Teachers: Why do you choose to teach at private vs. public?

[Anonymous]

Speaking as an uncertified teacher with experience in privates and charters after coming to teaching as a mid-career switch, I have found that an "effective" teacher has a few basic qualities:

1. A personality that projects how they care about the students learning
2. Command of the subject material AND the ability to present it in an interesting way
3. Concern for engaging the students and getting them to see that they have a stake in learning your class's material.


All of those could be taught in an MSEd. program or not. I don't know what is covered there. But I can't imagine that any MS program guarantees all of those results. Sometimes far from it.

[Anonymous]

I am not certified to teach in a public school. That's the case with most of my peers. Also, privates expect less of you. You don't have to turn in lesson plans or attend as many meetings. It's easier. I'll take a pay cut not to turn in a million lesson plans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents are more supportive in private in many ways.

I've taught both and you are insane. Private school parents are not supportive. Are there some wonderful ones? Of course. But overall, not at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not certified to teach in a public school. That's the case with most of my peers. Also, privates expect less of you. You don't have to turn in lesson plans or attend as many meetings. It's easier. I'll take a pay cut not to turn in a million lesson plans.

No good teacher wants to do less work and make less of an impact. I call troll, and a poor one at that. I went from public to private and I am held MORE accountable. If I perform poorly, that will impact the reputation of the school. As a strong teacher, I don’t want to perform poorly anyway, nor say I desire less work. My private school requires lesson plans. My former public did not. My current private school requires regular observations. My former public school made up my observations since the admin didn’t actually show up. I work harder now and I am very proud of my work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not certified to teach in a public school. That's the case with most of my peers. Also, privates expect less of you. You don't have to turn in lesson plans or attend as many meetings. It's easier. I'll take a pay cut not to turn in a million lesson plans.

No good teacher wants to do less work and make less of an impact. I call troll, and a poor one at that. I went from public to private and I am held MORE accountable. If I perform poorly, that will impact the reputation of the school. As a strong teacher, I don’t want to perform poorly anyway, nor say I desire less work. My private school requires lesson plans. My former public did not. My current private school requires regular observations. My former public school made up my observations since the admin didn’t actually show up. I work harder now and I am very proud of my work.

I imagine that you are a terrific teacher with this mindset and effort level. I'm curious if you feel your school is comprised of a lot of teachers like you? Sounds like your school also has some structural requirements that you didn't experience in publics.

A teaching perk I've heard about private schools is having classroom flexibility/autonomy vs more structured curricula in publics. What do you feel is a successful model of teacher requirements AND yet- not being micromanaged/mired in paperwork?

[Anonymous]

I have a PhD in my subject area and yet am not qualified to teach in a public school. So I teach at a private.

[Anonymous]

My friend got a job offer at private before she got an offer from her local public. So she teaches at private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not certified to teach in a public school. That's the case with most of my peers. Also, privates expect less of you. You don't have to turn in lesson plans or attend as many meetings. It's easier. I'll take a pay cut not to turn in a million lesson plans.

No good teacher wants to do less work and make less of an impact. I call troll, and a poor one at that. I went from public to private and I am held MORE accountable. If I perform poorly, that will impact the reputation of the school. As a strong teacher, I don’t want to perform poorly anyway, nor say I desire less work. My private school requires lesson plans. My former public did not. My current private school requires regular observations. My former public school made up my observations since the admin didn’t actually show up. I work harder now and I am very proud of my work.

I imagine that you are a terrific teacher with this mindset and effort level. I'm curious if you feel your school is comprised of a lot of teachers like you? Sounds like your school also has some structural requirements that you didn't experience in publics.

A teaching perk I've heard about private schools is having classroom flexibility/autonomy vs more structured curricula in publics. What do you feel is a successful model of teacher requirements AND yet- not being micromanaged/mired in paperwork?

I had LESS autonomy in private than public. Admin changed grades on report cards, edited letters of recommendation teachers wrote for HS placement, and micromanaged so much. Our Head of School dictated how we were allowed to keep the mini blinds in our classrooms! It was even worse when a parent complained about their little snowflake and then admin would demand we let the kid do whatever the parent said

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not certified to teach in a public school. That's the case with most of my peers. Also, privates expect less of you. You don't have to turn in lesson plans or attend as many meetings. It's easier. I'll take a pay cut not to turn in a million lesson plans.

Opposite for our private. Lesson plans are required.

[Anonymous]

Not me, but my relative who taught in private (now retired) said that the academic freedom and administration who didn't tolerate bad behavior from students made the small salary differential worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not me, but my relative who taught in private (now retired) said that the academic freedom and administration who didn't tolerate bad behavior from students made the small salary differential worth it.

I was naive and thought behavior would be better at private schools but it wasn’t. In some ways it was worse because there were less supports and interventions available to students. The country club style school would never counsel our kids with behavior issues so the best kids would apply out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not certified to teach in a public school. That's the case with most of my peers. Also, privates expect less of you. You don't have to turn in lesson plans or attend as many meetings. It's easier. I'll take a pay cut not to turn in a million lesson plans.

