats, especially when they are 3 or 4 years old and you have no idea whether they will even be remotely strong enough academically to have a realistic chance at top colleges?

It's all a statistics game, and the odds are simply better for those kids than for others of a similar age without that potential leg-up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I want my kid to attend the best possible school. So far, so good. But my experience in DC has felt a bit off compared to my experience overseas: paying $40,000 for childcare at NCRC partly to get access to top private schools, hiring consultants to prepare children for admissions, dealing with opaque selection processes that seem influenced by connections, and seeing schools treated as symbols of social status.

And then, when you finally get into a top private school, you realize that the college admissions numbers may be distorted by athletes and legacy admissions, and that the actual curriculum is not necessarily stronger than what good public schools offer. So at some point you have to ask: is it really worth obsessing over something that may offer such poor value?

Just skip the NCRC routes. Go to a neighborhood public schools for grades for K-4 or K-6 or k-8 and try independent schools that fits your child for middle or even high school. You can hire a consultant or two then. This saves 200K or so and let your child know the kids in neighborhood.

+1 This is the way. Our kids did public for elementary and moved to private for middle school. No regrets!

Sounds like a more balanced approach. Even without considering the money, I don’t see any clear benefit in our current private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

In-demand private schools intentionally select for hooked kids to boost their own college admission stats. It's an easy win for them.

How would admitting students whose parent work at the school or siblings of current students materially improve their college admissions stats, especially when they are 3 or 4 years old and you have no idea whether they will even be remotely strong enough academically to have a realistic chance at top colleges?

It's all a statistics game, and the odds are simply better for those kids than for others of a similar age without that potential leg-up.

I get that admitting certain kids with parents who attended HYPS may marginally improve certain odds, but you haven't explained how admitting those whose parents work at the school or siblings of non-legacies help at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

In-demand private schools intentionally select for hooked kids to boost their own college admission stats. It's an easy win for them.

How would admitting students whose parent work at the school or siblings of current students materially improve their college admissions stats, especially when they are 3 or 4 years old and you have no idea whether they will even be remotely strong enough academically to have a realistic chance at top colleges?

It's all a statistics game, and the odds are simply better for those kids than for others of a similar age without that potential leg-up.

I get that admitting certain kids with parents who attended HYPS may marginally improve certain odds, but you haven't explained how admitting those whose parents work at the school or siblings of non-legacies help at all.

Different hooks matter to different colleges, and the private schools know which to look for. Eg. parents who went to Harvard matter, not so much parents who went to MIT. https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1123241.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

It’s another world once you reach middle school. Your children are still elementary aged. Public is great at that level.

Oh yeah -- 1000%!! Sorry I should have added at the bottom that priorities change over time, ours likely will too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:‘Just skip the NCRC routes. Go to a neighborhood public schools for grades for K-4 or K-6 or k-8 and try independent schools that fits your child for middle or even high school. You can hire a consultant or two then. This saves 200K or so and let your child know the kids in neighborhood.’

This times infinity.

Yes!!! I wish we had gone this route with out first, and majorly regret not. Our oldest got into an awesome private school for kindergarten that ended up being a terrible fit- she is very bright and social but was masking some learning challenges (dyslexia/ input processing) that were totally unknowable when she 5 but that the school was really uncooperative with by the time she was in 2nd/3rd grade. We had to do a ton of advocating for her and pay for a lot of tutoring /private evaluations, and scrambling to find a better fit for her for 4th grade. It was a really frustrating and disheartening 4 years, and in retrospect we should have left at the end of 1st. But by then she had friends, and we did really like the teachers and thought they were trying their best.

Meanwhile, our neighbors were in a DC charter school school and had a kid with a very similar profile who got a ton of support and interventions in school.

I guess this is a niche situation, but I just think how little I knew my kid as a student when they were five and we were making a very high-cost school choice. and I also get that not every public school parent has a positive experience on this one either (but at least they aren’t paying a fortune for a bad experience!).

But the other families at your private don’t want your high-resource kid. You are the people all your private school “friends” want to avoid.

