Cons of private school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Important to find a private school that isn't tiny. It's just not a good way to go socially to have a tiny crowd - kids need that diversity and ability to find their tribe. Once we changed out to a school with 80 kids per grade, they and us are so much happier. The limited population means that it's all a clique - if you don't get along with one, you aren't going to get along with any. It really is not conducive to a happy environment. Even if you do get joy out it, as the years progress, life changes and you have to be able to adapt and get a long with a wider group of people.

Important to find a school that is not going to baby the kids. We moved from a school that constantly gave additional make up chances for papers/exams to upper elementary and it's not doing our kids any good. Public won't do that and there's something to be said for needing to learn from your mistakes upfront - you have to take responsibility for doing the work.

Definitely the long long summers and many days off but honestly depending on the school and public school zone, it could be a wash. Typically speaking though, the summers are going longer in private. 13 weeks is a LONG summer!

I don't feel that the money thing is a huge deal nor the bullying/snobbery. I think you find good, nice, bad, difficult people everywhere. As long as you have a diverse population. You are obviously more likely to find well-to -do families in private settings but again, good and nice people who have money are still good and nice We have several very well to do families we know in public - I mean - you will find them throughout DMV area cause we all live in a bubble.

Public is good for the regular kid who is fine with everything. Good student, strong identity and can make friends easily, strong academic aptitude ie they like school/learning/responsible. My kids love their private school - they say they learn in an innovative, interesting way and it's just more in depth. You really have to find that right school though - NOT ALL privates are as good as a public school and not all public schools suck. The biggest difference however is that the public school mandate of Common Core and teaching for tests is really tough for true critical thinking. You basically are learning how to take tests. That's not a bad thing I guess but in the long term, having a life as an adult, I'm not sure how that really helps you.

Having gone from public to private and back to private - this posts says it best. We thought our kid was getting a stellar in-depth education and she probably was - but the public school kids are easily ahead of her. So we are now paying catch up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Important to find a private school that isn't tiny. It's just not a good way to go socially to have a tiny crowd - kids need that diversity and ability to find their tribe. Once we changed out to a school with 80 kids per grade, they and us are so much happier. The limited population means that it's all a clique - if you don't get along with one, you aren't going to get along with any. It really is not conducive to a happy environment. Even if you do get joy out it, as the years progress, life changes and you have to be able to adapt and get a long with a wider group of people.

Important to find a school that is not going to baby the kids. We moved from a school that constantly gave additional make up chances for papers/exams to upper elementary and it's not doing our kids any good. Public won't do that and there's something to be said for needing to learn from your mistakes upfront - you have to take responsibility for doing the work.

Definitely the long long summers and many days off but honestly depending on the school and public school zone, it could be a wash. Typically speaking though, the summers are going longer in private. 13 weeks is a LONG summer!

I don't feel that the money thing is a huge deal nor the bullying/snobbery. I think you find good, nice, bad, difficult people everywhere. As long as you have a diverse population. You are obviously more likely to find well-to -do families in private settings but again, good and nice people who have money are still good and nice We have several very well to do families we know in public - I mean - you will find them throughout DMV area cause we all live in a bubble.

Public is good for the regular kid who is fine with everything. Good student, strong identity and can make friends easily, strong academic aptitude ie they like school/learning/responsible. My kids love their private school - they say they learn in an innovative, interesting way and it's just more in depth. You really have to find that right school though - NOT ALL privates are as good as a public school and not all public schools suck. The biggest difference however is that the public school mandate of Common Core and teaching for tests is really tough for true critical thinking. You basically are learning how to take tests. That's not a bad thing I guess but in the long term, having a life as an adult, I'm not sure how that really helps you.

Having gone from public to private and back to private - this posts says it best. We thought our kid was getting a stellar in-depth education and she probably was - but the public school kids are easily ahead of her. So we are now paying catch up.

*Meant having gone from public to private and back to public

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Important to find a private school that isn't tiny. It's just not a good way to go socially to have a tiny crowd - kids need that diversity and ability to find their tribe. Once we changed out to a school with 80 kids per grade, they and us are so much happier. The limited population means that it's all a clique - if you don't get along with one, you aren't going to get along with any. It really is not conducive to a happy environment. Even if you do get joy out it, as the years progress, life changes and you have to be able to adapt and get a long with a wider group of people.

