I don't understand why parents waste so much money on private schools in this area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really don't think public school parents understand just how much better private is for kids. It's so much more than college matriculation. You think the public and private school kids really have the same level of education going into college? Having a public and private student score the same on the SAT does not mean they had remotely the same educational experience. LOL that OP thinks that.

The resources, the opportunities, the attention to detail, the level of teaching, the other students, the buildings, the land, the field trips, the plays, the public speaking....

I went to a top 5 university. Zero difference whatsoever between my education/attention to detail/field trips/plays/public speaking practice (FCPS grad) and the same experiences of my classmates who went to elite private high schools. Nearly everyone in my high school was well connected, smart, and motivated. The running joke among parents was how stupid it was to send kids to private when our school was full of "the" people you needed to know (if you are inclined to think that way) + great education.

My kindergartener has been on three field trips so far this year. I suspect that isn’t happening in public school.

This is hilarious. Field trips in K shape a brilliant mind for the bargain price of $50k/year and you don’t have to take your kid to the Natural History Museum yourself!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Public schools have gone waaaaay down since the 90’s

Evidence?

[Anonymous]

Too much mindfulness
No teaching of cursive
No spelling test
Curriculum watered down
No grammar/ writing

[Anonymous]

DP. No Child Left Behind changed the focus from all kids to just the bottom kids.

In elementary school, it's also one of the reasons they moved away from a knowledge rich curriculum and instead spend so much time on language arts and math. The above average kids spend a lot of time doing computer programs like Dreambox or Raz Kids while the struggling kids get all of the extra math and reading attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Too much mindfulness
No teaching of cursive
No spelling test
Curriculum watered down
No grammar/ writing

There’s no such thing as too much mindfulness in my experience.

DCs have had some cursive exposure (but it’s not a major priority to me beyond that). They definitely have regular spelling tests and lots of writing/grammar time though.

I have no basis to tell if curriculum is “watered down” compared to say 5-15 years ago, but I can tell they’re hitting many topics earlier than I did as a public school child 20+ years ago.

Most parents I know have similar thoughts on that last point, we’re often pleasantly surprised with the pace of learning compared to our own experiences as kids. Not saying your experience is “wrong”, just that it’s certainly far from universal.

[Anonymous]

We just had first quarter conferences. I have several older kids who went to public schools, and so I’ve sat through my fair share of conferences. When the pandemic hit, we transferred my son to private and he stayed there again this year. Anyways I had his conference Friday and for a half hour, I listened to his teacher talk about his strengths and weaknesses and I could tell she knows him almost as well as I do. And I thought back to all the years where the teachers could barely fill the conference time and all I got were generic comments. The public school teachers are dealing with classes that are too big, and too much time spent on paperwork.
I’m not sure we’ll ever go back to public.

[Anonymous]

NP: what are these "w" schools people keep referencing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just had first quarter conferences. I have several older kids who went to public schools, and so I’ve sat through my fair share of conferences. When the pandemic hit, we transferred my son to private and he stayed there again this year. Anyways I had his conference Friday and for a half hour, I listened to his teacher talk about his strengths and weaknesses and I could tell she knows him almost as well as I do. And I thought back to all the years where the teachers could barely fill the conference time and all I got were generic comments. The public school teachers are dealing with classes that are too big, and too much time spent on paperwork.
I’m not sure we’ll ever go back to public.

+2 exact same experience with my twin daughters….Just started their first year in private as middle schoolers and it’s so wonderful to see them truly seen by their teachers. I was getting the exact same comments (verbatim) from their teachers each year in our public elementary school. And yes they were in different classes since Kindergarten. Being twins, I especially appreciate that they are seen for the unique individuals that they are!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP: what are these "w" schools people keep referencing

The W schools are the good high schools in MCPS. I can’t remember all of them (we are in one, the Whitman cluster), but they are usually in the wealthier parts of MoCo.

