3 reasons why the private schools are filled - from an incoming private parent...

[Anonymous]

the one dc got in to was filled the day of the deadline. It is special and the kids who go there have parents who think it is the right fit.

[Anonymous]

I'm the poster that asked what happens with the badly behaved children in public school. I'm not new to private school -- I've seen a child counseled out and continue to see some that should be counseled out but have not been (I'm still hoping that something will be done). I know someone very well that gave a large donation to a Big 3 private and their child is a nightmare. I'm sure that child has a very secure place in that school now. Yikes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the poster that asked what happens with the badly behaved children in public school. I'm not new to private school -- I've seen a child counseled out and continue to see some that should be counseled out but have not been (I'm still hoping that something will be done). I know someone very well that gave a large donation to a Big 3 private and their child is a nightmare. I'm sure that child has a very secure place in that school now. Yikes.

Re public schools: My first year of teaching high school (in a different state), a kid whacked another kid in the head with a skate board, knocking him out, and continued to kick the shit out of him until a teacher managed to pull him off the poor, unconscious kid. It was the spring and the attacker was expelled for the rest of the year. The following fall, who shows up in my first period class? Skate board boy. Over the summer the parents showed up with their lawyer threatening the superintendent with a big fat lawsuit if they didn't let skater boy back into school that fall. This was a very small school district that didn't want to deplete their budget on a costly law suit. Skater boy was back.

It takes an awful lot for the public schools to permanently kick someone out. If it's a large enough district, they may have an "alternative" school to send these kids too - but the ones I've experienced were pretty bad so parents will fight that too.

At my DC's private, I have seen trouble makers thrown out in elementary and high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Funny my child entered private in 6th and was so far behind on writing, oral presentations, vocabulary, grammar, science and history. And even though she was on target with math (2yrs accelerated in public) she had many "ah ha" moments of actually understanding it.

The reason for having a-ha moments could be a function of being in 6th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Bad teachers can happen to anyone, and unfortunately the public system in my area doesn't allow for options once you get that bad teacher.

Same thing happens in private. Plenty of bad teachers there as well.

Absolutely true. Want to know a difference? If I get a bad teacher in a private school and the school won't address it, I can take my money and my child to another private or the public system. Enough "bad teacher" situations, and a private school has to make changes if they want to continue getting students.

If I get a bad teacher in a public school and the school won't address it, I am forced to go the private route and the school will continue to be funded and inflict that bad teacher on other children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Bad teachers can happen to anyone, and unfortunately the public system in my area doesn't allow for options once you get that bad teacher.

Same thing happens in private. Plenty of bad teachers there as well.

Absolutely true. Want to know a difference? If I get a bad teacher in a private school and the school won't address it, I can take my money and my child to another private or the public system. Enough "bad teacher" situations, and a private school has to make changes if they want to continue getting students.

If I get a bad teacher in a public school and the school won't address it, I am forced to go the private route and the school will continue to be funded and inflict that bad teacher on other children.

Not true regarding public schools. There are a few teachers at our public school whose contracts were not renewed in the last toe years. It happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. you have tons of money and looking for prestige.
2. you love dc living and don't want to move from your cool neighborhood to jklm so are either getting some financial aid or working your butts off to make it work.
3. you are scared to trust the public school system because of a story you heard from a friend of a friend.

-- things you won't get out of privates

1. dc public schools are more rigorous curriculum wise and in many cases more innovative- this is why whenever a private kid has to go into public for various reasons ($$ being the primary) - they are behind in math.
2. colleges love some of dcps including wilson and have as good as a track record for ivies as most privates including big 3s
3. real life experience in a diverse atmosphere

I agree with this point. The curriculum in DCPS and other public schools are often more rigorous and driven by the standardized testing calendar. Students also don't get "do overs" or "corrections" to raise their grades in public school. The grade they get is the grade they earned the first time. And, the best public schools are just as good or better than privates. Yes, this is from a parent of a private school student who switched from public.

See, this is why these threads will never be resolved. I thought our private is way more rigorous than our DCPS middle school. My kids got corrections in DCPS, but not in private. The best public schools are NOT just as good or better than privates. Yes, this is from a parent of a private school student who switched from public.

See how that works?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Bad teachers can happen to anyone, and unfortunately the public system in my area doesn't allow for options once you get that bad teacher.