Important to find a school that is not going to baby the kids. We moved from a school that constantly gave additional make up chances for papers/exams to upper elementary and it's not doing our kids any good. Public won't do that and there's something to be said for needing to learn from your mistakes upfront - you have to take responsibility for doing the work.

Definitely the long long summers and many days off but honestly depending on the school and public school zone, it could be a wash. Typically speaking though, the summers are going longer in private. 13 weeks is a LONG summer!

I don't feel that the money thing is a huge deal nor the bullying/snobbery. I think you find good, nice, bad, difficult people everywhere. As long as you have a diverse population. You are obviously more likely to find well-to -do families in private settings but again, good and nice people who have money are still good and nice We have several very well to do families we know in public - I mean - you will find them throughout DMV area cause we all live in a bubble.

Public is good for the regular kid who is fine with everything. Good student, strong identity and can make friends easily, strong academic aptitude ie they like school/learning/responsible. My kids love their private school - they say they learn in an innovative, interesting way and it's just more in depth. You really have to find that right school though - NOT ALL privates are as good as a public school and not all public schools suck. The biggest difference however is that the public school mandate of Common Core and teaching for tests is really tough for true critical thinking. You basically are learning how to take tests. That's not a bad thing I guess but in the long term, having a life as an adult, I'm not sure how that really helps you.

Having gone from public to private and back to private - this posts says it best. We thought our kid was getting a stellar in-depth education and she probably was - but the public school kids are easily ahead of her. So we are now paying catch up.

NP. This is just so school-dependent. We had the opposite experience. Our kid who was in the supposedly hardest classes in his public middle school was shockingly behind when entering competitive private high school. He went from advanced math in public to remedial math in private. I hadn’t realized how far behind he was.

I just don’t think things can be generalized, people need to look hard at the exact schools they are comparing. There are excellent private schools and excellent public schools. I wish my kid had been lucky enough to experience an excellent public middle school, I could have saved a lot of money.

[Anonymous]

tons of "specialists" on the payroll who try to diagnose kids with problems to justify their existence when the children just have normal development at different stages for different skills

then when other kids do have an IEP they don't want to follow it or allow your child's specialist to visit the school when they weren't equipt to provide the therapy (in my case speech therapy) the child needed

It always annoyed me that tuition paid for all of these people who never seemed to help my kids issues - would have preferred everyone just go out and get their own specialists if they need it rather than have all of us kicking in for people who only helped a few who were right in their sweet spot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Important to find a private school that isn't tiny. It's just not a good way to go socially to have a tiny crowd - kids need that diversity and ability to find their tribe. Once we changed out to a school with 80 kids per grade, they and us are so much happier. The limited population means that it's all a clique - if you don't get along with one, you aren't going to get along with any. It really is not conducive to a happy environment. Even if you do get joy out it, as the years progress, life changes and you have to be able to adapt and get a long with a wider group of people.

Important to find a school that is not going to baby the kids. We moved from a school that constantly gave additional make up chances for papers/exams to upper elementary and it's not doing our kids any good. Public won't do that and there's something to be said for needing to learn from your mistakes upfront - you have to take responsibility for doing the work.

Definitely the long long summers and many days off but honestly depending on the school and public school zone, it could be a wash. Typically speaking though, the summers are going longer in private. 13 weeks is a LONG summer!

I don't feel that the money thing is a huge deal nor the bullying/snobbery. I think you find good, nice, bad, difficult people everywhere. As long as you have a diverse population. You are obviously more likely to find well-to -do families in private settings but again, good and nice people who have money are still good and nice We have several very well to do families we know in public - I mean - you will find them throughout DMV area cause we all live in a bubble.

Public is good for the regular kid who is fine with everything. Good student, strong identity and can make friends easily, strong academic aptitude ie they like school/learning/responsible. My kids love their private school - they say they learn in an innovative, interesting way and it's just more in depth. You really have to find that right school though - NOT ALL privates are as good as a public school and not all public schools suck. The biggest difference however is that the public school mandate of Common Core and teaching for tests is really tough for true critical thinking. You basically are learning how to take tests. That's not a bad thing I guess but in the long term, having a life as an adult, I'm not sure how that really helps you.

