Please enlighten us public school parents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone defines "better" differently. Pointless discussion.

I define "better" as "more diverse" so public will almost always be better for us. I just don't want my children going to school with almost all rich children, even if it would mean they got more art class.

Totally. I went to one of the elite private schools mentioned in this thread and got an unparalleled education most of the time...but the rape culture was real, and celebrated, and not unrelated to the wealth of my cohort's parents. My kids go to a charter in large part because I do not want them to be exclusively surrounded by big-law and lobbyist progeny. I admit that I may revisit this decision come 6th grade, but right now the diversity outweighs the kiln.

I went to one of the basic public schools like the ones mentioned in the DC Schools Forum, and got an education most of the time .... but the thug culture was real, and celebrated, and not unrelated to the welfare status of my cohort's parent. My kids go to an independent school in large part because I do not want them to be exclusively surrounded by the progeny of single women on TANF and guys who settle beefs by shooting innocent bystanders on DC streets. I admit that I'll revisit this decision when I'm retirement planning, but right now, the safety my kids enjoy in an environment where 100% of the students come prepared to learn is more important than bean counting skin tones to assuage my liberal guilt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone defines "better" differently. Pointless discussion.

I define "better" as "more diverse" so public will almost always be better for us. I just don't want my children going to school with almost all rich children, even if it would mean they got more art class.

Totally. I went to one of the elite private schools mentioned in this thread and got an unparalleled education most of the time...but the rape culture was real, and celebrated, and not unrelated to the wealth of my cohort's parents. My kids go to a charter in large part because I do not want them to be exclusively surrounded by big-law and lobbyist progeny. I admit that I may revisit this decision come 6th grade, but right now the diversity outweighs the kiln.

I went to one of the basic public schools like the ones mentioned in the DC Schools Forum, and got an education most of the time .... but the thug culture was real, and celebrated, and not unrelated to the welfare status of my cohort's parent. My kids go to an independent school in large part because I do not want them to be exclusively surrounded by the progeny of single women on TANF and guys who settle beefs by shooting innocent bystanders on DC streets. I admit that I'll revisit this decision when I'm retirement planning, but right now, the safety my kids enjoy in an environment where 100% of the students come prepared to learn is more important than bean counting skin tones to assuage my liberal guilt.

Yes, many urban pioneers are affluent whites, and many from poor backgrounds sacrifice to put their kids in the best schools. Nothing new really.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Rape culture, ha, life is rape culture be it physical, Financial or environmental. In every transaction somebody is doing the fucking or getting fucked. The ones with the biggest profit often means ignoring the other parties wishes/consent. I rather a kid learn it in school then later in life besides people need to teach their daughters not to be easy pickings consensual or not. Let's not pretend that women's freedom of sexual choice isn't a relativity new phenomenon for our species, hell it hasn't even spread to all countries yet. Rape culture is simply people doing what people do with girls not educated about what is really goin on in our sexually repressed culture that swears it isn't. Teach your girls what boys want and how they try to get it while instilling enough self worth that she doesn't try to buy friends with blow jobs and hope for the best. Rape culture isn't going anywhere (and is as old as time) you can only try not to make your daughters the "easy" targets.

Christ, lay off the booze and the Ayn Rand, already.

It's also bullshit from a historical perspective. Rape culture coincided with agriculture, circa 6,000 B.C., or so; before that, females were just as likely as males to hold dominant positions in the society, as strong contributions from both genders were needed to ensure functioning the hunter-gatherer system. Once humans established permanent station, males of the aggressive type discovered they could pound physical weaklings into submission, literally and figuratively. Parents, teach your girls to eschew prominent brow ridges and excessive testosterone in their males. You'll be doing your grandchildren a favor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have taught at both private and public elementary schools in DC and one private school in NOVA. The average class sizes at the two private schools where I taught were 26 and 30 students. The average class size at my current DCPS school is 19. Teacher quality is better at the DCPS school and there is more hands-on learning and use of a variety of classroom materials (heavy on the textbooks at the private schools). All schools where I have taught have had end of the year standardized tests. It is true that DCPS tests more frequently throughout the year.

C'mon. by "private" school you mean to actually say "parish k-8 school," right? I cannot think of a single independent school "in DC" that has 30 students in the class. Parents paying $30-40,000 a year would never, ever stand for that.

Catholic schools, of course, do have class sizes that big.

[Anonymous]

What private has 26 - 30 kids in a classroom? If you mean a Catholic school, that isn't the same as a private, and they are known for having large classes. Privates usually have 12-15 max in a classroom.

My kids' privates have 12 max in the classroom, and have mid-terms and finals (they are in MS and US). The took ERBs in LS, but don't take any standardized tests now. My US kid is prepping for the SAT and ACT, and sits for AP exams in May. But aside from AP courses, the teachers aren't doing prep for standardized tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everything you listed, plus no testing. I can only speak to my personal experience, but I feel like public schools are more concerned with seeing kids pass than to see them excel. Private schools expect more from the students and parents. But there's absolutely disadvantages. Fewer extracurriculars, costs a ton, and little support for differentiated learning.

