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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is a complicated question, and a lot will depend on the specifics of the public schools in your district and privates nearby.  I went to public for all 13 years and have taught in public for 24 years; my kids did public elementary, private middle, and public high school.  Here some of the things we've noticed in our specific experiences.  I would probably pick public, ultimately, over free private if somehow the public classes could be smaller.

Pros of private: smaller classes, more outside time, more assemblies/advisory/extra programs/field trips/experiential learning, guaranteed athletic participation, some dynamic and creative teachers, shared progressive values in the community, many opportunities for parent involvement, kids feel known by teachers, curriculum can be very creative and delves deep, sometimes kids can stay kids longer, more parents delaying the technology

Pros of public: greater diversity of student body, more development of &quot;real world&quot; life skills, more experienced and certified teachers, more support services (guidance, social workers, psychologists, learning differences support), more understanding of neurodiversity, generally better teaching and more direct instruction of writing, more &quot;meeting kids where they are at&quot; and less &quot;molding them into something,&quot; better at handling bullying and other serious issues, better teacher to parent communication

Cons of private: pedagogy and curriculum can feel more traditional/dated, no depth of resources for student support, more faculty turnover, minimal socioeconomic diversity, less flexibility and less willing to accommodate, some teachers less responsive, teachers potentially less accountable

Cons of public: much bigger classes and school community, less outside time, for better or worse, you are exposed to more (more disruptive behavior --&gt; could interfere with learning, could help student develop empathy, could lead to teachers becoming better and more responsive), students getting phones younger[/quote]

Sorry but I don’t know any public schools that have better writing programs than private schools. That’s actually a huge con of public schools in general. [/quote]

Boston suburbs v. some of the Boston private schools -- there are exceptional public high schools there with great writing programs.[/quote]

Of course there are some individual public schools, and individual private schools that are good or terrible at just about anything.  Making a blanket statement that a pro of private school is that there is generally better teaching in writing, because you can think of a few schools in another city where that's true is wrong.

In the DMV, while there are certainly exceptions, private high schools are often stronger than public high schools in writing.  I wouldn't say the same for any other discipline.  I think in any other discipline you can really only compare one individual school to another.  But for writing, private wins out.  I suspect that part of this is because of significant differences in teaching loads.  Writing development is so dependent on feedback, and fewer essays to grade, combined with fewer outside responsibilities like data meetings, and IEP meetings, etc . . . make easier for teachers to find time to give feedback.  [/quote]

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