Paying 32K and my DD's teacher has NO idea what she's doing

[Anonymous]

We are in the same situation, and it's at GDS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Enough with the public school is better than private! We've experienced both. In DC you can't fire those veteran public school teachers who are grumpy tired and punitive. In fact I used to teach in MCPS and can tell you that there are plenty of people who shouldnt be teaching who teach in public. We selected private because of the depth of curriculum, the wide range of opportunities for older kids, the sense of community at our private which is an excellent school. I have given this a lot of thought though and am considering public. One question is if the students who graduate from public go to top tier schools. Not just the occasional one or two but a large group as they do at our private.

Not any of those posters, but to me it looked like the public school posters were trying to say, "we've done both, and we're happy in public, so you might be too." Which I think maybe they, like me, thought was the sort of thing you were looking for. If that's not what you want, then tell us what you want and we'll try to answer. (Now if we could just jettison the private school defender who is calling everyone "nuts" and "crazy" without adding anything constructive....)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand the post raving about some early decision statement from a neighbor on the board of a college. It says "all langley" as if DD is in public HS but is a sad rant about hating private school. And pretty disgusting commentary on a leak of info from a board member.

Clue here though --- every year is different. Don't assume nothing was gained from prior years in private that set up grand finale at langley.

Also from the ranting about Catholic private school makes me think that DD was never at a top tier private. The Catholic schools around here serve a faith mission but are not competitive intellectually.

I'm the PP with the non-history teacher and no, it wasn't a Catholic school, it's an independent that is generally well-regarded on DCUM.

Also, there's no need to call other posts "raving" and "a sad rant" and "disgusting commentary" and "rants" with a passing sideswipe at Catholic schools. I can't understand why you seem (oddly) threatened by any criticism of any private school, anywhere.

[Anonymous]

You can contact the public school of your choice to find out the stats about where kids get in. The only problem is that it's not such an accurate survey because not all of the kids tell the schools where they have gotten in.

[Anonymous]

1. OP, if its just one teacher you don't like, I think you are overreacting to pull your kid out. You should read lessons of a Skinned Knee -- there's a whole chapter about this sort of thing. You won't find perfect teachers anywhere and your child will survive just fine.
2. The fact that you were a teacher yourself makes me think your are going to be judgy of anyone. Not everyone will do it your way.
3. I am a private school parents but really, really resent your slur of public school teachers. Many work in very difficult conditions and do so because they are committed to teaching ALL children, not just the ones selected at a private school.
4. I think I've read that kids from public schools do better in the college application process. In any event, if you are so goal-oriented in choosing your school, you will have a rude awakening down the road. Private school doesn't entitle you to the college of your choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't understand why you seem (oddly) threatened by any criticism of any private school, anywhere.

I'm not the PP you're attacking, but I too am irritated (not threatened) by the repeated attacks on private schools generally by people who prefer public schools. That's fine that you chose public school for your child -- there are many fine ones in this area. But there are also many fine private schools, and many people prefer those to the public schools. Why can't you permit them that choice? Why the constant need to attack private schools?

This thread -- and many threads on the private schools forum -- get unnecessarily littered with off-topic attacks from public school parents. I'm not saying some private school posters don't ever criticize public schools, because that definitely happens too. But IMO any fair counting of attacks would find many more from the public school parents than from the private school parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. OP, if its just one teacher you don't like, I think you are overreacting to pull your kid out. You should read lessons of a Skinned Knee -- there's a whole chapter about this sort of thing. You won't find perfect teachers anywhere and your child will survive just fine.
2. The fact that you were a teacher yourself makes me think your are going to be judgy of anyone. Not everyone will do it your way.
3. I am a private school parents but really, really resent your slur of public school teachers. Many work in very difficult conditions and do so because they are committed to teaching ALL children, not just the ones selected at a private school.
4. I think I've read that kids from public schools do better in the college application process. In any event, if you are so goal-oriented in choosing your school, you will have a rude awakening down the road. Private school doesn't entitle you to the college of your choice.

Children who excel in public schools get into "top" schools. You aren't quite there yet, but you will see that the trend now is find the college that is the right fit for your child. Sometimes the schools that people consider to be the "top" are not necessarily so for their kids. I know plenty of hugely successful individuals who went to schools that aren't considered "top" schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can contact the public school of your choice to find out the stats about where kids get in. The only problem is that it's not such an accurate survey because not all of the kids tell the schools where they have gotten in.

