Reply to Private School - has it been worth the money to you?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What a very thoughtful response.  Thank you.  I appreciate the perspective you bring to the discussion.  Just out of curiosity, considering your education background, which DC privates do you consider worth he money since you mentioned that are some that are a "waste."  [/quote]

Thanks.  Again, for us, none are "worth the money" at this point because I would still choose our current charter school over the options that I have investigated if there was no financial difference.  I really am making this decision without much thought to the money that any of the options would cost our family.

But, I will let you in to a little of my thought process.  [b]My educational philosophy aligns more with a very progressive, diverse (both racially and socio-economically) school that is difficult to create within a private school environment. [/b] For us, immersion and experiential learning are important as well.  So, when I was looking at early elementary schools, WIS stuck out as a great option.  But, I still had hesitations because I did not get the feeling (and maybe I was mistaken, and I'm not claiming to have all the information on any of these school, just giving my general impression) that it was otherwise as progressive as I would have preferred.  I think at that time, I would have really liked a combination of WIS and GDS.  I did not have to go too far down this path, as we got our child into her current school when she was three.  I will say that I have relatives at Beauvior that absolutely love it, and I'm certain that we would too.  If I had another child and I was now making that early childhood decision, Beauvoir may be my first choice, despite my earlier hesitation regarding the religious focus and the path to NCS, which I thought at the time would be more strict than I would prefer (for some reason, rightly or wrongly, I had less hesitation about St. Albans in that regard).  As that child has gotten older, however, I actually think that NCS may be my first choice upper school if we were to switch to private.  WIS would also be in the running, but maybe not GDS.   This change in preference stems only from getting to know the child more, my general educational philosophy hasn't changed and my impressions of the schools have remained pretty constant.

I realize I am not mentioning a lot of other schools, many of which are amazing.  There are several reasons for that.  First, I have not completed this research, and I know that I would have to do much more if we were to feel that a change was needed, and that would broaden my scope.  Second, we are bound by location, and these are schools that work for us location-wise in ways that, for example, Lowell or Burgundy Farm, would not.  Third, there are many schools that are great for one child that may not be great for others, and there are many schools that I think are beautiful learning environments that I don't think would be the right fit for us at this point.

Also, I think we have a ton of great private schools here.  Most of the ones that we all hear about are really pretty good if they are the right fit for the child.  But, there are many private schools that many people have not heard about.  Some are beautiful neighborhood schools that fill a particular need, but some are not.  Some are just trying to fill spots and have to do whatever they can to do so.   Just because a school is private does not mean that the teaching is necessarily better (remember that salaries are generally much higher in public schools than private schools), that the student body is better behaved/prepared (parents sometimes choose private school because their kid was not able to behave/learn in a different setting and the private school may take them because the parent can pay), or the parent community is more beneficial to the children's learning (some parents choose private because they don't have enough time to support their children's education, and they think they can outsource that through private school).

But, of course, there are many pitfalls of public and charter schools too.  Moreover, no school is perfect, so you just have to look at your child, your family, and the school and take an educated guess at which actual school will be the best fit.   [/quote]

It's interesting that in your very long post you don't once talk about the ~6 Progressive schools in the immediate area. (GDS really isn't). Did you even visit them? [/quote]

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