Neither model is better, really. It just depends on the kid.

Which private schools don't test? I know that many schools have their kids take the ERB's, and later a number of AP's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. The "good ones" are the ones that strive for diversity AND have big endowments to back it up. A struggling school can't do that.

A couple of tokens does not a system make. The good ones have the kids of the movers and shakers. Last I looked that wasn't exactly a diverse group. But you say the leet the kid in with the fast 40 time, that's gotta count for something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Rape culture, ha, life is rape culture be it physical, Financial or environmental. In every transaction somebody is doing the fucking or getting fucked. The ones with the biggest profit often means ignoring the other parties wishes/consent. I rather a kid learn it in school then later in life besides people need to teach their daughters not to be easy pickings consensual or not. Let's not pretend that women's freedom of sexual choice isn't a relativity new phenomenon for our species, hell it hasn't even spread to all countries yet. Rape culture is simply people doing what people do with girls not educated about what is really goin on in our sexually repressed culture that swears it isn't. Teach your girls what boys want and how they try to get it while instilling enough self worth that she doesn't try to buy friends with blow jobs and hope for the best. Rape culture isn't going anywhere (and is as old as time) you can only try not to make your daughters the "easy" targets.

Christ, lay off the booze and the Ayn Rand, already.

It's also bullshit from a historical perspective. Rape culture coincided with agriculture, circa 6,000 B.C., or so; before that, females were just as likely as males to hold dominant positions in the society, as strong contributions from both genders were needed to ensure functioning the hunter-gatherer system. Once humans established permanent station, males of the aggressive type discovered they could pound physical weaklings into submission, literally and figuratively. Parents, teach your girls to eschew prominent brow ridges and excessive testosterone in their males. You'll be doing your grandchildren a favor.

This is an uneducated guess at best and not backed up by human nature. I am not even aware of any setteled circumstantial evidence to support this nonsense. Females have always been as safe as the males around them asserted they are, the only thing that has changed is how modern men assert compliance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well then, it is established that when comparing outstanding public schools (comparison among publics, no claims to private "quality") against privates what you are paying for with private is an elite cohort, guaranteed class sizes and really nice facilities.

So if you have been lucky/strategic enough to send your child to a public school with great facilities and your child is not one to fall through the cracks, you are paying for an elite cohort. That is fine and I am happy to say that my child's excellent public school is not, in fact, "just like private but for free"

Uh, no, there's more. I don't want to out my kids' independent school by posting the document, but the humanities curriculum in no way whatsoever resembles the one presented at Murch, then Deal, our IB schools (except for math). Then there's the science program, which is a little more similar to DCPS curriculum, but they meet 4x a week in ES and 5x a week in MS.

Also, the kids have had real, but not immersive, foreign language instruction since kindergarten. During the school day, multiple times a week.

Just fixing some incorrect implications: Murch (starting in 3rd) and Deal have Science 5x/week with dedicated science teachers. PK and K have science integrated though out the day. First and Second have alternating units of science 5x week. Murch and Deal both have "real" foreign language instruction from preK, during the day, Murch 1x/wk and Deal 5x/week for three years, resulting in 2 high school language credits by 8th grade, allowing students to start high school at Level III (including those who predate the ES language curriculum). Also, neither school has "presented" a "humanities curriculum," so not sure what you were using as your comparison (and, of course, I know nothing about your unnamed school's curriculum since you don't want to "out it" -- but hey, go ahead and "out" false information about other schools). But yes, both Murch and Deal are very strong in math with targeted, differentiated, and, when appropriate, compressed instruction, plus enrichment.

There are more great things about the schools, but I just wanted to correct PP's errors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone defines "better" differently. Pointless discussion.

I define "better" as "more diverse" so public will almost always be better for us. I just don't want my children going to school with almost all rich children, even if it would mean they got more art class.

Totally. I went to one of the elite private schools mentioned in this thread and got an unparalleled education most of the time...but the rape culture was real, and celebrated, and not unrelated to the wealth of my cohort's parents. My kids go to a charter in large part because I do not want them to be exclusively surrounded by big-law and lobbyist progeny. I admit that I may revisit this decision come 6th grade, but right now the diversity outweighs the kiln.

Elite private school has given you the option to play poor urbanite in the charter system. The charter system will most likely take that choice away form your kids.

Rape culture, ha, life is rape culture be it physical, Financial or environmental. In every transaction somebody is doing the fucking or getting fucked. The ones with the biggest profit often means ignoring the other parties wishes/consent. I rather a kid learn it in school then later in life besides people need to teach their daughters not to be easy pickings consensual or not. Let's not pretend that women's freedom of sexual choice isn't a relativity new phenomenon for our species, hell it hasn't even spread to all countries yet. Rape culture is simply people doing what people do with girls not educated about what is really goin on in our sexually repressed culture that swears it isn't. Teach your girls what boys want and how they try to get it while instilling enough self worth that she doesn't try to buy friends with blow jobs and hope for the best. Rape culture isn't going anywhere (and is as old as time) you can only try not to make your daughters the "easy" targets.

