Tell me why you chose public for your really smart DS

[Anonymous]

I'm poor.

[Anonymous]

Any regrets for those who went public?

[Anonymous]

STEM is much better in public. And I had a mediocre experience in private as a child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any regrets for those who went public?

Yes, I regret it. He was doing well until a couple of years ago. The teachers seemed to have stopped teaching after covid and gone to mostly screen time lessons. They are barely starting to do better. If I had known I would have gone to private instead of thinking we'd go private for middle school. If I had started private he'd be attached to that school but now he doesn't want to leave his public friends and insists on the public middle. The bonus is he is very active, social and happy but academically mediocre.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any regrets for those who went public?

Yes, I regret it. He was doing well until a couple of years ago. The teachers seemed to have stopped teaching after covid and gone to mostly screen time lessons. They are barely starting to do better. If I had known I would have gone to private instead of thinking we'd go private for middle school. If I had started private he'd be attached to that school but now he doesn't want to leave his public friends and insists on the public middle. The bonus is he is very active, social and happy but academically mediocre.

Yes! And the pre-designed lessons are depressingly basic, even for the so-called GT or advanced track. I think they are the same ones used from school to school across the district. Those of you who are saying the STEM is great at public, do you mean right now? Or is this your child's experience from years ago? And what school or districts are these?

[Anonymous]

I actually want to pick a private (we are in public) for my average DS. Because I went to a very good public school, and I have doubts he can keep up with the math/science programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any regrets for those who went public?

Yes, I regret it. He was doing well until a couple of years ago. The teachers seemed to have stopped teaching after covid and gone to mostly screen time lessons. They are barely starting to do better. If I had known I would have gone to private instead of thinking we'd go private for middle school. If I had started private he'd be attached to that school but now he doesn't want to leave his public friends and insists on the public middle. The bonus is he is very active, social and happy but academically mediocre.

Yes! And the pre-designed lessons are depressingly basic, even for the so-called GT or advanced track. I think they are the same ones used from school to school across the district. Those of you who are saying the STEM is great at public, do you mean right now? Or is this your child's experience from years ago? And what school or districts are these?

My kid is at a IB HS in FCPS and the IB Chemistry HL class is really strong IMO--they have a lot of lab time, do complex work, they generate their own labs based on real research questions. I'm a biochemist and I'm impressed with the quality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We chose to buy into an expensive, lovely, neighborhood with excellent public schools, initially because our oldest has special needs that could be better met in that cluster. And since it worked out great for our oldest, we think it's also good for our youngest, who is smart and capable.

And it means more money for undergrad, grad, downpayments on houses, etc.

We chose to buy into a moderately priced, lovely, close knit neighborhood with MEH public schools because how convenient and lovely the house and neighborhoods was. My kid was an infant then and I did not care about the schools (since I am an immigrant). ES experience was very good and by the time my kids were in 3rd grade they were already very advanced. Both my kids are greenshirted because they were reading before they started school and missed the cutoff by a few days. They ended up going in the public magnet schools. We saved money on our house, money on private K-12 schools, money for undergrad because of $$$ merit aid. So we have money for collge, grad school, car, wedding, downpayment for house etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We chose to buy into an expensive, lovely, neighborhood with excellent public schools, initially because our oldest has special needs that could be better met in that cluster. And since it worked out great for our oldest, we think it's also good for our youngest, who is smart and capable.

And it means more money for undergrad, grad, downpayments on houses, etc.

We chose to buy into a moderately priced, lovely, close knit neighborhood with MEH public schools because how convenient and lovely the house and neighborhoods was. My kid was an infant then and I did not care about the schools (since I am an immigrant). ES experience was very good and by the time my kids were in 3rd grade they were already very advanced. Both my kids are greenshirted because they were reading before they started school and missed the cutoff by a few days. They ended up going in the public magnet schools. We saved money on our house, money on private K-12 schools, money for undergrad because of $$$ merit aid. So we have money for collge, grad school, car, wedding, downpayment for house etc.

Would your calculus change at all if money were not a consideration? Ie ability to give all you listed were not impacted by paying K-12 private tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any regrets for those who went public?

Yes, I regret it. He was doing well until a couple of years ago. The teachers seemed to have stopped teaching after covid and gone to mostly screen time lessons. They are barely starting to do better. If I had known I would have gone to private instead of thinking we'd go private for middle school. If I had started private he'd be attached to that school but now he doesn't want to leave his public friends and insists on the public middle. The bonus is he is very active, social and happy but academically mediocre.

Yes! And the pre-designed lessons are depressingly basic, even for the so-called GT or advanced track. I think they are the same ones used from school to school across the district. Those of you who are saying the STEM is great at public, do you mean right now? Or is this your child's experience from years ago? And what school or districts are these?

