Reply to Public vs. Private Schools for people living in Montgomery County

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous] Since you mentioned Sidwell by name, Here are some reasons I send my DS to Sidwell rather than MoCo

I love the Quaker traditions and sense of community there.
 
Most of his classes have 10-12 students

In MoCo magnet he was one of two AA boys; Sidwell is more diverse

Sidwell has professional artists/muscians work with kids in their arts programs

The speakers at Sidwell are fascinating

The math teaching is superior

The writing instruction is superior

There are many opportunities to travel with the school overseas

Sidwell requires students to self advocate; teachers do not have to listen to pushy parents

The kids push themselves ( maybe too much)

Is the school perfect, no it is not. But it works for my kid. He was not as happy at his MoCo school.[/quote]

I think many of these reasons are spot-on.  Small class sizes. The opportunity to take Shakespeare or Southern American Writers. Great speakers. A close-knit community. Religious traditions, Quaker or other (ours is Episcopalian). These are all reasons our family has benefited from private schools.

But I'd quibble with some of these reasons, especially the bottom half of PP's list. I say this based on having kids in public and private schools.

- I agree that diversity is lacking in the magnets themselves (one of my kids moved from private to a MoCo magnet) But, all the MoCo magnets are housed in larger schools, generally in the eastern part of the county. Plus, magnet kids take all their non-magnet subjects with the rest of the school. So the science magnet kid is taking english, languages, social studies, art, music, gym, and whatever else with the rest what is probably an extremely diverse school in eastern MoCo.

-- Overseas travel, meh. That's a perk for rich kids unless you're poor enough to get aid. In any case, families can do this for themselves (especially if they don't have private tuition bills). Our family has traveled overseas four times already, without help from the school, and it's benefited both of our kids who are in public and private schools.

-- As far as self-advocating goes, I'd say students self-advocate [i]more [/i]in the public schools than at almost any private. Also, the teachers in public schools are less likely to deal with pushy parents worried that a B will demolish Larla's chances at Yale.

--  Finally, many public school kids push themselves extremely hard. Kids are pushing themselves hard all over MoCo (read The Overachievers about Whitman for a harrowing account).  I'm actually surprised that PP claims private schools have an edge on this. I get the sense it's part of a broader but unstated concern about public school cohorts, i.e., that not ALL MoCo kids are pushing themselves hard, and some parents don't want their kids to be around those other kids.  [/quote]

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