Public Vs. Private?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, look what just happened at Potomac. I guess you can say that you want to send your kid to smaller classes for reasons. The kids in these schools often have reasons that a bigger real-world situation won't work for them. And the post is down to respect families which ALWAYS happens with private situations and rarely with the public. Which is the smart thing to do for privates.

What happened at Potomac?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a product of a top dc private school, I couldn’t imagine sending my child anywhere else. I know many now-adults from most of the area public and private schools and there’s a stark difference that has consistently existed since school and is still evident. There’s a reason parents find value in the large expense and it’s not because they’re foolish or elitist.

OK I'll bite. What's this "stark difference"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:23:30 PP here again.

As another PP mentioned above, DC would be overwhelmed in the large MCPS classroom and would not ask a question or ask for help when needed. With the small class size in private, the teachers have helped DC build confidence and help them advocate for themselves. There is no way a teacher with 25 kids would have the time to do that. Overall we have been very pleased with DC's social- emotional as well as academic growth.

As a psychologist, I would like to offer my perspective on your decision to enroll your child in a smaller school to avoid being with more than 25 children. It is important to consider the potential consequences of this decision and whether it is the best choice for your child's long-term development.

Exposure to challenging situations and experiences can help children develop resiliency and coping skills. And while your kid is still living at home, this can be even more helpful as you'll be there to support (hopefully only when 100% needed). While it may be tempting to shield your child from potential difficulties, doing so may prevent them from developing the necessary skills to navigate difficult situations in the future. College life and beyond requires these very skills and many of my patients who didn't learn them as children are having difficulty coping as adults.

I would recommend considering the specific needs and abilities of your child and working with the *larger school as much as you can and perhaps enlisting the help of a therapist to ensure they are appropriately supported and challenged. This is key for your child to develop their social and emotional skills, as these can be important factors in their success both in and out of school.

While it may be difficult to see your child struggle, it is important to remember that challenges and setbacks can be valuable learning opportunities that can help them grow and thrive in the long run.

Nonsense and poppycock.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a product of a top dc private school, I couldn’t imagine sending my child anywhere else. I know many now-adults from most of the area public and private schools and there’s a stark difference that has consistently existed since school and is still evident. There’s a reason parents find value in the large expense and it’s not because they’re foolish or elitist.

OK I'll bite. What's this "stark difference"?

In my experience (as someone who grew up around wealthy people), there are two types of people in the world.

The majority of non-wealthy people and the majority of smart people who have had money for a while see money as a tool that can make life easier. And they know that every group has its social norms, and they are generally pretty easy to learn. They all know that there’s no real difference between social classes beyond their access to the tool that money represents, plus some social norms.

The other group is made of of people who seek validation from their money, the schools they attended, their stuff, or the organizations they pay to belong to. They are generally insecure and don’t have accomplishments in their life that they can rely on for validation of their own worth.

That’s the “stark difference.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child's private upper school class has so much drama. Here's the shortlist: Drugs & drinking (sometimes on campus), eating disorders, bullying, absenteeism, race issues that are getting worse, antisemitism, quirkiest of quirky, mean girls, bro culture, spoiled kids that have no resiliency and a lot of stress, other kids that get away with *a lot* because of who the parents (faculty and big donors), clicky parent groups, disengaged admin team who often has no clue what is happening in classes, parent gossip about each other's kids and yes, some very mediocre teachers with turnover issues. Now tell me about your public woes.

And, MCPS teachers all just got another raise. College outcomes are pretty on par with privates.

College outcomes are NOT on par with top privates. Compare Whitman, Churchill, Langley, etc’s Instagram to the top DC Metro privates. By percentage, the public school students are heading to fewer Ivies and top 10 to 50 colleges. The floor (in terms of college ranking) is higher at top privates

Omg, enough with the trolling of Instagram pages. Do you really have nothing to do? Private schools have such small class sizes, a couple of “hooked” kids more or less makes a big differences in their %ages. You can’t compare.

That’s my point. You are correct, you can’t compare top publics to top privates. That’s why, generally speaking, the college outcomes are not on par.

College outcomes have nothing to do with the quality of an individual student's education in high school. You should know this.

[Anonymous]

Small class sizes, sense of community, relationship with teachers, attention for quiet competent kids that usually fly under the radar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:23:30 PP here again.

As another PP mentioned above, DC would be overwhelmed in the large MCPS classroom and would not ask a question or ask for help when needed. With the small class size in private, the teachers have helped DC build confidence and help them advocate for themselves. There is no way a teacher with 25 kids would have the time to do that. Overall we have been very pleased with DC's social- emotional as well as academic growth.

