Why Apply Anywhere Other Than the Big Three?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But you probably could get that bilingual experience at one of the Montgomery County Spanish, French or Chinese immersion schools--which are free. Or you could send your child to public school and simply pay for language classes for your DC--it probably would cost you a few thousand dollars per year.





Drew #156 in the Montgomery County lottery for Spanish immersion. Weekly language classes give nice exposure to a language but will not result in the fluency DC has after 5 years in immersion - 5 days per week. You can't count on getting into magnet programs like MoCo or Fairfax (who may cut out all their immersion programs because of budget shortfalls.)

[Anonymous]

I'm curious about all the complaints about testing in the publics. We've done public and private. And honestly, in private the ERBs absorbed a whole week of the school's time, no other homework was given during this week, letters came home stressing the importance of lots of sleep and a good breakfast, and the rest. Then there was the year when the school was up for accreditation. It was slightly better than our public testing experience, but not a whole lot better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

please provide us some examples of the experiences your child receives at your $30K per year private school that they could not get (1) at public school (2) at your home or (3) if you took that $30K and spent time as a family seeing the world. You say public school can't touch these experiences, so I'm curious what they actually are.

I'm not the pp you asked, but for our 25K at WIS, our DC is bilingual. That we couldn't get in our public school or at home. We do travel the world, and in many countries DC can play with the children in their langauge. Priceless. But I wouldn't have bothered with any other private school.

Both of my kids are bilingual, thanks to the MCPS FI program.

[Anonymous]

Good for you. There are literally 300 kids who didn't get in for every 50 who did. So, I hope you had fun spending your double share of my taxes. Stop bragging and speak the truth-- you were lucky, but most people don't get that.

[Anonymous]

OP, I grew up in the area, and must say that your calculation was exactly mine when considering school for our kids. When I lived in DCPS almost any private school would have been better than the school our child went to. Now that we moved, I would only switch my kids from our MoCo school to Sidwell, NCS/StA, or GDS. In my view, those are the only schools that offer comparable or superior academics compared to what we have now.

That said, my calculation depends very much on the individual profiles of my kids. Oldest is well-served in a Highly Gifted Center. Oldest is a high academic achiever with little effort, extremely focused and self-motivated, very obedient/well-behaved, repeatedly described by teachers as a leader and makes friends fairly easily. I have no doubt that this child will excel with little effort in any environment.

Youngest is also quite bright, but less self-directed, more susceptible to being influenced by the misbehavior of others, may have LD issues, and may need more moral/social guidance from a teacher who is truly aware of student needs. Large public school may or may not turn out to be the right choice for youngest.

Perhaps I will change my opinion about private if it turns out that any of youngest's weaknesses/personality issues make our public school a poor fit. Then I will be seeking a private school that fits youngest's specific needs, whether it is one of the Big 3 or not.