Having gone from public to private and back to private - this posts says it best. We thought our kid was getting a stellar in-depth education and she probably was - but the public school kids are easily ahead of her. So we are now paying catch up.

NP. This is just so school-dependent. We had the opposite experience. Our kid who was in the supposedly hardest classes in his public middle school was shockingly behind when entering competitive private high school. He went from advanced math in public to remedial math in private. I hadn’t realized how far behind he was.

I just don’t think things can be generalized, people need to look hard at the exact schools they are comparing. There are excellent private schools and excellent public schools. I wish my kid had been lucky enough to experience an excellent public middle school, I could have saved a lot of money.

+1. Too many variables to make generalizations

—wished we had run to privates years ago instead of giving “grace”

[Anonymous]

Saving less for college if you have multiple kids in private schools and aren't extremely wealthy. Having DCUM people in the college forum scream, "WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE?!"

[Anonymous]

Yes women work that have kids in private school. Not all are bored homemakers. In fact some are very successful. FYI

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Important to find a private school that isn't tiny. It's just not a good way to go socially to have a tiny crowd - kids need that diversity and ability to find their tribe. Once we changed out to a school with 80 kids per grade, they and us are so much happier. The limited population means that it's all a clique - if you don't get along with one, you aren't going to get along with any. It really is not conducive to a happy environment. Even if you do get joy out it, as the years progress, life changes and you have to be able to adapt and get a long with a wider group of people.

Important to find a school that is not going to baby the kids. We moved from a school that constantly gave additional make up chances for papers/exams to upper elementary and it's not doing our kids any good. Public won't do that and there's something to be said for needing to learn from your mistakes upfront - you have to take responsibility for doing the work.

Definitely the long long summers and many days off but honestly depending on the school and public school zone, it could be a wash. Typically speaking though, the summers are going longer in private. 13 weeks is a LONG summer!

I don't feel that the money thing is a huge deal nor the bullying/snobbery. I think you find good, nice, bad, difficult people everywhere. As long as you have a diverse population. You are obviously more likely to find well-to -do families in private settings but again, good and nice people who have money are still good and nice We have several very well to do families we know in public - I mean - you will find them throughout DMV area cause we all live in a bubble.

Public is good for the regular kid who is fine with everything. Good student, strong identity and can make friends easily, strong academic aptitude ie they like school/learning/responsible. My kids love their private school - they say they learn in an innovative, interesting way and it's just more in depth. You really have to find that right school though - NOT ALL privates are as good as a public school and not all public schools suck. The biggest difference however is that the public school mandate of Common Core and teaching for tests is really tough for true critical thinking. You basically are learning how to take tests. That's not a bad thing I guess but in the long term, having a life as an adult, I'm not sure how that really helps you.

Having gone from public to private and back to private - this posts says it best. We thought our kid was getting a stellar in-depth education and she probably was - but the public school kids are easily ahead of her. So we are now paying catch up.

NP. This is just so school-dependent. We had the opposite experience. Our kid who was in the supposedly hardest classes in his public middle school was shockingly behind when entering competitive private high school. He went from advanced math in public to remedial math in private. I hadn’t realized how far behind he was.

I just don’t think things can be generalized, people need to look hard at the exact schools they are comparing. There are excellent private schools and excellent public schools. I wish my kid had been lucky enough to experience an excellent public middle school, I could have saved a lot of money.

+1. Too many variables to make generalizations

—wished we had run to privates years ago instead of giving “grace”

Agreed, you can't generalize. We were at a "great" public middle school that fed into one of the Big 3. We moved to private in middle and high school. Both kids had major math gaps and had to learn the missing information on their own. And they both didn't have any formal grammar skills. None. My 9th grader had to start from scratch and really struggled. But they both went to very competitive, highly selective private schools. So even coming from the Big "3" if you go to a highly, selective private school, students will be behind. Privates are going deeper and wider. And there is more feedback from teachers. In public, my kids would just get "A's". It's much harder to get an "A" in private because teachers are actually reviewing your work. Teachers in public are too overwhelmed with the sheer number of students to provide meaningful feedback to every student. You can't hide in a good private. So, if you go private, go to a highly selective, competitive one. All schools are definitely not built the same.

