Anonymous wrote:A lot of people are trying to get into private school so they can be in person at least a few days a week. I see lots of posts alerting people to what private schools are still open and enrolling more students. However, that obviously increases your household's risk of Covid.

Why don't more people hire tutors? We thought about private school but then we realized that if our kids get settled there, we're not going to want to pull them out next year and put them back in public. So in the long run, it's a lot cheaper to hire a tutor for however many hours (even if you're doing 5-6 hours a day to try to replicate the school day) than doing private x grade level-12. It's also not really fair to the school community to do that - take advantage of them for one year.

I can image that if I were a parent seeking out small class sizes (under 12-15) and willing to pay dearly for that, I'd be pretty annoyed at all these Johnny-Come-Latleys increasing the class sizes. I was talking to a friend who works at a "top" area private school who told me that class size has edged up over 20 with all the new students. I bet those parents who started in kindergarten are ticked!

I don't understand how you envision this setup. Pull the kid out of school to homeschool and have tutors come to your house in succession during the day? One after another, day after day?
This just isn't going to work, logistically, for older kids.

Anonymous wrote:I hired a tutor to oversee DL/assignments in the spring. It’s no substitute for in person learning.

This. We had a spring tutor /summer nanny and it just didn't work for our 7 year old. It was that experience, rather than DL itself, that pushed us to private school.

Class size should be capped. If the cap was 15 and now there's 20 kids, I would be pissed at the school. If the cap was always 20 and the school just never used to fill up, well, you were aware. The new families will keep the school funded and in theory keep tuition down, as compared to a school with the same number of teachers but fewer kids.

Supporting DL is not the same as live teaching/instruction. If I hire a private teacher for my child, that’s not the same as supporting with a tutor. If my DC does 3 hrs of DL and then 3 hrs of tutoring that’s a long day. And it doesn’t give DC any socio-emotional learning.

The cost of a personal tutor/teacher is going to be $50K+. Private school (for mine) is $35K. And I don’t have to worry about my tutor quitting or not getting along with my child. And there are exit points for private where kids leave to other privates, so it’s not a decade long commitment.

We're spending $2k+ per month for tutors for our HS student, plus SAT prep. I'm genuinely not sure it's achieving all that much. I'd much rather that he was in a rigorous educational program with in-person instruction.

We switched to in person private this year for the ones we could get spots for. They are currently in person. We have lost faith in the public school system.

A tutor or pod cannot provide anywhere near what the full school day experience can. The teachers are amazing. I can’t imagine making my kid do full day distance learning and then making them sit with a tutor or doing extra math classes. That would be horrible.

We may have to go online at some point, but we will actually go back in person. The school has been seemlessly transitioning kids from in person learning to distance learning and back already.

A lot of private schools are not back in person yet. So be careful. Some will go to hybrid and some to full time but please note you could end up paying for DL.

Also, I know 2 families that moved to private this year, because the parents work in demanding jobs and they want their kids physically at a school.

I hired a tutor to oversee DL/assignments in the spring. It’s no substitute for in person learning.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe what they want is more than academics. Maybe they want their kid to be able to socialize.

Exactly this. The majority of parents seeking private have kids in elementary. It's not all about academics, these parents already likely supplement the academics but you can't supplement building social skills stuck at home.

Maybe what they want is more than academics. Maybe they want their kid to be able to socialize.

A lot of people are trying to get into private school so they can be in person at least a few days a week. I see lots of posts alerting people to what private schools are still open and enrolling more students. However, that obviously increases your household's risk of Covid.

Why don't more people hire tutors? We thought about private school but then we realized that if our kids get settled there, we're not going to want to pull them out next year and put them back in public. So in the long run, it's a lot cheaper to hire a tutor for however many hours (even if you're doing 5-6 hours a day to try to replicate the school day) than doing private x grade level-12. It's also not really fair to the school community to do that - take advantage of them for one year.

I can image that if I were a parent seeking out small class sizes (under 12-15) and willing to pay dearly for that, I'd be pretty annoyed at all these Johnny-Come-Latleys increasing the class sizes. I was talking to a friend who works at a "top" area private school who told me that class size has edged up over 20 with all the new students. I bet those parents who started in kindergarten are ticked!