Why did you choose private school over the local public school?

[Anonymous]

Because public has 30 kids/class, too much attention spent on standardized testing and lack of communications between teacher/parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because public has 30 kids/class, too much attention spent on standardized testing and lack of communications between teacher/parent.

None of those three things describe the public-school educations of my two children in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

We chose private school for the diversity in students and teachers. I just read this quick blurb in the Post that discusses Montgomery County's new teacher diversity initiative. It shows over the last 10 years how the workforce has gone from 80% white to 76% white.

For me it was important for my kids to have at least one teacher in their school that looked like them. They never had it in public school. Ever. They've had plenty diversity in their private schools.

[Anonymous]

For the very small classes.

This, I hope, fostered confidence in my child as the class was too small for the type of cliques and exclusion that can sometimes negatively affect one. The small class size also permitted the teacher to focus more individual attention on the students, and make adjustments for each child as needed. It made DCs very strong in math and science.

For the bilingual education.

DCs are fully fluent in two languages, and one is getting there in his/her third, what a gift.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because public has 30 kids/class, too much attention spent on standardized testing and lack of communications between teacher/parent.

None of those three things describe the public-school educations of my two children in MCPS.

Good for you. This is an FCPS AAP program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You are an idiot. PE = physical education, not recess. I was talking about both things in the comment above.

My daughter had PE for 25 minutes A WEEK total and they never went outside. It was 100% always inside in the gym, even on a beautiful 80 degree day. At private, PE is 4x a week for 30min each, always outside unless below 30 degrees or raining.

Recess at public is outside for 25min once a day. If it is below 35, raining or snowing, snow on the ground or even a little wet outside, the kids are plopped in front of a tv watching a show for recess. That is 80% of the days from Nov-March. Recess at private is 25min twice a day, once in the morning and once after lunch. Only stay in for rain and below 30 degrees. Teachers also have the option of teaching class outside.

Do you understand now??

Dear PP,

You're one of the reasons that people think some private school parents are elitist and not-very-bright a$$holes. Thanks for nothing, a$$hole.

I know public school kids who go outside for PE, not just for gym. The parents I know don't complain about TV instead of recess 80% of the time - do you think that's even remotely believable? And let's not get started on your use of CAPITAL LETTERS and your horrid understanding of percentages (80%? really?), all of which tend to make you look like somewhat hysterical.

If you can't understand how wrong it is to (a) generalize from your tiny little experience to a whole school system, and (b) to substitute hyperbole for facts, then you don't deserve a job let alone a bank account.

Signed, another private school parent

Sorry, lady, plopping kids in front of a TV instead of allowing them to run around is terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because public has 30 kids/class, too much attention spent on standardized testing and lack of communications between teacher/parent.

None of those three things describe the public-school educations of my two children in MCPS.

You are full of shit. As a parent of 4 kids that have all been in MCPS at one time or another, 100% of public education is based and created for standardized testing. No child left behind. There is a strict, very strict curriculum that teachers must follow. They are robots. My youngest is currently in K with 26 students learning stuff she learned in her 3's preschool class. Many of the kids don't even know how to speak basic english, let alone know how to sound letters, read basic words. I made the stupid decision to wait until 2-3rd grade to move to private for my last (trying to save some money) and it was a bad decision.

My 8th grader has 11-13 kids in her classes. My 6th grader has 12-15 in his classes. There is no MCPS class at any level that has that ratio. And the teachers at private just love their job. Public school teachers are miserable. I don't blame them, I would be too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I've always wondered how privates can have more of everything, yet still do the basics with math and writing--and ostensibly better than the publics. Where is the time for all this? Especially when you add in current events like Nelson Mandela dying. Private school isn't a longer day.

Well, remember also that private schools select their students, and public schools by design take everyone. If you pick kids who are not having difficulties in any academic area, you might get away with moving through the basics at a faster pace to free time for other stuff. I can't remember if it was on this thread or another, but there's a Post article from 2013 that says that DCPS elementary schools must spend 3.5 hours of instruction time every day on reading and math.

And to the PP before that, private school day is a much longer day for my child than a public school day. She currently goes to school from 8am to 3:30pm. Her public is 9am to 3pm. That is 7.5hrs extra a week. They get an extra recess, more science with hands-own experiments, art every day, PE every day, etc... It makes a huge difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because public has 30 kids/class, too much attention spent on standardized testing and lack of communications between teacher/parent.

None of those three things describe the public-school educations of my two children in MCPS.

You are full of shit. As a parent of 4 kids that have all been in MCPS at one time or another, 100% of public education is based and created for standardized testing. No child left behind. There is a strict, very strict curriculum that teachers must follow. They are robots. My youngest is currently in K with 26 students learning stuff she learned in her 3's preschool class. Many of the kids don't even know how to speak basic english, let alone know how to sound letters, read basic words. I made the stupid decision to wait until 2-3rd grade to move to private for my last (trying to save some money) and it was a bad decision.

My 8th grader has 11-13 kids in her classes. My 6th grader has 12-15 in his classes. There is no MCPS class at any level that has that ratio. And the teachers at private just love their job. Public school teachers are miserable. I don't blame them, I would be too.

Yikes. Hey, we're in a private school too and we love it.

That said I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish with these comments. Insulting the public school parent isn't going to convince them of anything. And you are also making a lot of sweeping generalizations based on your own inherently limited personal experience. We have friends in public schools that they are very happy with, where the teachers are not "robots" and where the kids do not struggle with speaking English.

Glad that private is working out for you, as it is for us. But surely we can recognize that one family's public school experience isn't every family's public school experience.