Same thing happens in private. Plenty of bad teachers there as well.

Absolutely true. Want to know a difference? If I get a bad teacher in a private school and the school won't address it, I can take my money and my child to another private or the public system. Enough "bad teacher" situations, and a private school has to make changes if they want to continue getting students.

If I get a bad teacher in a public school and the school won't address it, I am forced to go the private route and the school will continue to be funded and inflict that bad teacher on other children.

We been in private for 12 years and I have yet to see the schools we have been at get rid of bad teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. you have tons of money and looking for prestige.
2. you love dc living and don't want to move from your cool neighborhood to jklm so are either getting some financial aid or working your butts off to make it work.
3. you are scared to trust the public school system because of a story you heard from a friend of a friend.

-- things you won't get out of privates

1. dc public schools are more rigorous curriculum wise and in many cases more innovative- this is why whenever a private kid has to go into public for various reasons ($$ being the primary) - they are behind in math.
2. colleges love some of dcps including wilson and have as good as a track record for ivies as most privates including big 3s
3. real life experience in a diverse atmosphere

I agree with this point. The curriculum in DCPS and other public schools are often more rigorous and driven by the standardized testing calendar. Students also don't get "do overs" or "corrections" to raise their grades in public school. The grade they get is the grade they earned the first time. And, the best public schools are just as good or better than privates. Yes, this is from a parent of a private school student who switched from public.

See, this is why these threads will never be resolved. I thought our private is way more rigorous than our DCPS middle school. My kids got corrections in DCPS, but not in private. The best public schools are NOT just as good or better than privates. Yes, this is from a parent of a private school student who switched from public.

See how that works?

A friends's son switched from Landon to Deal MS and she said it is much more rigorous. I believe her.

[Anonymous]

Are there any schools where the students are notorious for bad behavior (besides the obvious Landon-bashing posts)?

[Anonymous]

I picked private because I wanted a same-sex education for my daughters. In MCPS their curriculum is flawed, tests are never given back, one on one time is never there and there is consistently rude behavior with kids that just act out to be "cool"

I also prefer a smaller school and class ratios.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I picked private because I wanted a same-sex education for my daughters. In MCPS their curriculum is flawed, tests are never given back, one on one time is never there and there is consistently rude behavior with kids that just act out to be "cool"

I also prefer a smaller school and class ratios.

So you don't really know if what you say is true, because you've never tried it. Nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Bad teachers can happen to anyone, and unfortunately the public system in my area doesn't allow for options once you get that bad teacher.

Same thing happens in private. Plenty of bad teachers there as well.

Absolutely true. Want to know a difference? If I get a bad teacher in a private school and the school won't address it, I can take my money and my child to another private or the public system. Enough "bad teacher" situations, and a private school has to make changes if they want to continue getting students.

If I get a bad teacher in a public school and the school won't address it, I am forced to go the private route and the school will continue to be funded and inflict that bad teacher on other children.

At our private the school addressed it - after the school year was over and my kid had wasted a whole year. Not even private schools are going to fire a teacher in the middle of the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

See, this is why these threads will never be resolved. I thought our private is way more rigorous than our DCPS middle school. My kids got corrections in DCPS, but not in private. The best public schools are NOT just as good or better than privates. Yes, this is from a parent of a private school student who switched from public.

See how that works?

Huh. We left our private school because of the bad teacher problem mentioned above. (The private school fired her in June, but this was after my kid endured a year of bad teaching.) Public schools have been a much better experience, educationwise and otherwise, than even the years in private school where they had good teachers.

See how that works? (Hint: the smart posters compare individual private and public schools, instead of making silly broad generalizations like you did above.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

See, this is why these threads will never be resolved. I thought our private is way more rigorous than our DCPS middle school. My kids got corrections in DCPS, but not in private. The best public schools are NOT just as good or better than privates. Yes, this is from a parent of a private school student who switched from public.

See how that works?

Huh. We left our private school because of the bad teacher problem mentioned above. (The private school fired her in June, but this was after my kid endured a year of bad teaching.) Public schools have been a much better experience, educationwise and otherwise, than even the years in private school where they had good teachers.

See how that works? (Hint: the smart posters compare individual private and public schools, instead of making silly broad generalizations like you did above.)

I was word for word quoting the poster that I quoted except subsisting private for public. That was the point...