We have had our kids in public and private.

Agree that the public’s here are outstanding and your kid can thrive. We have lots of friends whose kids are thriving. However, if your kids has any sort of struggles, i don’t think they larger system is prepared to accommodate them. We are wealthy, well-educated, and involved and one of my kids was not doing well at our highly regarded ES. We pulled them into private and now thriving.

All our kids are now heading to private - paying four tuitions next year. I think only one of our four kids really “needs” private school, but they all love it and we can afford the tuition.

The irony is that we probably would have bought a house in DC if we had known we were going to send the kids to private schools - we bought in our specific neighborhood for the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DP. No Child Left Behind changed the focus from all kids to just the bottom kids.

In elementary school, it's also one of the reasons they moved away from a knowledge rich curriculum and instead spend so much time on language arts and math. The above average kids spend a lot of time doing computer programs like Dreambox or Raz Kids while the struggling kids get all of the extra math and reading attention.

This was our experience in fcps. Our kid was doing computer learning games and was not even in a reading group because he was a strong reader. I was so surprised by it all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just had first quarter conferences. I have several older kids who went to public schools, and so I’ve sat through my fair share of conferences. When the pandemic hit, we transferred my son to private and he stayed there again this year. Anyways I had his conference Friday and for a half hour, I listened to his teacher talk about his strengths and weaknesses and I could tell she knows him almost as well as I do. And I thought back to all the years where the teachers could barely fill the conference time and all I got were generic comments. The public school teachers are dealing with classes that are too big, and too much time spent on paperwork.
I’m not sure we’ll ever go back to public.

+2 exact same experience with my twin daughters….Just started their first year in private as middle schoolers and it’s so wonderful to see them truly seen by their teachers. I was getting the exact same comments (verbatim) from their teachers each year in our public elementary school. And yes they were in different classes since Kindergarten. Being twins, I especially appreciate that they are seen for the unique individuals that they are!

We switched from public to parochial this year, and I know parochials get pooh-poohed in this forum a lot but this was our exact experience at our conference too. The teachers actually seem to know my kid! They describe strengths and weaknesses exactly as we observe at home. They KNEW him. At my public conferences I sincerely wondered on at least two occasions if they were even talking about my kid or if they were confused. If I asked anything with any specificity they couldn’t answer. This was night and day different.

[Anonymous]

Do you have kids in school yet, OP? You never know what life is actually going to serve you. Reserve your judgment until you have specific kids in specific situations, and then realize that you are making your choices based on your situations, and don't judge what you don't know about other people's situations. One size does not fit all.

[Anonymous]

The difference between public and private is much larger than people on this board give credit to. Most people here can’t afford private in the first place so just looking from the outside in. My public is just as good!! Yeah no.

[Anonymous]

Maybe because public schools really suck now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really don't think public school parents understand just how much better private is for kids. It's so much more than college matriculation. You think the public and private school kids really have the same level of education going into college? Having a public and private student score the same on the SAT does not mean they had remotely the same educational experience. LOL that OP thinks that.

The resources, the opportunities, the attention to detail, the level of teaching, the other students, the buildings, the land, the field trips, the plays, the public speaking....

I went to a top 5 university. Zero difference whatsoever between my education/attention to detail/field trips/plays/public speaking practice (FCPS grad) and the same experiences of my classmates who went to elite private high schools. Nearly everyone in my high school was well connected, smart, and motivated. The running joke among parents was how stupid it was to send kids to private when our school was full of "the" people you needed to know (if you are inclined to think that way) + great education.

My kindergartener has been on three field trips so far this year. I suspect that isn’t happening in public school.

This is hilarious. Field trips in K shape a brilliant mind for the bargain price of $50k/year and you don’t have to take your kid to the Natural History Museum yourself!

1) we pay 22k for K ( not DC)
2) not a museum. The kids are doing stuff out in nature, because that’s what is best for young kids.