Families who have gone from public to private: what has been the biggest difference?

[Anonymous]

We were pretty happy with our public and only switched to private for language immersion. Class sizes were slightly smaller in the public, so class size wasn't a concern of ours. There are, however, some other modest benefits besides language:

1) aftercare: There are many more offerings in aftercare for the private. I had to speak to the head of aftercare at the public last year because my Ker was frequently coming home saying they'd just been sitting around watching cartoons and often getting candy from teachers. Call me uptight, but I didn't like that. In contrast, my kid has art, "maker" type classes, sports, etc. to choose from this year.

2) recess: kid got only 30 min per day in public. Sometimes even less than that, if it was judged to be too cold. Teacher last year was good about getting them out more than once per day, time permitting, but that really varied by teacher. In contrast, they're out for recess 3-4 times per day at the private. The only unexpected consequence is that my kid has gotten a lot more bruises, scrapes, knots on head, etc. this year--never any of this in public. However, I do think overall more recess is a positive.

3) academics: The public school was actually ahead in reading and math. Kid is currently being pulled out in reading, whereas kid was a pretty average reader in public. In math, they are also doing work that kid did in K last year in public. I'm not too concerned about this, as I think it will all even out--DCPS is known for being fairly academic in the early grades.

Those were the biggies. There are other differences related to student body composition, but these weren't the driving factor, as kid also had a pretty good peer group in public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were pretty happy with our public and only switched to private for language immersion. Class sizes were slightly smaller in the public, so class size wasn't a concern of ours. There are, however, some other modest differences besides language:

1) aftercare: There are many more offerings in aftercare for the private. I had to speak to the head of aftercare at the public last year because my Ker was frequently coming home saying they'd just been sitting around watching cartoons and often getting candy from teachers. Call me uptight, but I didn't like that. In contrast, my kid has art, "maker" type classes, sports, etc. to choose from this year.

2) recess: kid got only 30 min per day in public. Sometimes even less than that, if it was judged to be too cold. Teacher last year was good about getting them out more than once per day, time permitting, but that really varied by teacher. In contrast, they're out for recess 3-4 times per day at the private. The only unexpected consequence is that my kid has gotten a lot more bruises, scrapes, knots on head, etc. this year--never any of this in public. However, I do think overall more recess is a positive.

3) academics: The public school was actually ahead in reading and math. Kid is currently being pulled out in reading, whereas kid was a pretty average reader in public. In math, they are also doing work that kid did in K last year in public. I'm not too concerned about this, as I think it will all even out--DCPS is known for being fairly academic in the early grades.

Those were the biggies. There are other differences related to student body composition, but these weren't the driving factor, as kid also had a pretty good peer group in public.

PP again. Meant to say differences, not benefits, above in bold.

[Anonymous]

I agree w everything PP, we also made the switch from a strong ES to private in lower school. Because public’s spending about double the time on math and reading than play based privates they are ahead there until 5 th or 6th grade when things get more academic at privates.

We switched for sports purposes and wanted a smaller middle school that ours, grade size wise. So went in with 3rd grade intake. I’d echo having the ECs at the school is much easier than driving multiple kids around at 3pm every day.

More days off in private. Shorter days at school and about 8-10 less yearly days of school.

Community great in both our public and private. Our neighborhood is about 2/3, 1/3 and all swim on same summer team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree w everything PP, we also made the switch from a strong ES to private in lower school. Because public’s spending about double the time on math and reading than play based privates they are ahead there until 5 th or 6th grade when things get more academic at privates.

We switched for sports purposes and wanted a smaller middle school that ours, grade size wise. So went in with 3rd grade intake. I’d echo having the ECs at the school is much easier than driving multiple kids around at 3pm every day.

More days off in private. Shorter days at school and about 8-10 less yearly days of school.

Community great in both our public and private. Our neighborhood is about 2/3, 1/3 and all swim on same summer team.

PP here. I forgot to mention this! This has been a bit of a challenge, especially because the breaks don't align with the publics. We are not the jet-setting types, and can't take off for somewhere during each break, although we do take a week or so.

However, next year, there will be better alignment between our private and DCPS, which means more choices for camps etc. while we're working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

-Environment of achievement. At the beginning of the year DD commented that one of the reasons she enjoys her school so much is because everyone wants to be there and work hard. HUGE difference from her public school. She doesn’t have to deal with always being seated next to the class clown because she was always on task and “balanced the group”.

This is the comment I hear the most from parents who have shifted their kids to private.

[Anonymous]

My child is in a lower school and has benefitted in many of the ways we expected and some unexpected. Expected ways include smaller class size (14 versus 25), greater individualization of material, faculty who invest in the children and know their strengths and weaknesses, a full curriculum including foreign language daily, science and history, real PE (not teachers letting kids play outside) and even recess. Unexpected ways include improved motivation to excel with others who want to excel and closer friendships with kids who will be together for 8 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Funny how public v private pretty much makes zero difference when actually out in the workforce. I see no evidence that private school kids in my field are better critical thinkers, etc.

What workforce are you referring too? What field?
Presumably everyone has gone to college before coming to your workforce or are we talking about working at the Dunkin Donuts?

