Private schools are indefensible

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would pay money to keep my kids AWAY from douchey private school parents. The level of self-regard and ethical rot and just plain meanness among the most affluent people in this country is really next level at this point. I am affluent and live in an affluent neighborhood that has some of the same issues but I can't imagine spending large amounts of money to swim in even higher concentrations of BS.

Said by an arrogant someone who has no experience struggling to get a child with learning disabilities educated.

I was being flippant before and I am sorry. Your situation is not what I am talking about. I am talking about people sending kids to a very specific subset of private schools because they want them surrounded by other rich people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I want my child to be a good, resilient, strong person. I would never send them to private school to be surrounded by those kids and families. I'm sure many of them are fine, but so very many of them have godawful values and behavior.

I would tell you nothing could be further from the truth but you wouldn’t believe me, instead you believe a teacher who hasn’t taught in private schools in decades, who ALSO sent her kids to private schools, and presents one incident at Sidwell as indicative of all private school parents. As usual people in the media write salicious articles for click bait and then pretend like it’s an expose. This article is full of hypocrisy masquerading as altruism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want my child to be a good, resilient, strong person. I would never send them to private school to be surrounded by those kids and families. I'm sure many of them are fine, but so very many of them have godawful values and behavior.

I would tell you nothing could be further from the truth but you wouldn’t believe me, instead you believe a teacher who hasn’t taught in private schools in decades, who ALSO sent her kids to private schools, and presents one incident at Sidwell as indicative of all private school parents. As usual people in the media write salicious articles for click bait and then pretend like it’s an expose. This article is full of hypocrisy masquerading as altruism.

As are the schools she talked about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want my child to be a good, resilient, strong person. I would never send them to private school to be surrounded by those kids and families. I'm sure many of them are fine, but so very many of them have godawful values and behavior.

I would tell you nothing could be further from the truth but you wouldn’t believe me, instead you believe a teacher who hasn’t taught in private schools in decades, who ALSO sent her kids to private schools, and presents one incident at Sidwell as indicative of all private school parents. As usual people in the media write salicious articles for click bait and then pretend like it’s an expose. This article is full of hypocrisy masquerading as altruism.

As are the schools she talked about.

As most posters have pointed out, she is going out of her way to create a false villain. She questions private schools for offering higher level math than public schools??? It’s absurd. Question the price tag for private school sure, but if the goal is to improve outcomes for all, then her sights are set on the wrong target.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lost interest in attending my local public school meetings after I got hit a few times with “why are you here if your kids don’t go to school here?” and “why should we listen to you if you don’t even send your kids here?”. I told myself I was there because I wanted to contribute and still cared about the issue of education, but I realized that any position I took was either ignored as irreverent or even mistrusted because my kids didn’t go there. As a result, I wasn’t really able to help the conversation in any way.

I'm one of the PPs who mentioned PTA and you raise a really important point. As someone without a kid in the school, it is not appropriate for me to be PTA president or drive policy -- I'm not part of the "conversation." I'm available to do work, like volunteer at an event or help set up after-school enrichment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want my child to be a good, resilient, strong person. I would never send them to private school to be surrounded by those kids and families. I'm sure many of them are fine, but so very many of them have godawful values and behavior.

I would tell you nothing could be further from the truth but you wouldn’t believe me, instead you believe a teacher who hasn’t taught in private schools in decades, who ALSO sent her kids to private schools, and presents one incident at Sidwell as indicative of all private school parents. As usual people in the media write salicious articles for click bait and then pretend like it’s an expose. This article is full of hypocrisy masquerading as altruism.

As are the schools she talked about.

I would try to talk to you about public schools in affluent areas that benefit from redlining, and yet talk about how they’re “open to all,” but I doubt you’d understand.

[Anonymous]

Yes I always giggle at those who send their kids to public so they’ll develop grit and can appreciate diversity... in a neighborhood where houses start at $1m. Yeah, you’re really rubbing elbows with the proles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes I always giggle at those who send their kids to public so they’ll develop grit and can appreciate diversity... in a neighborhood where houses start at $1m. Yeah, you’re really rubbing elbows with the proles.

Yep! They’re such heroes for paying more for a house in a “good” school district.

Totally different than spending money on private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want my child to be a good, resilient, strong person. I would never send them to private school to be surrounded by those kids and families. I'm sure many of them are fine, but so very many of them have godawful values and behavior.

