I don't understand your post. |
| Lol dcps d c piece of shit |
| Public school sucks. |
| Obviously people who are willing to pay for private feel it has benefit that justify the costs. Since each child is different there is no one answer. One child might get lost in a larger public school class. Another will learn great coping and independence skill that will be his/her ticket to success. As parents we only make the best choices we can... |
Yes, that is why we applied also. |
Well, I did investigate my local school. Here is what I learned that stopped me cold: one in three children in our neighborhood school has a family member currently incarcerated. 33% of the children required IEP's and less than 30% were able to read and write at grade level. The play ground is regularly strewn w/used condoms and broken liquor bottles. There was no art on the walls. This sent me to calling Janey. Murch, and Horace Mann to ask their boundaries. They refused to provide same. Somewhere down the line I got the info and spent every weekend for nearly a year driving through those neighborhoods ( I had drawn the borders on a map) looking for apartment buildings that I could possibly afford. DC was given numbers 98 and 83 respectively in the Cap City and EL Haines Lotteries. DC did not get in at Janey, HM or Murch as out of bounds. Eventually he was taken off a wait list at a wonderful private school and is very happy there. That is how I came to " choose private". |
+1 |
Clearly missed the point. |
I would've moved to Arlington. How were you able to afford private school if you couldn't afford to move? |
Um, I'd assume financial aid. |
Public school teacher here, and that schedule's ridiculous. First of all, public schools around here generally run a 32.5 hour week, not 35 (8 to 3, M - F). Secondly, you say you don't know why kids can't have art or band, but there's no art, music (band or otherwise), library, or foreign language in the schedule you propose. Most public schools have some or all of those things. Third, kids in public or private, need time in the a.m. to transition in, put away their belongings, greet the teacher, have a class meeting, review any schedule changes for the day. They also need to time to close things out and say goodbye. You didn't build any of that in. Finally, 80 minutes a day doesn't work for Reading and language arts together. In a typical day our elementary schoolers get time to read independently on their level (lets say 20 minutes, building the ability to sustain this is really important) and in a small group (another 20 minutes), to listen to a read aloud (10 minutes bare minimum, hopefully more), to participate in a shared reading of a text (10 minutes), to be taught some new skills in phonics, comprehension, and writing (30 minutes divided up into 3 10 minute "mini lessons"), and to spend some time working on a piece of writing (30 minutes). At a bare minimum that takes 2 hours. Our kids get that 2 hours of reading, plus an hour of math, daily science, art, music, PE, Spanish each twice a week, 2 recesses a day, snack and lunch. They do go outside for science activities, PE, and sometimes for lunch, but not usually for reading. We're in an urban neighborhood and between traffic noise, the wind blowing, and sun getting in their eyes, kids get distracted too easily. So they read indoors and play outside. |
I did investigate our specific local school, quite extensively. Unfortunately, it didn't offer the things we want. No foreign language in elementary. Art, music and PE all 1 time a week, 20 minute lunch, 1 30 minute recess. It doesn't really seem to allow kids the opportunity to just be kids. 28 kids per class with 1 teacher. The teaching style was more worksheet/lecture, not much interactive, hands-on learning. That's not the type of environment my kid will be excited about every day. And he's a hand-on type of learner, he won't get as much from the type of instruction offered in public. We would have loved to send our kids to public, but in the end, we felt it wasn't a good option for them and absolutely feel that private is worth every penny. |
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Great - what school is that clearly not mine.
I did not say that was our schedule I was just saying there is room for breaks - which our public school does not have - kids can't play outside when it is cold or god forbid snow on the ground. Lunch is 20 minutes - which is really like 10-15 once they are sitting - wolf the food down - to indoor recess 1/2 the time. Wow - 2 hours of reading, writing and phonics - I hope they do some jumping jacks somewhere in there maybe at the hour mark. I was at a conference and even adults lose interest after sitting for 1 full hour. |
| Sun in their eyes? |
I just had a friend grab an extra car magnet for me. That way the $$ We save in a year's private tuition for 2 kids can pay for my MB wagon. |