No good teacher wants to do less work and make less of an impact. I call troll, and a poor one at that. I went from public to private and I am held MORE accountable. If I perform poorly, that will impact the reputation of the school. As a strong teacher, I don’t want to perform poorly anyway, nor say I desire less work. My private school requires lesson plans. My former public did not. My current private school requires regular observations. My former public school made up my observations since the admin didn’t actually show up. I work harder now and I am very proud of my work.

I imagine that you are a terrific teacher with this mindset and effort level. I'm curious if you feel your school is comprised of a lot of teachers like you? Sounds like your school also has some structural requirements that you didn't experience in publics.

A teaching perk I've heard about private schools is having classroom flexibility/autonomy vs more structured curricula in publics. What do you feel is a successful model of teacher requirements AND yet- not being micromanaged/mired in paperwork?

I’m the PP. Yes, many of my colleagues feel the same way. There’s a common consensus that we found the ideal school in which to teach. Yes, we do have great autonomy in our classrooms, but it comes at a bit of a cost. We need to justify our choices through our lesson plans by explaining how we are meeting standards, etc. I don’t resent it, though, because I know it helps me make good choices. Members of the admin team all teach a class, so they still have a foot in the classroom. That helps when it comes to observations because they aren’t removed from what they are observing. I can also go observe their classes if I’m looking for new ideas. They are also supportive. We are thanked regularly and we are asked our opinions about school-wide initiatives. I’ll be spending the rest of my career here because I can’t imagine finding a school better run than the one I’m already at.

Teachers do have to be certified, but they can earn it during the first year. We have a couple of career changers, so this is a benefit. The school has a great mentoring program for new teachers that is very supportive. Mentors/mentees meet regularly to lesson plan together. Admin observes, but they do it in a non-evaluative manner at first. New teachers are given periods off to observe master teachers in the building. Honestly, I think that’s more useful than education classes for certification. Considering so many teachers quit after just one year, I’m glad the school places such a strong focus on our new teachers.

My experience teaching in a public school was dreadful and about the exact opposite from this. That doesn’t mean I think all publics are poorly run; I just happen to intimately know a particularly bad one in this region. It really comes down to admin, in my mind. They set the tone for the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not me, but my relative who taught in private (now retired) said that the academic freedom and administration who didn't tolerate bad behavior from students made the small salary differential worth it.

I was naive and thought behavior would be better at private schools but it wasn’t. In some ways it was worse because there were less supports and interventions available to students. The country club style school would never counsel our kids with behavior issues so the best kids would apply out.

Yeah, behavior is always an interesting one. At private, the students were far less likely to fight or bring weapons but far more likely to cuss me out, disregard instructions, come to school drunk and/or high and all sorts of other things that, depending who their parents were, typically weren’t pursued much past a slap on the wrist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a PhD in my subject area and yet am not qualified to teach in a public school. So I teach at a private.

I’ve taught in both public and private. A PhD doesn’t make you a good teacher. My public school colleagues spoke for years about the two PhDs our principal hired bc he thought the PhD was worth so much. Takes more than a PhD to manage a middle school classroom. A teacher needs three things:
-Know their content.
-Ability to teach with clarity and always be willing to take another tack if the first routes don’t work with the actual kids in front of you.
-understand and care about kids as people.

All of the above requires a combination of brains, curiosity about the world and compassion.

Also, it really helps a lot to be organized, but some great teachers just aren’t.

Summary: there’s not one path to that combination of skill and talent. Gréât teachers get there via a variety of paths.
Sorry about all of my typos, but I’vevbeen editing all weekend and I’m not going to do it here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a PhD in my subject area and yet am not qualified to teach in a public school. So I teach at a private.

I’ve taught in both public and private. A PhD doesn’t make you a good teacher. My public school colleagues spoke for years about the two PhDs our principal hired bc he thought the PhD was worth so much. Takes more than a PhD to manage a middle school classroom. A teacher needs three things:
-Know their content.
-Ability to teach with clarity and always be willing to take another tack if the first routes don’t work with the actual kids in front of you.
-understand and care about kids as people.

All of the above requires a combination of brains, curiosity about the world and compassion.

Also, it really helps a lot to be organized, but some great teachers just aren’t.

Summary: there’s not one path to that combination of skill and talent. Gréât teachers get there via a variety of paths.
Sorry about all of my typos, but I’vevbeen editing all weekend and I’m not going to do it here.

DP. I agree a PhD isn’t all it takes, but it’s a great start. Clearly somebody with a PhD knows the content! I work with two teachers with PhDs and they are always our go-to people when we have content questions. I don’t have a PhD, but I imagine getting one takes what you list above: organization, brains, and curiosity. Some of the strongest teachers I work with are career changers with advanced degrees. They learned classroom management on the job, like many of us do.