Do you think an average kindergartener is better off in public or private school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Teachers gear their efforts to the middle, to the squeeky wheel , if you will. Were it my child, I would not put my DC in an educational environment where all the teacher's energy goes to teaching remedial english reading and writing skills. That's me.

This is "you" too: implying every public school is filled to the rafters with ESOL and remedial-level kids. On the contrary, there are plenty of good public schools in the area where your kid will be in a peer group with lots of kids who may be *shocker* better prepared than your own kid. Let's not be idiots with the stereotypes about public schools.

There are plenty of good, valid reasons for choosing private schools: a kid needs small class sizes, privates have better college counseling, less emphasis on APs, et cetera. These are what OP should look at when she decides if they're important for her "average kindergartner."

Thanks for saying this because someone had to. Also, she misspelled squeaky.

[Anonymous]

Our average kindergarten son started in a good MoCo public kindergarten this past fall, but we moved him to a private school after one semester. Why? Because he couldn't eat lunch in 12 minutes flat, he couldn't wait for hours (!) to use the bathroom, and he was physically attacked by another child in his class, several times. (The other child had serious developmental delays, really couldn't be blamed for his actions, and seriously needed extra adult help in the classroom - but the public school couldn't afford that, so our kid and other kids suffered.) I was so sad to see my previously happy-about-school son turn into an afraid-to-go-to-school, hungry, pants-wetting son. It's impossible for kids to learn when their basic needs and safety aren't taken care of.

The spring semester has been SO positive by comparison, at a private school where there is time for lunch, bathroom breaks, recess, music, art, P.E., and enough adults to give needed attention to behavior problems.

I know that the fit of the child with the school is important, but really, how many 5-year-olds "fit" into such inhumane environments?

-private school teacher and parent

[Anonymous]

One risk-aversion concept:

An apparently "average" K kid may well have some minor or difficult-to-identify learning issue, like very low-grade dyslexia. In private school, a non-cert teacher will almost never pick that up. By contrast, most public schools look specifically for issues of exactly that nature.

[Anonymous]

We gave public school a try. I have twins; one had a great teacher in K and the other had a flaky teacher. The flaky teacher was horrible, I wanted to pull him out of the class but my DH said no, he's already made friends, etc. He was already reading and since the flaky teacher didn't have a lot of time to do reading groups, I hired a reading tutor for the summer. I spoke with the V. Principal and expressed my concerns; asking for a more organized teacher for 1st grade. He has one of the best 1st grade teachers, he's making a huge progress. Very happy thus far, but DH and I do evaluate every year to make sure things are going the way we think they should (using our own logic)

Yes, private has smaller classes, helpful to some students but I see kids thriving in our school with a classroom of 23-25 kids. A lot of the first grade kids are reading above their grade level.

From what I've seen, it also has a lot to do with the teacher. A highly organized efficient teacher can move and shake a class like nobody's business. A flaky, disorganized teacher spends lots of time on correcting behavior because there is no organization in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our average kindergarten son started in a good MoCo public kindergarten this past fall, but we moved him to a private school after one semester. Why? Because he couldn't eat lunch in 12 minutes flat, he couldn't wait for hours (!) to use the bathroom, and he was physically attacked by another child in his class, several times. (The other child had serious developmental delays, really couldn't be blamed for his actions, and seriously needed extra adult help in the classroom - but the public school couldn't afford that, so our kid and other kids suffered.) I was so sad to see my previously happy-about-school son turn into an afraid-to-go-to-school, hungry, pants-wetting son. It's impossible for kids to learn when their basic needs and safety aren't taken care of.

The spring semester has been SO positive by comparison, at a private school where there is time for lunch, bathroom breaks, recess, music, art, P.E., and enough adults to give needed attention to behavior problems.

I know that the fit of the child with the school is important, but really, how many 5-year-olds "fit" into such inhumane environments?

