Is private school REALLY different than public school??
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Anonymous
Yes. It is more personalized. I attended both public and private schools as a child and have taught in both public and private. I had the liberty to adjust my curriculum as necessary to meet the needs of students in private. I had the freedom to adjust my schedule to teach to mastery and to add units that my students were interested in rather than having to stick to prescribed curriculum. In public they want you to stick to the schedule and refer any children who simply need more time to learn. Publick keeps teachers so overwhelmed with paperwork and mandates and meetings that planning, preparation and building relationships with families is near impossible. Just make sure that the private is a good fit because everything isn't for everyone.
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Anonymous
| I think it depends on what your kid needs. My son attended public school for K-2nd and it was really not a bad school. But he is a shy and anxious kid and has really thrived on the more individualized attention available in a smaller class at his private school. He was a bit lost in the crowd at public. |
Anonymous
I disagree with you. All children need a few minutes to rest after recess even if it is just a quiet time to read with soft music playing in the background. To deny a child that time of the day is not taking into account the needs of all learners. |
Anonymous
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My kids have been to both, one was in public through 4 th, the other just through 1st. The big motivator to move was that our. Highly ranked public (10 rated, three percent FARMS) in Baltimore County stopped having homogenous classes for math and language arts and moved to a heterogenous class room, which just doesn't work well with 25 to 30 kids in a class. Parents had no say in the decision and no real recourse given that decisions are made on a county wide basis in Maryland. The curriculum was tightly controlled by the county as well.
My kids have more recess and specials like a foreign language, science with a dedicated teacher who teaches only that subject for elementary schools, tech with dedicated maker space rooms, gym much more frequently and real sports are taught, as opposed to the dodge ball and tag that was the norm in our public. Teachers have full control over the curriculum, and there is no teaching towards a test. The school day is longer. The facilities are eons better. Class sizes are half or less than we had in public. Athletics teams are required in middle and high school so there are opportunities for all kids to participate. |
Anonymous
Forgot to mention that public speaking is part of the curriculum as well. |
Anonymous
| I have had experience at both, and I just can't feel comfortable with how very undemocratic the private school was. They talked so warmly about "community," but I don't believe there is such thing as a real community you have to pay $30k a year to join. They talked about joy and play in the classroom, but behind the scenes were parents ruthlessly jockeying to get their kids into better math groups, tutors, meds to be the best. They talked of inclusivity and diversity but it only meant children of all races whose parents were corporate lawyers. We were just not sold. It all felt like marketing. |
Anonymous
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So much of this depends on the kid and the school, of course. There are kids who will do great anywhere, which is why you will see folks saying that their child is thriving even in a high needs public school - because that's a kid who would thrive pretty much anywhere.
Then there are kids who need something different. The problem I see is that sometimes the "something different" is too different. One of my kids is in a small progressive private and the other day I was in the 3rd grade classroom. There were kids who STILL struggled to write their names legibly. This is not a school known for taking kids with learning differences, just a place where they let kids basically set their own timeline and curriculum. A third grader that can't write their own name is not a thing I can imagine happening at a public school (or at least the public schools DCUM parents use), because those kids would be referred for services and given support to get up to grade level. But this school takes such a laizzez-faire approach of letting "kids be kids" that I wonder if some of these kids will ever achieve their potential. |
Anonymous
I also have experiences with having children in both DCPS and private schools in NW DC. I will say that we have had phenomenal teachers in both public and private. The academics in private have been better- richer, more thorough, greater care taken to deliver material in a meaningful way. My kids in DCPS were given as much, but not more, than they needed to know for testing purposes. It just felt really uninspired. I think the teachers we had at DCPS were fabulous, and would have much preferred to take a different approach to instruction; but their hands were tied. Our experiences in private K vs public K, were more rest time, more outdoor time, more time to explore and be creative. |
Anonymous
This is helpful, thank you. |
Anonymous
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13:26 - this covers it.
I'll add that our private includes a 'character' component that increases expectations of good behavior, encourages kids to do the right thing, not the easy or expedient thing. It needs to be said. One more thing, and you'll call me old-fashioned for this one. I see kids waiting for the public school bus as I drive my DS to his private. They're dressed like slobs, hair is overgrown, they look a mess. Kids at our school are presented nicely, they learn how to speak in front of groups that include classmates, parents and teachers. Appearances and verbal presentations matter. Private schools teach it, public doesn't. |
Anonymous
This just demonstrates that we need to be clear about what we're talking about when we say "private schools." I'm the PP whose child is in a private with 3rd graders who can't write their names legibly, and the teachers seem to think "it'll come when it comes." The kids are super sloppy. SUPER sloppy. Like, pajama pants to school sloppy. |
Anonymous
Please - I had a kid in a private HS. They were all doing what you would consider bad behavior stuff. DC had lots of friends from lots of different private schools and they were all involved in lots of poor behavior. (drinking issues, drugs, etc) Private schools have lots of advantages for a kid but please don't kid yourself that these kids are angels. They're not. With lots of disposable money, and many absent parents there is lots of opportunity for trouble. |
Anonymous
| I see we are still blabbering on and on with certainty about the absolute difference between "public vs private" without naming names. Hint: your experience is still useless to others without identifying the schools. |
Anonymous
Yes, my child attends the German School/Deutsche Schule Washington. Formal reading instruction starts in first grade. All of the classrooms have lots of light and the children are outside in all weather. The head of the SES (their equivalent to American Kindergarten) really understands early childhood development. The school day ends at 1:30. From 1:30-3:10 is the optional afternoon program. I find their approach refreshing! |
Anonymous
As a parent whose kids have both attended public and private schools, I need to point out that both schools taught character. For example, both had anti-bullying curricula and public speaking (if you want to include public speaking as "character", but it sounds like you're driving at a different sort of issue here). Yet there were bullies and bad speakers at both places, which isn't really surprising. Ultimately it's the parents' responsibility to teach character. I would never rely on a school to do it for me. |