Reply to If you had to choose between private school for elementary or high school, which would you choose?

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Reply to "If you had to choose between private school for elementary or high school, which would you choose?"

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[quote=Anonymous]A lot depends on the quality of the public and private options. Our public elementary school was bad, and we didn't win the lottery for a magnet school, so we went private. The most affordable option for us was a local parochial school, and a lot of kids from the neighborhood were there, also avoiding the public elementary.

A good magnet school can be a good reason to go public. Our public schools generally aren't very good, but we have a good magnet high school, so many parents opt for private school through grade 8 and then the public magnet.

Regarding whether to invest in private elementary or high school, besides weighing the differences between your public and private options, consider whether you care more about launching into school or launching toward college. I think early differences are disproportionately important so I would want the best available early education.

Private high schools often (too often) justify themselves with their college placements. (I'd prefer they emphasize the intrinsic quality of the education.) They devote a lot of resources to college counseling and their graduates go to good colleges. Even the best colleges, though, recruit most of their students from public high schools. If your public high school offers good curricular and extracurricular opportunities, and your student takes advantage of them, and you can help him navigate the college selection and application process, you can get as good a placement from a public high school as you would get from a private.

Another consideration is that students' life paths diverge more by the end of high school than they do at the beginning of elementary school. Bad influences among a student's peer population can therefore be more of a concern in high school. It's not much of a concern if your child is independent. If your child goes with the crowd, though, you need to consider what the crowd is like at the different schools you're considering.

Another issue that I haven't seen mentioned, and may not be important to you, but was important to me, is whether you want a single-sex school, which usually means private. Hormones rage in middle school and high school, and those are great years to keep the sexes apart during the school day. Of course, the pros and cons of single-sex education could be hashed out in another thread, but it's a consideration if you plan to give your child a limited number of years in private school.
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