-private school teacher and parent

This post sounds a bit overly dramatic. Perhaps your "good" MoCo school isn't so good, but I find it hard to believe that they don't let kids go to the bathroom. Really? Sorry, don't believe it. My son is in K at a MoCo elementary school. The kids in his class can get up to go to the bathroom whenever they want. They get 30 minutes for lunch, followed by a recess, plus another 20 minute recess in the morning. They also have PE, art, library, and music each week. I'm sorry there was an issue with another student, but don't make it sound like his the norm in public school and they are less safe or cared for compared to private school kids. It's simply not true. Inhumane environment? Give me a break. The kids I see at our school are happy, healthy, and thriving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We gave public school a try. I have twins; one had a great teacher in K and the other had a flaky teacher. The flaky teacher was horrible, I wanted to pull him out of the class but my DH said no, he's already made friends, etc. He was already reading and since the flaky teacher didn't have a lot of time to do reading groups, I hired a reading tutor for the summer. I spoke with the V. Principal and expressed my concerns; asking for a more organized teacher for 1st grade. He has one of the best 1st grade teachers, he's making a huge progress. Very happy thus far, but DH and I do evaluate every year to make sure things are going the way we think they should (using our own logic)

Yes, private has smaller classes, helpful to some students but I see kids thriving in our school with a classroom of 23-25 kids. A lot of the first grade kids are reading above their grade level.

From what I've seen, it also has a lot to do with the teacher. A highly organized efficient teacher can move and shake a class like nobody's business. A flaky, disorganized teacher spends lots of time on correcting behavior because there is no organization in the classroom.

I agree that a good teacher, regardless of public or private, is really the most important factor.

[Anonymous]

And each school is different. Our school had 12 kindergarden classes when we had to decide what to do. That is over 300 kindergarteners.

Our middle school has over 300 6th graders alone.

My kids would get lost - on purpose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One risk-aversion concept:

An apparently "average" K kid may well have some minor or difficult-to-identify learning issue, like very low-grade dyslexia. In private school, a non-cert teacher will almost never pick that up. By contrast, most public schools look specifically for issues of exactly that nature.

I have a very bright kid with mild learning issues in public school. Most teachers in public will not pick up on this either. Publics will typcially only provide extra help to your child if the child is two grade levels behind. It really takes a very caring and experienced teacher to pick up on mild learning disabilities.

We love our DCPS public school, but the kids are NOT given enough time to eat lunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our average kindergarten son started in a good MoCo public kindergarten this past fall, but we moved him to a private school after one semester. Why? Because he couldn't eat lunch in 12 minutes flat, he couldn't wait for hours (!) to use the bathroom, and he was physically attacked by another child in his class, several times. (The other child had serious developmental delays, really couldn't be blamed for his actions, and seriously needed extra adult help in the classroom - but the public school couldn't afford that, so our kid and other kids suffered.) I was so sad to see my previously happy-about-school son turn into an afraid-to-go-to-school, hungry, pants-wetting son. It's impossible for kids to learn when their basic needs and safety aren't taken care of.

The spring semester has been SO positive by comparison, at a private school where there is time for lunch, bathroom breaks, recess, music, art, P.E., and enough adults to give needed attention to behavior problems.

I know that the fit of the child with the school is important, but really, how many 5-year-olds "fit" into such inhumane environments?

-private school teacher and parent

While this does seem like an extreme example of what can go wrong in a public kindergarten, these are some of the things we were concerned with when choosing to go the private route. At our MoCo public elementary, lunch is 30 minutes, but this includes the time it takes to go through the lunch line. Considering that there are 9 classes of about 27 K students who eat lunch at the same time, I'm sure getting through the lunch line and settled into your seat can take up half (or more) of lunch. There is also only one 30 minute recess a day and they stay in the class if the weather is bad. Current parents tell me that the weather is deemed bad more days than not in the winter. There is also only 1 teacher per class with an average of 27 students. PE is only once a week, as are art and music. I'm sure there are kids who can thrive in the public school environment, but we didn't think ours was one of them.