I would tell you nothing could be further from the truth but you wouldn’t believe me, instead you believe a teacher who hasn’t taught in private schools in decades, who ALSO sent her kids to private schools, and presents one incident at Sidwell as indicative of all private school parents. As usual people in the media write salicious articles for click bait and then pretend like it’s an expose. This article is full of hypocrisy masquerading as altruism.

As are the schools she talked about.

I would try to talk to you about public schools in affluent areas that benefit from redlining, and yet talk about how they’re “open to all,” but I doubt you’d understand.

My kids’ middle school is a GS4. They’re happy and I’m not worried about them. What’s your point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want my child to be a good, resilient, strong person. I would never send them to private school to be surrounded by those kids and families. I'm sure many of them are fine, but so very many of them have godawful values and behavior.

I would tell you nothing could be further from the truth but you wouldn’t believe me, instead you believe a teacher who hasn’t taught in private schools in decades, who ALSO sent her kids to private schools, and presents one incident at Sidwell as indicative of all private school parents. As usual people in the media write salicious articles for click bait and then pretend like it’s an expose. This article is full of hypocrisy masquerading as altruism.

As are the schools she talked about.

I would try to talk to you about public schools in affluent areas that benefit from redlining, and yet talk about how they’re “open to all,” but I doubt you’d understand.

My kids’ middle school is a GS4. They’re happy and I’m not worried about them. What’s your point?

GS scores mean nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lost interest in attending my local public school meetings after I got hit a few times with “why are you here if your kids don’t go to school here?” and “why should we listen to you if you don’t even send your kids here?”. I told myself I was there because I wanted to contribute and still cared about the issue of education, but I realized that any position I took was either ignored as irreverent or even mistrusted because my kids didn’t go there. As a result, I wasn’t really able to help the conversation in any way.

So did you ever figure out why you were REALLY there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As though they couldn’t believe that folks actually believe in helping out and being part of their local school community. The kids that attend this school live in our neighborhoods and surrounding community. They are your neighbors. Or did you just leave the behind when you went private?

LOL, how is any of this surprising to you? We live in a country that glorifies and celebrates selfishness and rugged individualism.

You are being disingenuous. If you have school age children and you do NOT send them to the local public schools, then you are NOT (by your own choice) a part of the local school community. It rings as INCREDIBLY condescending and false for you to try to be involved and “help out” all those OTHER kids...

[Anonymous]

What’s crazy is how much money per pupil school districts spend. I’ve taught in public schools and private schools. Resources aren’t what separate private from public. I had more resources in the public (esp. Title 1) schools in which I taught. There are two main differences: teachers‘ unions and parental involvement. If you can fire a bad teacher and hire whomever you want, it’s better for the school. If parents are involved, students do better. Private schools have the freedom to create their own curricula and fire bad teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As though they couldn’t believe that folks actually believe in helping out and being part of their local school community. The kids that attend this school live in our neighborhoods and surrounding community. They are your neighbors. Or did you just leave the behind when you went private?

LOL, how is any of this surprising to you? We live in a country that glorifies and celebrates selfishness and rugged individualism.

You are being disingenuous. If you have school age children and you do NOT send them to the local public schools, then you are NOT (by your own choice) a part of the local school community. It rings as INCREDIBLY condescending and false for you to try to be involved and “help out” all those OTHER kids...

DP. Wait, what? Are you seriously suggesting that people who don't send their kids to public schools shouldn't volunteer or advocate in education, let alone work in education? Do you realize how crazy that sounds?

[Anonymous]

Public schools should be replaced with universal basic income for parents and kids plus bounties for year-on-year literacy, composition, and math score improvements, up to the 8th grade level.

Existing public school properties should be leased on the open market, with rights to intensively develop housing etc., with the proceeds going to fund the bounties and UBI.

Anyone with a PhD in a topic should be legally allowed to teach credit hours in that topic, recognized by the issuing university. The PhD gets to set the price.

Wherever possible governments should hire based on ability, not credentials / degrees.

Separate employment from health insurance.

Solve the housing crisis, and make it feasible for parents to enter and leave the job market, and education will automatically get better for 90% of children.

The extremes - those with profound special needs, and those with profoundly disinterested or incapable parents, will need public education.