Are you talking about where the students get into college? Students certainly tell their schools where they've been accepted. That's the only way the official transcript gets from school to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can contact the public school of your choice to find out the stats about where kids get in. The only problem is that it's not such an accurate survey because not all of the kids tell the schools where they have gotten in.

Are you talking about where the students get into college? Students certainly tell their schools where they've been accepted. That's the only way the official transcript gets from school to school.

Good point!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Enough with the public school is better than private! We've experienced both. In DC you can't fire those veteran public school teachers who are grumpy tired and punitive. In fact I used to teach in MCPS and can tell you that there are plenty of people who shouldnt be teaching who teach in public. We selected private because of the depth of curriculum, the wide range of opportunities for older kids, the sense of community at our private which is an excellent school. I have given this a lot of thought though and am considering public. One question is if the students who graduate from public go to top tier schools. Not just the occasional one or two but a large group as they do at our private.

Many publics are, in fact, better than many privates. You sound pot-committed and determined to rationalize your poor investment (you paid $32,000 only to get an incompetent teacher, after all, but somehow still need to feel reassured that the investment was the right thing).

We selected our public because of depth of curriculum, the wide range of opportunities for older kids, and the sense of community at our public, which is an excellent school. The difference is we take it as it comes, warts and all. You seemed to expect perfection because you shelled out $32,000 a year. The question I asked myself when I did this analysis was over a child's 13-year school career, was the education the private was going to give my child a half milion dollars better than the education she'd get in public? The answer was no, unless I thought I was buying a pedigree, which has no interest to me. That half a million would be better spent on real-life experiences to augment my child's education, like trips abroad, etc.

More important, we had a bad teacher once. We got dd moved to another classroom. Can you do that at your $32,000 school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't understand why you seem (oddly) threatened by any criticism of any private school, anywhere.

I'm not the PP you're attacking, but I too am irritated (not threatened) by the repeated attacks on private schools generally by people who prefer public schools. That's fine that you chose public school for your child -- there are many fine ones in this area. But there are also many fine private schools, and many people prefer those to the public schools. Why can't you permit them that choice? Why the constant need to attack private schools?

This thread -- and many threads on the private schools forum -- get unnecessarily littered with off-topic attacks from public school parents. I'm not saying some private school posters don't ever criticize public schools, because that definitely happens too. But IMO any fair counting of attacks would find many more from the public school parents than from the private school parents.

I'm the PP you are responding to, and I am one of apparently several parents on this thread who had kids in private school who are now in public. Our experience is directly responsive to OP's question in a way that oysters who are only familiar with privates cannot be. The message is, "don't be afraid of all publics." I can't see how any different line of response would be at all helpful to OP.

And save your attacks for the mean PP who is attacking others. I'm pretty sure she's the nasty piece of work whose posts were deleted on the recent Sidwell thread. Unless she decides to start adding constructive posts.

[Anonymous]

Ha ha, posters not oysters. Thanks, spell check!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't understand why you seem (oddly) threatened by any criticism of any private school, anywhere.

I'm not the PP you're attacking, but I too am irritated (not threatened) by the repeated attacks on private schools generally by people who prefer public schools. That's fine that you chose public school for your child -- there are many fine ones in this area. But there are also many fine private schools, and many people prefer those to the public schools. Why can't you permit them that choice? Why the constant need to attack private schools?

This thread -- and many threads on the private schools forum -- get unnecessarily littered with off-topic attacks from public school parents. I'm not saying some private school posters don't ever criticize public schools, because that definitely happens too. But IMO any fair counting of attacks would find many more from the public school parents than from the private school parents.

Look, my kids were IN private school. I come here to keep up with that school. Some aspects of that school deserved to be criticized. Just as some aspects of public schools deserve to be criticized.

Why do you take this as a blanket condemnation of all private schools? Because it isn't a blanket condemnation. The implication emerging from this thread is, nobody should ever criticize any single aspect if any private school (unless it's Catholic, of course).

[Anonymous]

OP, if you don't want to hear anybody's opinions on the relative merits of private vs. public schools, then why did you start this thread? If you shudder at the thought of Pyle, then it doesn't sound like an option for you. If you want to shut down all discussion from parents who have been in the same boat as you, then what is left for us to say to you? Are you just here to vent about how $32K can't buy perfection?

[Anonymous]

agreed. I was an early PP whose only message was to follow your guts and move faster than I did, which in my case meant switching schools, which happened to be once private to private, then private to public. But it was then clear OP didn't want to hear that message. Without knowing the school they are in; where they are (now we know Pyle); or other info, I really can't help.