PP here: My point wasn’t about the people and I’m not actually upset that the school wasn’t able to meet my kid’s needs- they are a private school, they are very clear about what they can / can’t support. My point was that I didn’t know what my kids needs WERE when they were in kindergarten - and I think that’s true for a lot of kids! So why not start in public school and see what type of student your kid is and then you can enter private school in 3rd grade or later and find the right school to meet your kid where they’re at?

NP: because the gap widens over time. My 3 year old in private preschool understood the concepts that a kindergarten student in public school was learning.

Uhhhh…no. I have one kid in DCPS and one in private. We always planned for our kids to both go to private for middle / high school but our oldest wanted to stay at Deale and then JR due to friend group / sports. There’s a lot to love about private, but the smart kids at JR are as smart as (some definitely smarter) than the kids at private. Also scrappier, better at self advocating, and less entitled.

So hate to break it to you, - your incredibly brilliant 3 year old at a private preschool would probably be just as brilliant in DCPS.

Yes - smart, conscientious kids can do well at a solid publics in ways that truly narrow — if not eliminate — any delta with private schools, at least in terms of academics. Of course, not all have by-right/easy access to solid public schools!

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.

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.

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.

We were at a Title 1 school until middle and I generally think it was a fine experience with lasting friendships, and warm, supportive environment. Some real behavior problems, yes, but not what I’d casually label as “bad” kids, certainly challenged, but not mean or cruel.

But I appreciate the more refined, cultivated learning environment of our current school. It’s really night and day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

In-demand private schools intentionally select for hooked kids to boost their own college admission stats. It's an easy win for them.

How would admitting students whose parent work at the school or siblings of current students materially improve their college admissions stats, especially when they are 3 or 4 years old and you have no idea whether they will even be remotely strong enough academically to have a realistic chance at top colleges?

It's all a statistics game, and the odds are simply better for those kids than for others of a similar age without that potential leg-up.

I get that admitting certain kids with parents who attended HYPS may marginally improve certain odds, but you haven't explained how admitting those whose parents work at the school or siblings of non-legacies help at all.

Different hooks matter to different colleges, and the private schools know which to look for. Eg. parents who went to Harvard matter, not so much parents who went to MIT. https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1123241.page

This is all ridiculous. You sound like astrologists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:‘Just skip the NCRC routes. Go to a neighborhood public schools for grades for K-4 or K-6 or k-8 and try independent schools that fits your child for middle or even high school. You can hire a consultant or two then. This saves 200K or so and let your child know the kids in neighborhood.’

This times infinity.

Yes!!! I wish we had gone this route with out first, and majorly regret not. Our oldest got into an awesome private school for kindergarten that ended up being a terrible fit- she is very bright and social but was masking some learning challenges (dyslexia/ input processing) that were totally unknowable when she 5 but that the school was really uncooperative with by the time she was in 2nd/3rd grade. We had to do a ton of advocating for her and pay for a lot of tutoring /private evaluations, and scrambling to find a better fit for her for 4th grade. It was a really frustrating and disheartening 4 years, and in retrospect we should have left at the end of 1st. But by then she had friends, and we did really like the teachers and thought they were trying their best.

Meanwhile, our neighbors were in a DC charter school school and had a kid with a very similar profile who got a ton of support and interventions in school.

I guess this is a niche situation, but I just think how little I knew my kid as a student when they were five and we were making a very high-cost school choice. and I also get that not every public school parent has a positive experience on this one either (but at least they aren’t paying a fortune for a bad experience!).

But the other families at your private don’t want your high-resource kid. You are the people all your private school “friends” want to avoid.

PP here: My point wasn’t about the people and I’m not actually upset that the school wasn’t able to meet my kid’s needs- they are a private school, they are very clear about what they can / can’t support. My point was that I didn’t know what my kids needs WERE when they were in kindergarten - and I think that’s true for a lot of kids! So why not start in public school and see what type of student your kid is and then you can enter private school in 3rd grade or later and find the right school to meet your kid where they’re at?

NP: because the gap widens over time. My 3 year old in private preschool understood the concepts that a kindergarten student in public school was learning.

