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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I went to public dcps and switched to private big three at seventh grade. I was a white, smart, well behaved girl from well off, educated parents. It took me about a semester to adjust at private school. I was fine.

My parents sent to public elementary primarily for social reasons. They wanted me to be in a socioeconomically diverse environment. I went to school with kids from all over the city and the world. It was a great experience. I'm glad I didn't spend my entire schooling surrounded by kids who were just like me. [/quote]

Exposing our kids to diversity is very important to my husband and I. We want our kids to have exposure to people if different backgrounds and this is hard to get at a private. Can you comment a bit on what the differences were between you public versus private education?[/quote]

Many of my classmates at public were out of bounds - east of the park, back when very few white families lived east of the park. Many were from immigrant families or foreign service brats from other countries. Some were poor, some were middle class, a few were like me, wealthier. But it takes some effort to schlep your kids across the park, so most had parents who considered education important.

As a native English speaker with highly educated parents, I often was put in the role of teacher's helper. I would help re-explain the lesson to small groups of kids when we were working on assignments. Sometimes a kid who was  bilingual would help me explain things to the Latino kids who had subpar English. Some kids spoke languages no one else spoke, so I'd communicate with a lot of pointing and drawing. I was also sent to first grade classrooms to lead reading groups. I think this was all a self esteem boost to me.

Three of my teachers were great. The rest were ok, but not great. I tended to get my work done early and sit quietly for stretches of time reading books. My parents only let me take good books to school, usually biographies - not sweet valley twins, etc. My parents had me write essays on the books.

So I arrived at private school ahead in Writing and History, but fairly behind in math and woefully behind in science. That gap could have been remedied with a few summer programs.

The social adjustment was rough. I went being one of the few white girls in my class to being one of many white girls. It was weird. I had never felt such pressure to fit in, because I couldn't really fit into a norm at my public. It was so diverse there was no norm, plus very few kids there could afford Benetton etc.[/quote]

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