[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 is exactly what we are experiencing. Most of the kids need more attention or have problems focusing in class. It’s still more attention than in public but not that much.

[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 is exactly what we are experiencing. Most of the kids need more attention or have problems focusing in class. It’s still more attention than in public but not that much.

This has not been my experience at all. All the teachers are expressing that this is a particularly capable group of kids in my DC's class in lower elementary. I haven't been able to pick out any specific concerns yet and I had expected to be able to since it's not a top 3 type school and I thought other parents might be choosing it because their kids needed extra help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Important to find a private school that isn't tiny. It's just not a good way to go socially to have a tiny crowd - kids need that diversity and ability to find their tribe. Once we changed out to a school with 80 kids per grade, they and us are so much happier. The limited population means that it's all a clique - if you don't get along with one, you aren't going to get along with any. It really is not conducive to a happy environment. Even if you do get joy out it, as the years progress, life changes and you have to be able to adapt and get a long with a wider group of people.

Important to find a school that is not going to baby the kids. We moved from a school that constantly gave additional make up chances for papers/exams to upper elementary and it's not doing our kids any good. Public won't do that and there's something to be said for needing to learn from your mistakes upfront - you have to take responsibility for doing the work.

Definitely the long long summers and many days off but honestly depending on the school and public school zone, it could be a wash. Typically speaking though, the summers are going longer in private. 13 weeks is a LONG summer!

I don't feel that the money thing is a huge deal nor the bullying/snobbery. I think you find good, nice, bad, difficult people everywhere. As long as you have a diverse population. You are obviously more likely to find well-to -do families in private settings but again, good and nice people who have money are still good and nice We have several very well to do families we know in public - I mean - you will find them throughout DMV area cause we all live in a bubble.

Public is good for the regular kid who is fine with everything. Good student, strong identity and can make friends easily, strong academic aptitude ie they like school/learning/responsible. My kids love their private school - they say they learn in an innovative, interesting way and it's just more in depth. You really have to find that right school though - NOT ALL privates are as good as a public school and not all public schools suck. The biggest difference however is that the public school mandate of Common Core and teaching for tests is really tough for true critical thinking. You basically are learning how to take tests. That's not a bad thing I guess but in the long term, having a life as an adult, I'm not sure how that really helps you.

Having gone from public to private and back to private - this posts says it best. We thought our kid was getting a stellar in-depth education and she probably was - but the public school kids are easily ahead of her. So we are now paying catch up.

NP. This is just so school-dependent. We had the opposite experience. Our kid who was in the supposedly hardest classes in his public middle school was shockingly behind when entering competitive private high school. He went from advanced math in public to remedial math in private. I hadn’t realized how far behind he was.

I just don’t think things can be generalized, people need to look hard at the exact schools they are comparing. There are excellent private schools and excellent public schools. I wish my kid had been lucky enough to experience an excellent public middle school, I could have saved a lot of money.

+1. Too many variables to make generalizations

—wished we had run to privates years ago instead of giving “grace”

Agreed, you can't generalize. We were at a "great" public middle school that fed into one of the Big 3. We moved to private in middle and high school. Both kids had major math gaps and had to learn the missing information on their own. And they both didn't have any formal grammar skills. None. My 9th grader had to start from scratch and really struggled. But they both went to very competitive, highly selective private schools. So even coming from the Big "3" if you go to a highly, selective private school, students will be behind. Privates are going deeper and wider. And there is more feedback from teachers. In public, my kids would just get "A's". It's much harder to get an "A" in private because teachers are actually reviewing your work. Teachers in public are too overwhelmed with the sheer number of students to provide meaningful feedback to every student. You can't hide in a good private. So, if you go private, go to a highly selective, competitive one. All schools are definitely not built the same.

We've done private school summer classes that claim to go deeper but they don't. My public school kid has really good writing and math skills with public so it really depends on teh school and teacher. Privates don't have the same math rigor and teachers, like in public are hit or miss. The one this summer was shockingly bad and we complained and the school didn't care. Many kids dropped out of the class. Not a good recruiting strategy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Important to find a private school that isn't tiny. It's just not a good way to go socially to have a tiny crowd - kids need that diversity and ability to find their tribe. Once we changed out to a school with 80 kids per grade, they and us are so much happier. The limited population means that it's all a clique - if you don't get along with one, you aren't going to get along with any. It really is not conducive to a happy environment. Even if you do get joy out it, as the years progress, life changes and you have to be able to adapt and get a long with a wider group of people.

