Reply to Is private school REALLY different than public school??

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think there are things about private that are better..but are they 20 or 30K better?...never been too sure about that.  [b]Especially when I read that people are looking for more recess and naps for little kids..[/b][/quote]

As a parent with two children who started in PK at a "big-3," I agree that it is absurd on the face of it that we have spent $30K/year/kid to ensure that they had more unstructured (but, supervised) outdoor playtime, longer time to eat lunch, and PE daily. However, we understood the tuition as an investment in the long-term education of our children. It is not appropriate and very possibly detrimental for the 4-7 year old set to have so little time to run around outdoors as afforded by the DCPS curriculum. We toured a highly-regarded DCPS for PK, and I left the tour knowing that my 4-year old son would have been miserable and poorly behaved with one or two 20-30-minute recesses daily and PE only once a week. I was impressed by the teachers I met, and the principal, but the curriculum was clearly not made with the optimal school experience for a young child in mind. When I asked about other opportunities for exercise and fresh air, I was told that they offered after-school activities. Having a running club after school does not compensate for the 6-7 hours during the day when the kids need regular intervals of vigorous physical activity in order to learn best. So, we paid the tuition in order to ensure that our children had--every day--nearly two hours of outdoor play, PE, music, arts, science, and math. I also love the fact that our school librarians are dedicated children's librarians (not volunteers), and that my kids love the library and adore the librarians.

If DCPS allowed for more outdoor play time, recess, and PE daily, I seriously would have considered it for our kids.
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