Also, top students might have gone off to med school , academia , a startup company or to non profits whereas you work in sales and that’s not particularly relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Funny how public v private pretty much makes zero difference when actually out in the workforce. I see no evidence that private school kids in my field are better critical thinkers, etc.

What workforce are you referring too? What field?
Presumably everyone has gone to college before coming to your workforce or are we talking about working at the Dunkin Donuts?

Also, top students might have gone off to med school , academia , a startup company or to non profits whereas you work in sales and that’s not particularly relevant.

NP. Not sure why sales wouldn't be relevant. Sales jobs can be very lucrative and many of them require a college education. More importantly, plenty of folks in med school, academia, etc have come through public. I assume that was PP's point.

[Anonymous]

Biggest difference for us going from public to private was parent involvement, in a good way.

At public there were a lot of disruptive kids. Not learning disabled or special needs, just kids that take up a lot of time with discipline. The parents seemed to be oblivious or not care. Seemed like all the kids that wanted to learn ended up just sitting around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Biggest difference for us going from public to private was parent involvement, in a good way.

At public there were a lot of disruptive kids. Not learning disabled or special needs, just kids that take up a lot of time with discipline. The parents seemed to be oblivious or not care. Seemed like all the kids that wanted to learn ended up just sitting around.

Welcome to the real world! People suck. Sending your kid to private is sheltering them. They will eventually enter the workforce and even if they go and work for Google or Goldman Sachs they will be working alongside people who went to public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Funny how public v private pretty much makes zero difference when actually out in the workforce. I see no evidence that private school kids in my field are better critical thinkers, etc.

What workforce are you referring too? What field?
Presumably everyone has gone to college before coming to your workforce or are we talking about working at the Dunkin Donuts?

Also, top students might have gone off to med school , academia , a startup company or to non profits whereas you work in sales and that’s not particularly relevant.

NP. Not sure why sales wouldn't be relevant. Sales jobs can be very lucrative and many of them require a college education. More importantly, plenty of folks in med school, academia, etc have come through public. I assume that was PP's point.

The skill set needed for sales jobs can be reaped from both public and private schools.
The skill set needed to be a Supreme Court Justice seems to require a high level education of some sort whether that is private school or self study, it’s more than the public school would be providing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Biggest difference for us going from public to private was parent involvement, in a good way.

At public there were a lot of disruptive kids. Not learning disabled or special needs, just kids that take up a lot of time with discipline. The parents seemed to be oblivious or not care. Seemed like all the kids that wanted to learn ended up just sitting around.

Welcome to the real world! People suck. Sending your kid to private is sheltering them. They will eventually enter the workforce and even if they go and work for Google or Goldman Sachs they will be working alongside people who went to public school.

But if you are disruptive there you are getting fired. Is that sheltering people? It’s fine to be sheltered while developing your brain for the future.
We can all ride the metro with every crazy under the sun later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Funny how public v private pretty much makes zero difference when actually out in the workforce. I see no evidence that private school kids in my field are better critical thinkers, etc.

I’ve chosen private because I want DD to enjoy her educational experience- something that was not happening in her public school. What will happen later (in terms of college and career) is not our focus right now.

+1000. Seriously not doing this in order to give my kid a workplace advantage.

I went to a “great” public and had a miserable experience. My kid is at a great private and loves school. Could he be this happy at the right public? Quite possibly. But choosing the right public isn’t easy. We looked at half a dozen private schools; it would be pretty hard to do that with publics, and then buy a house (!) in the target area. We’re happy with our choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Biggest difference for us going from public to private was parent involvement, in a good way.

At public there were a lot of disruptive kids. Not learning disabled or special needs, just kids that take up a lot of time with discipline. The parents seemed to be oblivious or not care. Seemed like all the kids that wanted to learn ended up just sitting around.

Parents were oblivious because schools don't mention this stuff to parents until they move way up the discipline ladder, but that takes something much more serious than being a class clown. They may mention it in the 5 minute parent teacher conference, but there really isn't enough time to cover that if the kid is also struggling academically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Funny how public v private pretty much makes zero difference when actually out in the workforce. I see no evidence that private school kids in my field are better critical thinkers, etc.

What workforce are you referring too? What field?
Presumably everyone has gone to college before coming to your workforce or are we talking about working at the Dunkin Donuts?

Also, top students might have gone off to med school , academia , a startup company or to non profits whereas you work in sales and that’s not particularly relevant.

NP. Not sure why sales wouldn't be relevant. Sales jobs can be very lucrative and many of them require a college education. More importantly, plenty of folks in med school, academia, etc have come through public. I assume that was PP's point.

The skill set needed for sales jobs can be reaped from both public and private schools.
The skill set needed to be a Supreme Court Justice seems to require a high level education of some sort whether that is private school or self study, it’s more than the public school would be providing.

That's an insane comment. I don't know any SC Justices, but I know many of their clerks, arguably the next best thing. Quite a few of them went to public schools, before in most cases going to fancy law schools and often colleges. And I went to the type of law school where you befriend lots of SC clerks and I and many of my friends went public.