Important to find a school that is not going to baby the kids. We moved from a school that constantly gave additional make up chances for papers/exams to upper elementary and it's not doing our kids any good. Public won't do that and there's something to be said for needing to learn from your mistakes upfront - you have to take responsibility for doing the work.

Definitely the long long summers and many days off but honestly depending on the school and public school zone, it could be a wash. Typically speaking though, the summers are going longer in private. 13 weeks is a LONG summer!

I don't feel that the money thing is a huge deal nor the bullying/snobbery. I think you find good, nice, bad, difficult people everywhere. As long as you have a diverse population. You are obviously more likely to find well-to -do families in private settings but again, good and nice people who have money are still good and nice We have several very well to do families we know in public - I mean - you will find them throughout DMV area cause we all live in a bubble.

We did K-2 in private and it was a great experience. We did the rest of elementary in pubic and it was terrible. Middle school public has been much better. It really just depends on the teachers.

Public is good for the regular kid who is fine with everything. Good student, strong identity and can make friends easily, strong academic aptitude ie they like school/learning/responsible. My kids love their private school - they say they learn in an innovative, interesting way and it's just more in depth. You really have to find that right school though - NOT ALL privates are as good as a public school and not all public schools suck. The biggest difference however is that the public school mandate of Common Core and teaching for tests is really tough for true critical thinking. You basically are learning how to take tests. That's not a bad thing I guess but in the long term, having a life as an adult, I'm not sure how that really helps you.

Having gone from public to private and back to private - this posts says it best. We thought our kid was getting a stellar in-depth education and she probably was - but the public school kids are easily ahead of her. So we are now paying catch up.

NP. This is just so school-dependent. We had the opposite experience. Our kid who was in the supposedly hardest classes in his public middle school was shockingly behind when entering competitive private high school. He went from advanced math in public to remedial math in private. I hadn’t realized how far behind he was.

I just don’t think things can be generalized, people need to look hard at the exact schools they are comparing. There are excellent private schools and excellent public schools. I wish my kid had been lucky enough to experience an excellent public middle school, I could have saved a lot of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Important to find a private school that isn't tiny. It's just not a good way to go socially to have a tiny crowd - kids need that diversity and ability to find their tribe. Once we changed out to a school with 80 kids per grade, they and us are so much happier. The limited population means that it's all a clique - if you don't get along with one, you aren't going to get along with any. It really is not conducive to a happy environment. Even if you do get joy out it, as the years progress, life changes and you have to be able to adapt and get a long with a wider group of people.

Important to find a school that is not going to baby the kids. We moved from a school that constantly gave additional make up chances for papers/exams to upper elementary and it's not doing our kids any good. Public won't do that and there's something to be said for needing to learn from your mistakes upfront - you have to take responsibility for doing the work.

Definitely the long long summers and many days off but honestly depending on the school and public school zone, it could be a wash. Typically speaking though, the summers are going longer in private. 13 weeks is a LONG summer!

I don't feel that the money thing is a huge deal nor the bullying/snobbery. I think you find good, nice, bad, difficult people everywhere. As long as you have a diverse population. You are obviously more likely to find well-to -do families in private settings but again, good and nice people who have money are still good and nice We have several very well to do families we know in public - I mean - you will find them throughout DMV area cause we all live in a bubble.

We did K-2 in private and it was a great experience. We did the rest of elementary in pubic and it was terrible. Middle school public has been much better. It really just depends on the teachers.

Public is good for the regular kid who is fine with everything. Good student, strong identity and can make friends easily, strong academic aptitude ie they like school/learning/responsible. My kids love their private school - they say they learn in an innovative, interesting way and it's just more in depth. You really have to find that right school though - NOT ALL privates are as good as a public school and not all public schools suck. The biggest difference however is that the public school mandate of Common Core and teaching for tests is really tough for true critical thinking. You basically are learning how to take tests. That's not a bad thing I guess but in the long term, having a life as an adult, I'm not sure how that really helps you.