Geez. I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

[Anonymous]

This had to be a "free post" because the difference is what you make it out to be to fit your stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Rape culture, ha, life is rape culture be it physical, Financial or environmental. In every transaction somebody is doing the fucking or getting fucked. The ones with the biggest profit often means ignoring the other parties wishes/consent. I rather a kid learn it in school then later in life besides people need to teach their daughters not to be easy pickings consensual or not. Let's not pretend that women's freedom of sexual choice isn't a relativity new phenomenon for our species, hell it hasn't even spread to all countries yet. Rape culture is simply people doing what people do with girls not educated about what is really goin on in our sexually repressed culture that swears it isn't. Teach your girls what boys want and how they try to get it while instilling enough self worth that she doesn't try to buy friends with blow jobs and hope for the best. Rape culture isn't going anywhere (and is as old as time) you can only try not to make your daughters the "easy" targets.

Christ, lay off the booze and the Ayn Rand, already.

It's also bullshit from a historical perspective. Rape culture coincided with agriculture, circa 6,000 B.C., or so; before that, females were just as likely as males to hold dominant positions in the society, as strong contributions from both genders were needed to ensure functioning the hunter-gatherer system. Once humans established permanent station, males of the aggressive type discovered they could pound physical weaklings into submission, literally and figuratively. Parents, teach your girls to eschew prominent brow ridges and excessive testosterone in their males. You'll be doing your grandchildren a favor.

This is an uneducated guess at best and not backed up by human nature. I am not even aware of any setteled circumstantial evidence to support this nonsense. Females have always been as safe as the males around them asserted they are, the only thing that has changed is how modern men assert compliance.

F.U.:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0515/140515-sex-equality-hunter-gatherer-societies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:18:16 here

My kids' private schools are more diverse than many public schools that have few OOB kids. More kids of color, and thanks to large endowments and great FA, kids from many different SES levels. In the DC area, it's a myth that all privates are filled with rich white kids.

Yes, this. My kids went to a 10 rated md public and now go to privates. The true effect of testing isn't felt until fourth or fifth grade when the tests alone take up three weeks of the public school year. The next biggest difference was class size. My public school kept class sizes small through second then they jumped to about 30 kids in a class(and would only get bigger in middle and up). This year they each of classes of 14 kids in private and that will be the average class size all the way through, although the grade will get bigger. There is more emphasis on public speaking and community service, with the older kids interacting with the younger on a daily basis. The school day is longer so they have more time for specials and recess. They have dedicated science rooms with teachers who only teach science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well then, it is established that when comparing outstanding public schools (comparison among publics, no claims to private "quality") against privates what you are paying for with private is an elite cohort, guaranteed class sizes and really nice facilities.

So if you have been lucky/strategic enough to send your child to a public school with great facilities and your child is not one to fall through the cracks, you are paying for an elite cohort. That is fine and I am happy to say that my child's excellent public school is not, in fact, "just like private but for free"

Uh, no, there's more. I don't want to out my kids' independent school by posting the document, but the humanities curriculum in no way whatsoever resembles the one presented at Murch, then Deal, our IB schools (except for math). Then there's the science program, which is a little more similar to DCPS curriculum, but they meet 4x a week in ES and 5x a week in MS.

Also, the kids have had real, but not immersive, foreign language instruction since kindergarten. During the school day, multiple times a week.

Just fixing some incorrect implications: Murch (starting in 3rd) and Deal have Science 5x/week with dedicated science teachers. PK and K have science integrated though out the day. First and Second have alternating units of science 5x week. Murch and Deal both have "real" foreign language instruction from preK, during the day, Murch 1x/wk and Deal 5x/week for three years, resulting in 2 high school language credits by 8th grade, allowing students to start high school at Level III (including those who predate the ES language curriculum). Also, neither school has "presented" a "humanities curriculum," so not sure what you were using as your comparison (and, of course, I know nothing about your unnamed school's curriculum since you don't want to "out it" -- but hey, go ahead and "out" false information about other schools). But yes, both Murch and Deal are very strong in math with targeted, differentiated, and, when appropriate, compressed instruction, plus enrichment.

There are more great things about the schools, but I just wanted to correct PP's errors.

Don't all middle schools offer some type of foreign language and dedicated science teachers? It is more unique to find at the elementary level and that is what private school posters at present referring to.

[Anonymous]

Have had kids at both ( but both now in private). We prefer private for these reasons:

-Selective admissions procedures (generally speaking, this leads to a talented student population with less disruption in the classroom).
-Small class size with more experienced teachers in the classroom.
-Diversity (more meaningful diversity -economic, racial, religious, and sexual orientation- across the board because admissions makes it happen).
-Better overall facilities.
-More invested and happy faculty/staff.
-Much better communication as the child progresses through the years.
-Wonderful community and parental involvement.
-MUCH more organized (organized special events and parent-teacher conferences far more organized and thoughtful).