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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We paid for private (preK-12; earned income, no FA or grandparental contribution) and I'd be happy if DC became a teacher or an EMT.  We never saw private school as an income-maximization strategy.  Wanted DC to get a great, well-rounded education and come out of it with enough curiosity about the world to last her a lifetime.  That's what I got out of my education (which wasn't private until college) and I'm so grateful to my parents for setting me on that path.  [/quote]

How is private school going to make her more curious about the world than public?  Curiosity seems like an inborn trait and are you really suggesting that people who attended public school are just mindless drones?[/quote]

I think curiosity is inborn but lots of times schooling snuffs it out.  Obviously, since I went to public schools myself and was happy with my education in this respect, I don't think that sending kids to public school turns them into mindless drones.  What I did think was that a particular private school my DC was accepted to was more likely to sustain her curiosity and broaden her interests than DC's public school alternatives would have been.  A big part of the equation for me was the teachers -- almost all of whom were lifelong learner types themselves and who didn't seem to be suffering from the burnout that affects many experienced public school teachers.  Add to this the fact that our local school district has been in crisis and the leader brought in to reform it had a contemptuous attitude toward teachers.  Ironically, a change in the private school's leadership has subsequently changed its culture and not for the better.  If I were making the same decision today, I suspect I'd choose private for K-8 and send DC to public (perhaps in a neighboring district) for HS.  Again, I really think these should be decisions between concrete alternatives -- school X vs. school Y -- rather than more categorical or ideologically driven (public vs. private).

So the point of my response wasn't that private is better than public (a position I've argued against elsewhere in this thread).  It was that there are reasons other than return-on-investment or an economic calculation than can motivate parents to choose a private school.  Our reasons were educational. (Curriculum was the other -- we wanted science and foreign language done earlier and well, and wanted arts to be taken seriously and required during HS).[/quote]

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