If money was not an issue would you do Private School?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even when money was an issue we chose private schools for our children. It has been worth every penny. I firmly believe that our children are better educated than they would have been at our local public schools AND we very much appreciate that our children have been in schools where the families have similar value systems. Don't mistake value systems for diversity. The schools have been satisfactorily diverse (important to us because we are a multi-racial family and we wanted our children to feel like they belonged) but it is the similarity in values, social mores and ethics that have been the most important to us. We would have paid any amount of money for our children to be in the private schools we chose for them.

When people say value system I hear religion or wonder what exactly are these “ values, social mores and ethics” that you’re looking for that aren’t found in publics?

By values I suspect that they mean the schools can weed out the kids with more serious ADHD/LDs and other issues that might cause disruptions, minor or major, in the classroom or slow the class down academically.

Private schools use intelligence tests and interviews and applications to choose their students. Do you think that they are aiming for the kids who they can predict are going to struggle with academics or behavior? Nope.

The parents will tell you that everyone at their school values education and are willing to pay to be in a classroom with no, or limited distractions. They are happy to report that the problem kid normally isn't invited back the next year because they caused issues or that the kid who is struggling with math is not invited back and the class can work at a normal pace.

They don't want to send their kid to public schools because public schools have to educate the kids with LDs and ADHD and the disruptive kids who slow the class down.

They also tend to ignore that the number of kids from public school who end up at the same college as their kid who went to private school is pretty high and that those public school kids tend to do as well as their private school counterparts in classes and the like.

And that is fine, if people want to pay for that, good for them. Have at it. But short of wanting a religious education, values is code for "kids without any issues so that our classes run smoothly and the school boots the troublemakers."

I wouldn't mind paying for a private school where my kid who is ahead in school could be with other kids like himself and where the pace of the class moved far more quickly then what it does right now. For the record, the normal private school is not a good fit for my kid because many of the private schools are not great with differentiation. It costs a ton for parents of kids with LDs/ADHD/ASD/Gifted kids to send their kids to schools that are developed specifically for kids with those traits. The price tag is in the $40,000 or higher for those schools. It is kind of crazy.

Such BS, both of my children were private school students (K-12) in big three schools, bottom line, the school pointed out to me these disabilities and provided accomadtions and testing recommendation. Very supportive environment for LDs and ADHD as Potomac school has been for my nephew who has dyslexia and adhd. You are so unbelievably wrong with the religious aspect as well, no religious classes taught at my children's schools until they were in high school and studied world religions on a very light basis. You need to go away with your jealousy.

[Anonymous]

accommodations. ugh spell check.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even when money was an issue we chose private schools for our children. It has been worth every penny. I firmly believe that our children are better educated than they would have been at our local public schools AND we very much appreciate that our children have been in schools where the families have similar value systems. Don't mistake value systems for diversity. The schools have been satisfactorily diverse (important to us because we are a multi-racial family and we wanted our children to feel like they belonged) but it is the similarity in values, social mores and ethics that have been the most important to us. We would have paid any amount of money for our children to be in the private schools we chose for them.

When people say value system I hear religion or wonder what exactly are these “ values, social mores and ethics” that you’re looking for that aren’t found in publics?

By values I suspect that they mean the schools can weed out the kids with more serious ADHD/LDs and other issues that might cause disruptions, minor or major, in the classroom or slow the class down academically.

Private schools use intelligence tests and interviews and applications to choose their students. Do you think that they are aiming for the kids who they can predict are going to struggle with academics or behavior? Nope.

The parents will tell you that everyone at their school values education and are willing to pay to be in a classroom with no, or limited distractions. They are happy to report that the problem kid normally isn't invited back the next year because they caused issues or that the kid who is struggling with math is not invited back and the class can work at a normal pace.

They don't want to send their kid to public schools because public schools have to educate the kids with LDs and ADHD and the disruptive kids who slow the class down.

They also tend to ignore that the number of kids from public school who end up at the same college as their kid who went to private school is pretty high and that those public school kids tend to do as well as their private school counterparts in classes and the like.

And that is fine, if people want to pay for that, good for them. Have at it. But short of wanting a religious education, values is code for "kids without any issues so that our classes run smoothly and the school boots the troublemakers."

I wouldn't mind paying for a private school where my kid who is ahead in school could be with other kids like himself and where the pace of the class moved far more quickly then what it does right now. For the record, the normal private school is not a good fit for my kid because many of the private schools are not great with differentiation. It costs a ton for parents of kids with LDs/ADHD/ASD/Gifted kids to send their kids to schools that are developed specifically for kids with those traits. The price tag is in the $40,000 or higher for those schools. It is kind of crazy.

Such BS, both of my children were private school students (K-12) in big three schools, bottom line, the school pointed out to me these disabilities and provided accomadtions and testing recommendation. Very supportive environment for LDs and ADHD as Potomac school has been for my nephew who has dyslexia and adhd. You are so unbelievably wrong with the religious aspect as well, no religious classes taught at my children's schools until they were in high school and studied world religions on a very light basis. You need to go away with your jealousy.

There are some schools which cost 40k+ that are geared towards children with language-based learning differences. However, most private schools can handle learning differences were aren't severe. My child with dyslexia is in catholic school on an accommodations plan (similar to a 504) and my older daughter is at an independent school which was more exclusive admissions wise with supports in place for ADHD. We had to pay for the evaluation for her and follow through with what the school was requesting, but the school has been great in supporting her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even when money was an issue we chose private schools for our children. It has been worth every penny. I firmly believe that our children are better educated than they would have been at our local public schools AND we very much appreciate that our children have been in schools where the families have similar value systems. Don't mistake value systems for diversity. The schools have been satisfactorily diverse (important to us because we are a multi-racial family and we wanted our children to feel like they belonged) but it is the similarity in values, social mores and ethics that have been the most important to us. We would have paid any amount of money for our children to be in the private schools we chose for them.