Uhhhh…no. I have one kid in DCPS and one in private. We always planned for our kids to both go to private for middle / high school but our oldest wanted to stay at Deale and then JR due to friend group / sports. There’s a lot to love about private, but the smart kids at JR are as smart as (some definitely smarter) than the kids at private. Also scrappier, better at self advocating, and less entitled.

So hate to break it to you, - your incredibly brilliant 3 year old at a private preschool would probably be just as brilliant in DCPS.

Yes - smart, conscientious kids can do well at a solid publics in ways that truly narrow — if not eliminate — any delta with private schools, at least in terms of academics. Of course, not all have by-right/easy access to solid public schools!

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.

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.

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.

We were at a Title 1 school until middle and I generally think it was a fine experience with lasting friendships, and warm, supportive environment. Some real behavior problems, yes, but not what I’d casually label as “bad” kids, certainly challenged, but not mean or cruel.

But I appreciate the more refined, cultivated learning environment of our current school. It’s really night and day.

The problem is that our private school is not really free from “bad” kids. So what is the advantage of private schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

In-demand private schools intentionally select for hooked kids to boost their own college admission stats. It's an easy win for them.

How would admitting students whose parent work at the school or siblings of current students materially improve their college admissions stats, especially when they are 3 or 4 years old and you have no idea whether they will even be remotely strong enough academically to have a realistic chance at top colleges?

It's all a statistics game, and the odds are simply better for those kids than for others of a similar age without that potential leg-up.

I get that admitting certain kids with parents who attended HYPS may marginally improve certain odds, but you haven't explained how admitting those whose parents work at the school or siblings of non-legacies help at all.

Different hooks matter to different colleges, and the private schools know which to look for. Eg. parents who went to Harvard matter, not so much parents who went to MIT. https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1123241.page

And what is specifically appealing to a top college about the admissions hook that a student's parent works at their private school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:‘Just skip the NCRC routes. Go to a neighborhood public schools for grades for K-4 or K-6 or k-8 and try independent schools that fits your child for middle or even high school. You can hire a consultant or two then. This saves 200K or so and let your child know the kids in neighborhood.’

This times infinity.

Yes!!! I wish we had gone this route with out first, and majorly regret not. Our oldest got into an awesome private school for kindergarten that ended up being a terrible fit- she is very bright and social but was masking some learning challenges (dyslexia/ input processing) that were totally unknowable when she 5 but that the school was really uncooperative with by the time she was in 2nd/3rd grade. We had to do a ton of advocating for her and pay for a lot of tutoring /private evaluations, and scrambling to find a better fit for her for 4th grade. It was a really frustrating and disheartening 4 years, and in retrospect we should have left at the end of 1st. But by then she had friends, and we did really like the teachers and thought they were trying their best.

Meanwhile, our neighbors were in a DC charter school school and had a kid with a very similar profile who got a ton of support and interventions in school.

I guess this is a niche situation, but I just think how little I knew my kid as a student when they were five and we were making a very high-cost school choice. and I also get that not every public school parent has a positive experience on this one either (but at least they aren’t paying a fortune for a bad experience!).

But the other families at your private don’t want your high-resource kid. You are the people all your private school “friends” want to avoid.

PP here: My point wasn’t about the people and I’m not actually upset that the school wasn’t able to meet my kid’s needs- they are a private school, they are very clear about what they can / can’t support. My point was that I didn’t know what my kids needs WERE when they were in kindergarten - and I think that’s true for a lot of kids! So why not start in public school and see what type of student your kid is and then you can enter private school in 3rd grade or later and find the right school to meet your kid where they’re at?

NP: because the gap widens over time. My 3 year old in private preschool understood the concepts that a kindergarten student in public school was learning.

Uhhhh…no. I have one kid in DCPS and one in private. We always planned for our kids to both go to private for middle / high school but our oldest wanted to stay at Deale and then JR due to friend group / sports. There’s a lot to love about private, but the smart kids at JR are as smart as (some definitely smarter) than the kids at private. Also scrappier, better at self advocating, and less entitled.

So hate to break it to you, - your incredibly brilliant 3 year old at a private preschool would probably be just as brilliant in DCPS.

Yes - smart, conscientious kids can do well at a solid publics in ways that truly narrow — if not eliminate — any delta with private schools, at least in terms of academics. Of course, not all have by-right/easy access to solid public schools!