My kid is at a IB HS in FCPS and the IB Chemistry HL class is really strong IMO--they have a lot of lab time, do complex work, they generate their own labs based on real research questions. I'm a biochemist and I'm impressed with the quality.

Which HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of two very smart kids in pubic (no choice) I would put them in private if I could. Public honestly sucks but we have no choice if we want to send them to college debt free. The behavioral issues and attitude problems (not my kids but so many others), vaping, drugs, apathy, etc are a real issue. All but one bathroom is locked at all times, and the open one is manned by a teacher to prevent vaping and other bathroom shenanigans. Sometimes DD has to wander around for 10 minutes searching for the open bathroom.

Hmm, you are the sole dissenter on the thread. Would you say your kids’ experience is atypical of most HS? I am sorry they are having to deal with that. Is it primarily behavioral issues that concern you? Ie you like the academics and extracurriculars

PP’s voice is mine. Many of us just don’t feel like commenting. Private school all the way (kids go to public). The vast majority of children should leave high school at 16 and get into the workforce (England, Germany) or some trade school. The behavioral problems after pandemic are real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any regrets for those who went public?

Yes, I regret it. He was doing well until a couple of years ago. The teachers seemed to have stopped teaching after covid and gone to mostly screen time lessons. They are barely starting to do better. If I had known I would have gone to private instead of thinking we'd go private for middle school. If I had started private he'd be attached to that school but now he doesn't want to leave his public friends and insists on the public middle. The bonus is he is very active, social and happy but academically mediocre.

Yes! And the pre-designed lessons are depressingly basic, even for the so-called GT or advanced track. I think they are the same ones used from school to school across the district. Those of you who are saying the STEM is great at public, do you mean right now? Or is this your child's experience from years ago? And what school or districts are these?

My kid is at a IB HS in FCPS and the IB Chemistry HL class is really strong IMO--they have a lot of lab time, do complex work, they generate their own labs based on real research questions. I'm a biochemist and I'm impressed with the quality.

Which HS?

Robinson

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We chose to buy into an expensive, lovely, neighborhood with excellent public schools, initially because our oldest has special needs that could be better met in that cluster. And since it worked out great for our oldest, we think it's also good for our youngest, who is smart and capable.

And it means more money for undergrad, grad, downpayments on houses, etc.

We chose to buy into a moderately priced, lovely, close knit neighborhood with MEH public schools because how convenient and lovely the house and neighborhoods was. My kid was an infant then and I did not care about the schools (since I am an immigrant). ES experience was very good and by the time my kids were in 3rd grade they were already very advanced. Both my kids are green-shirted because they were reading before they started school and missed the cutoff by a few days. They ended up going in the public magnet schools. We saved money on our house, money on private K-12 schools, money for undergrad because of $$$ merit aid. So we have money for college, grad school, car, wedding, down-payment for house etc.

Would your calculus change at all if money were not a consideration? Ie ability to give all you listed were not impacted by paying K-12 private tuition.

Good question. Our calculus would not change because of our reality.

We are non-White, non-Christian, ORM first gen immigrants. Private schools did not give us the curriculum that was as rigorous than magnets and whatever else they were selling (influence, prestige, good table manners) did not appeal to us because we are not White or well connected for college admissions.

Our HHI is around 400K. I am SAHM. Money for education is not an issue for us because we (DH and I) are very qualified and we are successful here because of our education. By the time my kids were school aged, we did have the money to buy in a good school pyramid, or pay for private schools. We continued living where we were living because of our expat support system was well established here and parents of our kids magnet cohort were close by. I had forged friendships with them for years and our kids collaborated on many EC projects.

Our first choice was MCPS magnet schools because it was closest to the basic universal education students from our home country get. Magnets remained the best education (years before magnet schools were diluted) we could hope for our kids. '

If not magnet, then our next choice was to buy a house in W pyramid because it was better for us to spend money on a house than on private school tuition for whatever number of years my kids needed schools. I have two kids. K-12 is 13 yrs. Times 100K. It made sense to rather own real estate.

Private was not appealing academically, and then we also knew that college admissions were not merit-based, so private schools made zero sense. There was no benefit of going to a private school, even if they would have given us free tuition.

As some one who is an immigrant, we would like to give money to our children because there is no generational wealth for us. Therefore, generational wealth has to be earned and bestowed to our children by us. We are careful and very strategic about their education and our money. Unless my kids earn a lot of money, they will probably remain UMC like us.

[Anonymous]

Cause I could not afford private? And also Dragon School was too expensive!

[Anonymous]

OP,

I would not force him to do public, since finances are not an issue. Instead, I would have him visit both your public along with the private schools he chooses. If he decides he wants private, then explore, visit, and apply to his selected privates. After acceptances arrive, I would then let him choose which school, public or private. YMMV.