When people say value system I hear religion or wonder what exactly are these “ values, social mores and ethics” that you’re looking for that aren’t found in publics?

By values I suspect that they mean the schools can weed out the kids with more serious ADHD/LDs and other issues that might cause disruptions, minor or major, in the classroom or slow the class down academically.

Private schools use intelligence tests and interviews and applications to choose their students. Do you think that they are aiming for the kids who they can predict are going to struggle with academics or behavior? Nope.

The parents will tell you that everyone at their school values education and are willing to pay to be in a classroom with no, or limited distractions. They are happy to report that the problem kid normally isn't invited back the next year because they caused issues or that the kid who is struggling with math is not invited back and the class can work at a normal pace.

They don't want to send their kid to public schools because public schools have to educate the kids with LDs and ADHD and the disruptive kids who slow the class down.

They also tend to ignore that the number of kids from public school who end up at the same college as their kid who went to private school is pretty high and that those public school kids tend to do as well as their private school counterparts in classes and the like.

And that is fine, if people want to pay for that, good for them. Have at it. But short of wanting a religious education, values is code for "kids without any issues so that our classes run smoothly and the school boots the troublemakers."

I wouldn't mind paying for a private school where my kid who is ahead in school could be with other kids like himself and where the pace of the class moved far more quickly then what it does right now. For the record, the normal private school is not a good fit for my kid because many of the private schools are not great with differentiation. It costs a ton for parents of kids with LDs/ADHD/ASD/Gifted kids to send their kids to schools that are developed specifically for kids with those traits. The price tag is in the $40,000 or higher for those schools. It is kind of crazy.

Such BS, both of my children were private school students (K-12) in big three schools, bottom line, the school pointed out to me these disabilities and provided accomadtions and testing recommendation. Very supportive environment for LDs and ADHD as Potomac school has been for my nephew who has dyslexia and adhd. You are so unbelievably wrong with the religious aspect as well, no religious classes taught at my children's schools until they were in high school and studied world religions on a very light basis. You need to go away with your jealousy.

There are some schools which cost 40k+ that are geared towards children with language-based learning differences. However, most private schools can handle learning differences were aren't severe. My child with dyslexia is in catholic school on an accommodations plan (similar to a 504) and my older daughter is at an independent school which was more exclusive admissions wise with supports in place for ADHD. We had to pay for the evaluation for her and follow through with what the school was requesting, but the school has been great in supporting her.

$40K is nutso, but what's more nutso is that the state of our public education often makes that $40K+ yet totally worth it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I figure the majority of responses on these threads are trolls. My kids are in private school now. They were in public elementary and it didn't go so great. My expectations for public education were way too high for what it actually was.

I can't imagine going back to public. It's strange people think it isn't worth it. We have never looked back. Smaller classes, agility during covid, less politics, more funding and more opportunities.

Where are these unicorn public schools everyone goes to? We didn't have this experience in Annapolis.

Our public we are happy with is in Illinois. Math offerings better than our DC private, language arts are great (lots of writing and explicit grammar instruction), daily PE, 2x/week art/music, 1x/week tech/library. Class sizes are decent (22 or less for all my kids, this may be better in some privates depending on the school). Experienced teachers. We have been happy and feel our needs and wants are being met, including some of the things we specifically went private for in the DMV. IL has a large handful of public districts that the DCUM crowd would probably consider acceptable...? NY, NJ, CT, PA, MA, possibly other parts of NE, and also liked many other suburban areas in the sun belt, midwest, CO, etc. all have at least some districts like this. IMHO, this type of smaller district serves kids like mine very well. Feels like a medium between DC area privates and DMV publics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I figure the majority of responses on these threads are trolls. My kids are in private school now. They were in public elementary and it didn't go so great. My expectations for public education were way too high for what it actually was.

I can't imagine going back to public. It's strange people think it isn't worth it. We have never looked back. Smaller classes, agility during covid, less politics, more funding and more opportunities.

Where are these unicorn public schools everyone goes to? We didn't have this experience in Annapolis.

Our public we are happy with is in Illinois. Math offerings better than our DC private, language arts are great (lots of writing and explicit grammar instruction), daily PE, 2x/week art/music, 1x/week tech/library. Class sizes are decent (22 or less for all my kids, this may be better in some privates depending on the school). Experienced teachers. We have been happy and feel our needs and wants are being met, including some of the things we specifically went private for in the DMV. IL has a large handful of public districts that the DCUM crowd would probably consider acceptable...? NY, NJ, CT, PA, MA, possibly other parts of NE, and also liked many other suburban areas in the sun belt, midwest, CO, etc. all have at least some districts like this. IMHO, this type of smaller district serves kids like mine very well. Feels like a medium between DC area privates and DMV publics.

Yes, the key is the small town-based districts. Not the gargantuan ones that serve 200k kids (not very well). I really wish they would cut them down in size

[Anonymous]

Hahah enjoy that stupid twelve years of mandatory PE

New Trier and Oak Park/RF are going down the tubes anyway

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe in public education

Will you restrict to public colleges?

[Anonymous]

Assuming the kids could gain admission to one of the several private schools we think would be a good fit, yes.

While I believe strongly that public education should be available as an option for all, going private for our kids would not conflict with this in my view since I would still be paying our fair share of taxes to support our public district.