[Anonymous]

... As a parent of 4 kids that have all been in MCPS at one time or another, 100% of public education is based and created for standardized testing. No child left behind. There is a strict, very strict curriculum that teachers must follow. They are robots. My youngest is currently in K with 26 students learning stuff she learned in her 3's preschool class. Many of the kids don't even know how to speak basic english, let alone know how to sound letters, read basic words. I made the stupid decision to wait until 2-3rd grade to move to private for my last (trying to save some money) and it was a bad decision.

My 8th grader has 11-13 kids in her classes. My 6th grader has 12-15 in his classes. There is no MCPS class at any level that has that ratio. And the teachers at private just love their job. Public school teachers are miserable. I don't blame them, I would be too.

Pretty much describes it. Just not something I say to the public school parents (or kids)

[Anonymous]

I never understand these threads. OP asked why some chose private. Then some public school parents jump in to attack responses and then get pissed when private school parents respond to attacks. Different people view the same experience differently. Different people have different priorities. Same song and dance as the SAH/WOH mom threads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because public has 30 kids/class, too much attention spent on standardized testing and lack of communications between teacher/parent.

None of those three things describe the public-school educations of my two children in MCPS.

You are full of shit. As a parent of 4 kids that have all been in MCPS at one time or another, 100% of public education is based and created for standardized testing. No child left behind. There is a strict, very strict curriculum that teachers must follow. They are robots. My youngest is currently in K with 26 students learning stuff she learned in her 3's preschool class. Many of the kids don't even know how to speak basic english, let alone know how to sound letters, read basic words. I made the stupid decision to wait until 2-3rd grade to move to private for my last (trying to save some money) and it was a bad decision.

My 8th grader has 11-13 kids in her classes. My 6th grader has 12-15 in his classes. There is no MCPS class at any level that has that ratio. And the teachers at private just love their job. Public school teachers are miserable. I don't blame them, I would be too.

Hi there, I'm an actual human and my children go to Oakland Terrace Elementary in Silver Spring. One has 16 kids in a class and one has 19. The teachers give us updates on their progress whenever we ask and have gone out of their way to invite us to have additional conferences. To date one of the children has spent 1 day on standardized testing. Common core isn't perfect and I recognize the teachers have a very specific curriculum to follow, but you have wrongly painted with a very broad brush here. I am on the private schools board because we are still considering private for middle school so I am the kind of person who would be inclined to listen to your experience of private school, but you're not making any friends with the anti-government, anti-immigrant rant.

[Anonymous]

We chose private school in part because of my original bias (as a private school graduate and subsequent Ivy league graduate myself) and because we bought a home not accounting for the quality of the local elementary school (given our original bias for private).

I think if money was no object, e.g. if our HHI was around or more than very high six figures, 700k+, than I wouldn't hesitate to pay for most of the top-shelf privates around here. The benefits are well outlined in this thread.

That said, cost-benefit matters. Private school tuition has vastly outpaced inflation in the metro area. You are paying about 2.5x in real dollars today than what you would have paid in the 1990s (e.g. tuition apace with inflation at the top schools would be around $16-18k today not $30k+).

With an HHI in the 300s, shouldering two tuition payments puts a brutal crush on our budget. For this alone I would switch to an excellent APS or Fairfax County public- but I would have to bear the transaction costs of selling our home and moving to a better school pyramid. Frankly, within a couple years we will simply do this. We just can't' afford to keep paying $60k/year (increasing by 5-10% each year) in tuition.

I also think the price changes have vastly changed the demographics of private school in a negative way- a far more narrow range of professions and backgrounds seem to be reflected among families, at our private anyway. I find it to be a much more toxic and pretentious social environment than I found at my private school 25 years ago. We frankly stay out of the social scene outside of kids activities/events.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We chose private school in part because of my original bias (as a private school graduate and subsequent Ivy league graduate myself) and because we bought a home not accounting for the quality of the local elementary school (given our original bias for private).

I think if money was no object, e.g. if our HHI was around or more than very high six figures, 700k+, than I wouldn't hesitate to pay for most of the top-shelf privates around here. The benefits are well outlined in this thread.

That said, cost-benefit matters. Private school tuition has vastly outpaced inflation in the metro area. You are paying about 2.5x in real dollars today than what you would have paid in the 1990s (e.g. tuition apace with inflation at the top schools would be around $16-18k today not $30k+).

With an HHI in the 300s, shouldering two tuition payments puts a brutal crush on our budget. For this alone I would switch to an excellent APS or Fairfax County public- but I would have to bear the transaction costs of selling our home and moving to a better school pyramid. Frankly, within a couple years we will simply do this. We just can't' afford to keep paying $60k/year (increasing by 5-10% each year) in tuition.

I also think the price changes have vastly changed the demographics of private school in a negative way- a far more narrow range of professions and backgrounds seem to be reflected among families, at our private anyway. I find it to be a much more toxic and pretentious social environment than I found at my private school 25 years ago. We frankly stay out of the social scene outside of kids activities/events.

It sounds like you prefer the bygone "old school" days of the elite private schools in this area, when the connected and important, but economically middle-class members of the intelligentsia - government officials, regarded journalists, staid professors - could well afford to send their children to these Ivy League feeders for years on end. Don't you think, given your own elite schooling, that you will probably continue to bear the sacrifice for your children? I grew up in decidedly modest circumstances, but I imagine that it will be difficult for you to give up the trappings of the life you know and love.

[Anonymous]

We did public for 3 years and switched to private this year.

Pros
Faith Based
More specials - art and pe 2x a week, music, spanish, tech lab
More of a community with families

Cons
Cost
Not a neighborhood school