As a psychologist, I would like to offer my perspective on your decision to enroll your child in a smaller school to avoid being with more than 25 children. It is important to consider the potential consequences of this decision and whether it is the best choice for your child's long-term development.

Exposure to challenging situations and experiences can help children develop resiliency and coping skills. And while your kid is still living at home, this can be even more helpful as you'll be there to support (hopefully only when 100% needed). While it may be tempting to shield your child from potential difficulties, doing so may prevent them from developing the necessary skills to navigate difficult situations in the future. College life and beyond requires these very skills and many of my patients who didn't learn them as children are having difficulty coping as adults.

I would recommend considering the specific needs and abilities of your child and working with the *larger school as much as you can and perhaps enlisting the help of a therapist to ensure they are appropriately supported and challenged. This is key for your child to develop their social and emotional skills, as these can be important factors in their success both in and out of school.

While it may be difficult to see your child struggle, it is important to remember that challenges and setbacks can be valuable learning opportunities that can help them grow and thrive in the long run.

Lol: “take your kid out of a good situation and put them in a stressful situation but then put them in expensive therapy to deal with it”

Sounds about par for the BS advice typically given by “psychologists”

+1 Lets put kids in the worst situations we can find and hope they come out tough instead of traumatized.

[Anonymous]

I taught in a DC private school for seven years without a teaching degree. Not a Big 3, but one often discussed on DCUrbanmoms. Class sizes in the primary section was no larger than 18 students. Sometimes, the groups were great, a good mix of leaders, chatty kids, and hard workers. Sometimes, though, we had kids who could not find their “kind” among the few classmates. One year, I only had nine students (some got pulled out for enrichment/support). Of those nine students, only one would engage in our class discussions. Too many of them were just “there”. There can be a drawback to small classes as well. Keep that in mind.

FWIW, I sent my kids to Catholic k-8 (30 kids per class) and public high school (mid-low tier fcps). They got to see both “worlds” and are doing just fine. Eldest is at a top 25 univ.

[Anonymous]

At our private school, a few kids in my son's class sit in the back and regularly say "I hate school" and look miserable. You can barely get them to say hello at events. I am sure the parents thought that they "needed" the small intimate private for their dear kids.

[Anonymous]

My husband and I went to private schools, our parents went to private schools, and we’re sending our kids to private schools. We didn’t consider public even though we’re in the Whitman cluster, maybe chalk some of this up to long-standing cultural differences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Serious question, what are the benefits of Private school for those in Whitman/Churchill/Wooton/BCC school districts? The public schools are so good, just trying to understand why so many people in these school clusters are choosing private.

If you are moderate or conservative you may not be comfortable with the position MCPS has taken on social justice and gender issues. Many religious privates in the area arguably do not lean so far to the Left and take positions that are more in line with the country as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Families who live in excellent public school districts send their children to privates if the parents themselves went to privates and can’t stand the idea of their kid going to school with the masses. Or, in the alternative, the kid just really needs the smaller class size and extra attention that a private school provides.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a product of a top dc private school, I couldn’t imagine sending my child anywhere else. I know many now-adults from most of the area public and private schools and there’s a stark difference that has consistently existed since school and is still evident. There’s a reason parents find value in the large expense and it’s not because they’re foolish or elitist.

OK I'll bite. What's this "stark difference"?

In my experience (as someone who grew up around wealthy people), there are two types of people in the world.

The majority of non-wealthy people and the majority of smart people who have had money for a while see money as a tool that can make life easier. And they know that every group has its social norms, and they are generally pretty easy to learn. They all know that there’s no real difference between social classes beyond their access to the tool that money represents, plus some social norms.

The other group is made of of people who seek validation from their money, the schools they attended, their stuff, or the organizations they pay to belong to. They are generally insecure and don’t have accomplishments in their life that they can rely on for validation of their own worth.

If you are rich, why not send your kids to private school? You can't take it with you. Why not invest in your kids and gave them every advantage possible and the most enjoyable childhood years?

That’s the “stark difference.”

[Anonymous]

If you are rich, why not send your kids to private school? You can't take it with you. Why not invest in your kids and gave them every advantage possible and the most enjoyable childhood years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are rich, why not send your kids to private school? You can't take it with you. Why not invest in your kids and gave them every advantage possible and the most enjoyable childhood years?

My kids are having the worst time in their public school. They are not having the most enjoyable time in their childhood years. It's been stolen from them. The public is awful.