Having gone from public to private and back to private - this posts says it best. We thought our kid was getting a stellar in-depth education and she probably was - but the public school kids are easily ahead of her. So we are now paying catch up.

NP. This is just so school-dependent. We had the opposite experience. Our kid who was in the supposedly hardest classes in his public middle school was shockingly behind when entering competitive private high school. He went from advanced math in public to remedial math in private. I hadn’t realized how far behind he was.

I just don’t think things can be generalized, people need to look hard at the exact schools they are comparing. There are excellent private schools and excellent public schools. I wish my kid had been lucky enough to experience an excellent public middle school, I could have saved a lot of money.

I totally agree with PP. This is so school dependent that there's no point in making these broad generalizations when making specific decisions. I now wish we had bought a house in a better school district for middle and high school. But at this point, moving probably an even more expensive option than private for high school, so unfortunately we have to do private school for academic rigor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lack of much racial/ethnic diversity

Lack of economic diversity

Lack of working mothers

More limited opportunities for friendship/more social drama

Our private HS, almost all the moms work. It is very different from our public APS where I was one of the only working mothers. My neighborhood is primarily SAHM moms.

There is a lot of diversity at my kids' high school. The kids come from all over the DMV, near and far, and there is good financial aid so there is much, MUCH more economic diversity than our wealthy public schools.

Lyon Village, to Sidwell or GDS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Important to find a private school that isn't tiny. It's just not a good way to go socially to have a tiny crowd - kids need that diversity and ability to find their tribe. Once we changed out to a school with 80 kids per grade, they and us are so much happier. The limited population means that it's all a clique - if you don't get along with one, you aren't going to get along with any. It really is not conducive to a happy environment. Even if you do get joy out it, as the years progress, life changes and you have to be able to adapt and get a long with a wider group of people.

Important to find a school that is not going to baby the kids. We moved from a school that constantly gave additional make up chances for papers/exams to upper elementary and it's not doing our kids any good. Public won't do that and there's something to be said for needing to learn from your mistakes upfront - you have to take responsibility for doing the work.

Definitely the long long summers and many days off but honestly depending on the school and public school zone, it could be a wash. Typically speaking though, the summers are going longer in private. 13 weeks is a LONG summer!

I don't feel that the money thing is a huge deal nor the bullying/snobbery. I think you find good, nice, bad, difficult people everywhere. As long as you have a diverse population. You are obviously more likely to find well-to -do families in private settings but again, good and nice people who have money are still good and nice We have several very well to do families we know in public - I mean - you will find them throughout DMV area cause we all live in a bubble.

We did K-2 in private and it was a great experience. We did the rest of elementary in pubic and it was terrible. Middle school public has been much better. It really just depends on the teachers.

Public is good for the regular kid who is fine with everything. Good student, strong identity and can make friends easily, strong academic aptitude ie they like school/learning/responsible. My kids love their private school - they say they learn in an innovative, interesting way and it's just more in depth. You really have to find that right school though - NOT ALL privates are as good as a public school and not all public schools suck. The biggest difference however is that the public school mandate of Common Core and teaching for tests is really tough for true critical thinking. You basically are learning how to take tests. That's not a bad thing I guess but in the long term, having a life as an adult, I'm not sure how that really helps you.

Having gone from public to private and back to private - this posts says it best. We thought our kid was getting a stellar in-depth education and she probably was - but the public school kids are easily ahead of her. So we are now paying catch up.

NP. This is just so school-dependent. We had the opposite experience. Our kid who was in the supposedly hardest classes in his public middle school was shockingly behind when entering competitive private high school. He went from advanced math in public to remedial math in private. I hadn’t realized how far behind he was.

I just don’t think things can be generalized, people need to look hard at the exact schools they are comparing. There are excellent private schools and excellent public schools. I wish my kid had been lucky enough to experience an excellent public middle school, I could have saved a lot of money.

I totally agree with PP. This is so school dependent that there's no point in making these broad generalizations when making specific decisions. I now wish we had bought a house in a better school district for middle and high school. But at this point, moving probably an even more expensive option than private for high school, so unfortunately we have to do private school for academic rigor.

Depending on the school there is far more rigor in public as most offer honors and AP classes and more options as they have a larger school population. Better means richer which isn't always better.