Why choose private over public kindergarten (Burning Tree)?

[Anonymous]

I am a first-time parent with a child who will go to kindergarten next Fall. I'm told that if we want to put her in private school, we have to apply a year in advance, which is why I'm soliciting guidance now. If she goes to public school, it would be Burning Tree in Bethesda. I've been told to put her in private school by other parents, who express that private schools in Bethesda have smaller class sizes, better teachers, less violence among students (really? in elementary school?), better resources (computers, field trips, etc.) and the like than do the public schools. I'm a complete rube here, and would appreciate your thoughts on the value of private school at such a young age, and your experiences at Burning Tree or other Bethesda-area public schools.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/229584.page#2339288

Here's a post on that topic from about a week ago.

Go visit the private schools you are interested in. Go visit BT. See what you think. The idea of violence at BT is laughable though. Reminds me of the preppy gangster you tube video from a few years ago.

[Anonymous]

In every community, there will be a tendency for parents to want the "best" for their children. Montgomery county public schools are excellent by just about any standard.

I'm a product of public schools in Bethesda, and I think they are some great schools.

My family now lives in PG County where the schools are not as good, in general, as compared with Montgomery. We have 2 local elementary schools, neither of which is as good as Burning Tree. But the focus among parents is just to get their kids into the better of the two local choices. So, wherever you are, there will always be a "best" choice.

An issue for me with private schools is that your kid will be surrounded by other kids whose parents can afford the tuition. OK, maybe a handful of kids on scholarship or something, but mostly, you're throwing the more affluent kids together and this will affect their baseline understanding of the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

An issue for me with private schools is that your kid will be surrounded by other kids whose parents can afford the tuition. OK, maybe a handful of kids on scholarship or something, but mostly, you're throwing the more affluent kids together and this will affect their baseline understanding of the world.

I'm a product of a big 3 who plans to send my children to public school in MoCo. I don't want to be surrounded by the parents that are sending their kids to private these days, and I just don't think the quality of the education is better. My friends from high school are successful, as are my friends who went to public school - in fact, most of my friends from my Ivy went to public schools in other areas of the country.

[Anonymous]

Grew up in Bethesda and went to Burning Tree. It is so upper middle class that any "violence" would be when kids are just being kids--maybe a bully here or there.

It was "diverse" in that we had some Ambassador's children or World Bank children but unless the kid was one of those, we had almost no other minorities or children learning English. It may have changed but unless the boundaries of the school have changed, it has absolutely no apartments and no townhouses within its boundaries so it really isn't gangland. It was a good school when I went there.

However, you are in Bethesda and if you are feeling the pull of private schools, that is very common. Most of my neighbors went to Burning Tree and I made lifelong friends who I kept up with through Pyle and into Whitman. Whitman, however, was not the golden ticket that people (and real estate agents) seem to think it is. After one sibling struggled at Whitman and I began to slip between the cracks (I was in every Honors class but was struggling with a newly diagnosed illness and the teachers didn't notice that I was no longer engaged or working on homework), my parents sent me to a private school starting in 10th grade. I loved the private school but my friends were from DC, VA, Potomac, Rockville--all over. I think that would have been a bummer as a little kid. I could ride my bike to visit friends when I was little.

[Anonymous]

Violence in kindergarten?

[Anonymous]

If you're concerned about diversity, Burning Tree is not going to best private schools on that front.

[Anonymous]

OP here. This is really helpful, everyone, thank you. I don't even know what kids learn in kindergarten. Are kids in public schools like Burning Tree getting access to computers or languages or art/music, for example? I'll go check it out, but I don't even know if that's a reasonable expectation.

Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

Take the extra money that you will be saving with public school and put it away for college and use it on extra activities for languages, music and art (or sports) and just buy a computer for home if that is your concern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. This is really helpful, everyone, thank you. I don't even know what kids learn in kindergarten. Are kids in public schools like Burning Tree getting access to computers or languages or art/music, for example? I'll go check it out, but I don't even know if that's a reasonable expectation.

Thanks again.

If you aren't passionate about the math methodology a school uses, or about the precise number of minutes of recess or time in "specials", I expect public school will be just fine. You should talk to your neighbors with kids in the school. What do they think about the curriculum (which is county wide), what do they think about the teachers. And it's not like BT is busing in kids from the outer reaches of the county. The kids who attend the school are your neighbors. Do you like the kids? Do they seem well behaved and well adjusted?

[Anonymous]

Posting this question in the private school forum vs. the public school one will elicit totally different opinions, as you can see here: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/226461.page. The best way to find out what is best for your family is to tour Burning Tree and several different types of private schools. If your DS is attending K next year, I assume that you would be looking at schools for 1st grade in 2013? You should know that 1st grade is generally a tough entry year for admissions. While schools such as Norwood open a class in 1st, most schools only add spots in 1st through attrition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. This is really helpful, everyone, thank you. I don't even know what kids learn in kindergarten. Are kids in public schools like Burning Tree getting access to computers or languages or art/music, for example? I'll go check it out, but I don't even know if that's a reasonable expectation.

Thanks again.

Yes to computers, music and art. Not sure about languages as my kids did immersion.

IMO computers in kindergarten is just silly and I wish they didn't have them -- a complete waste of time IMO. Your kids will play on your computer and learn more basic skills that way.

Art and music are each once a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a first-time parent with a child who will go to kindergarten next Fall. I'm told that if we want to put her in private school, we have to apply a year in advance, which is why I'm soliciting guidance now. If she goes to public school, it would be Burning Tree in Bethesda. I've been told to put her in private school by other parents, who express that private schools in Bethesda have smaller class sizes, better teachers, less violence among students (really? in elementary school?), better resources (computers, field trips, etc.) and the like than do the public schools. I'm a complete rube here, and would appreciate your thoughts on the value of private school at such a young age, and your experiences at Burning Tree or other Bethesda-area public schools.

Thanks!

Public school kids get what seems like a field trip every month to Strathmore, museums, etc.

As for violence, I don't know what they can be talking about, particularly at Burning Tree.

Quality of teachers -- I would question this. I toured a lot of privates before deciding to keep our daughter in MCPS, and I was often shocked at the quality of the private school teachers. They seemed nice and well spoken but I saw grammer mistakes on the white boards at a couple of very highly regarded privates, etc. I also compared what my DD, then in third grade, was learning in math, etc. and found that the private schools were at least a year behind. This may not be a bad thing but ultimately I found that acceleration opportunities for elementary weren't all that great in the privates we looked at.

Small class sizes yes -- although as they get older I don't know that this is an advantage. Having grown up with the same small group of priviliged kids, it can get stifling and competitive. I think smaller classes are certainly better for elementary kids.

[Anonymous]

Don't know what kids learn in kindergarten?!?! You have some homework to do! You should check out the kindergarten curriculum on the MCPS website. By the end of K in MCPS, students are expected to be able to read, write a complete sentence (with subject verb agreement), solve simple mathematics equations, etc. Computers are a huge part of the MCPS curriculum. Media specialists (formerly referred to as librarians) conduct research projects on the computer...yes, even with kindergarteners. Specials vary by school- likely contenders are Art, PE, Junior Great Books, Science Lab, Guidance, Media Center, and Music.