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.

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.

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.

We were at a Title 1 school until middle and I generally think it was a fine experience with lasting friendships, and warm, supportive environment. Some real behavior problems, yes, but not what I’d casually label as “bad” kids, certainly challenged, but not mean or cruel.

But I appreciate the more refined, cultivated learning environment of our current school. It’s really night and day.

The problem is that our private school is not really free from “bad” kids. So what is the advantage of private schools?

No teaching to the test/time wasted preparing for and taking standardized tests, better facilities, more flexible curriculum/happier teachers, more active learning/ outdoors time/art/foreign language from K on, no dumbing down of curriculum for “equity” purposes, more responsive administration, smaller class sizes, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No teaching to the test/time wasted preparing for and taking standardized tests, better facilities, more flexible curriculum/happier teachers, more active learning/ outdoors time/art/foreign language from K on, no dumbing down of curriculum for “equity” purposes, more responsive administration, smaller class sizes, etc.

Plus religion or single-sex learning environments if either aligns with a family's values.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:‘Just skip the NCRC routes. Go to a neighborhood public schools for grades for K-4 or K-6 or k-8 and try independent schools that fits your child for middle or even high school. You can hire a consultant or two then. This saves 200K or so and let your child know the kids in neighborhood.’

This times infinity.

Yes!!! I wish we had gone this route with out first, and majorly regret not. Our oldest got into an awesome private school for kindergarten that ended up being a terrible fit- she is very bright and social but was masking some learning challenges (dyslexia/ input processing) that were totally unknowable when she 5 but that the school was really uncooperative with by the time she was in 2nd/3rd grade. We had to do a ton of advocating for her and pay for a lot of tutoring /private evaluations, and scrambling to find a better fit for her for 4th grade. It was a really frustrating and disheartening 4 years, and in retrospect we should have left at the end of 1st. But by then she had friends, and we did really like the teachers and thought they were trying their best.

Meanwhile, our neighbors were in a DC charter school school and had a kid with a very similar profile who got a ton of support and interventions in school.

I guess this is a niche situation, but I just think how little I knew my kid as a student when they were five and we were making a very high-cost school choice. and I also get that not every public school parent has a positive experience on this one either (but at least they aren’t paying a fortune for a bad experience!).

But the other families at your private don’t want your high-resource kid. You are the people all your private school “friends” want to avoid.

PP here: My point wasn’t about the people and I’m not actually upset that the school wasn’t able to meet my kid’s needs- they are a private school, they are very clear about what they can / can’t support. My point was that I didn’t know what my kids needs WERE when they were in kindergarten - and I think that’s true for a lot of kids! So why not start in public school and see what type of student your kid is and then you can enter private school in 3rd grade or later and find the right school to meet your kid where they’re at?

NP: because the gap widens over time. My 3 year old in private preschool understood the concepts that a kindergarten student in public school was learning.

Uhhhh…no. I have one kid in DCPS and one in private. We always planned for our kids to both go to private for middle / high school but our oldest wanted to stay at Deale and then JR due to friend group / sports. There’s a lot to love about private, but the smart kids at JR are as smart as (some definitely smarter) than the kids at private. Also scrappier, better at self advocating, and less entitled.

So hate to break it to you, - your incredibly brilliant 3 year old at a private preschool would probably be just as brilliant in DCPS.

Yes - smart, conscientious kids can do well at a solid publics in ways that truly narrow — if not eliminate — any delta with private schools, at least in terms of academics. Of course, not all have by-right/easy access to solid public schools!

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.

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.

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.

We were at a Title 1 school until middle and I generally think it was a fine experience with lasting friendships, and warm, supportive environment. Some real behavior problems, yes, but not what I’d casually label as “bad” kids, certainly challenged, but not mean or cruel.

But I appreciate the more refined, cultivated learning environment of our current school. It’s really night and day.

The problem is that our private school is not really free from “bad” kids. So what is the advantage of private schools?

I don’t know what to tell you because I never experienced the kids at our Title 1 as “bad.” I also don’t see the kids at our private as perfect angels.