Anonymous wrote:It's not actually the case that DC in private is a simpleton, so your snark is unnecessary, however good it might have made you feel. But one DC definitely tended to blend into the back row in big classes, rather than speak out. It was obvious quickly. And that DC also had the misfortune if having a teacher in second grade who had a lot of personal issues and didn't have the a energy to teach well that year (she ended up leaving the school). So one DC actually got dealt a worse hand in public school compared to the other DC. (Bad teachers can show up everywhere we have learned - it's not a public or private school issue). After smaller classes in private for a few years, DC is much more confident and outspoken academically.

Anonymous wrote:PP you are also incorrect - in the advanced academic programs in NoVA and MoCo, the standardized tests are an afterthought. It's pretty easy for those kids to learn enough to pass the tests in about one week of class time (really - that's about the max amount of time they spend on test materials). The math is more advanced than the norm in private school around here (except for just a few kids and Holton has started an advanced math track for lower school ... to be the same as the public school track). The English, History, and Science classes are very detailed and include writing papers and making presentations. What is missing is a lot of hand-holding, free-flowing class discussion time (kids have to learn to speak clearly and quickly), etc. We have one in public and one in private, so can see this stuff clearly. There are many other threads on this with consensus from more than just my opinion ... enriched public (AAP or advanced programs) are stronger IF your child is a self-starter, not intimidated by 25-30 other kids in a class, a 22-minute lunch period, lots of work, having to make your own way a lot of the time. And that is true through high school (e.g., Blair, TJ, etc.) If your child responds better to smaller classes, would rather have more time to do art than math/science, tends to sit in the back and doodle if not called on regularly in class, then private school is the way to go. But it's not more rigorous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - I have to disagree with your statements from my own experience. The kids entering my kids' private school in 9th grade from public school are more often than not at a disadvantage in some areas. They may be right on level for math and science, but almost uniformly are very behind in their writing and analytical skills. In addition, they are at a complete loss as to how to make a presentation, which inevitably requires these skills and is required on practically a weekly basis in my kids' school. These are skills which take more time to learn and are harder to develop and which simply does not happen at an early age in public schools.

I'm not sure what you're trying to get from your post, especially since you're committed to sending your to private next year. Do you need advice on what to say as a comeback to people who question your choices? You need to know that people will always question your decisions, but you don't need to listen to them. We should all do what is best for our own families and not worry about what others will think…it's gets you and your kids no where.

And yet my two children in public school started routinely making presentations in first grade.

Anonymous wrote:OP - I have to disagree with your statements from my own experience. The kids entering my kids' private school in 9th grade from public school are more often than not at a disadvantage in some areas. They may be right on level for math and science, but almost uniformly are very behind in their writing and analytical skills. In addition, they are at a complete loss as to how to make a presentation, which inevitably requires these skills and is required on practically a weekly basis in my kids' school. These are skills which take more time to learn and are harder to develop and which simply does not happen at an early age in public schools.

I'm not sure what you're trying to get from your post, especially since you're committed to sending your to private next year. Do you need advice on what to say as a comeback to people who question your choices? You need to know that people will always question your decisions, but you don't need to listen to them. We should all do what is best for our own families and not worry about what others will think…it's gets you and your kids no where.

Anonymous wrote:A more blunt way of saying it is that we want our child to be a "boss" not a "grind." We wanted a school to cultivate our child as someone who asks the questions that other need to answer and has the skills to get other people to see things differently. And it doesn't matter to us whether she chooses to be an artist or an entertainer rather than an academic or lawyer or doctor as long as she uses her talents at the highest level possible.

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with your premise but you highlight a different mindset that might be at work.

Fundamentally, the reason we make the investment in a very expensive private school is that we believe in a more progressive approach to education. In the early years, the goal is to develop the child's social and emotional skills as much as the academics. We want our child to manage themselves emotionally, navigate all sorts of social situations, and develop influence and leadership skills. We don't just value art and drama for presentation skills, but to explore artistic sensibilities or interest and appreciation of the arts. We believe that joy in learning isn't internalized with carrots and stick or rote skill acquisition, but by actually making learning fun and appropriate for the child's actual intellectual development.

The "academic rigor" in elementary school used in the public G&T and AAP aren't very meaningful to us. We had every confidence that our child would be on the front of any achievement curve because she has every possible advantage in the world. So our focus was on meaning and concepts, not mechanics. My child was reading at 4, but is only just not learning how to read literature closely in middle school. She learned her multiplication tables "organically" with manipulatives and games in 2nd grade so she never thought of math as "boring." But it will be a few years before she gets to the post-calculus math that will determine how far she can go in the sciences. Our worry is that too much attention to hitting arbitrary milestones can be harmful for long-term success because it ignores figuring out when she would be most developmentally ready to go fast and when to go slow. Now that she's going to high school, I feel pretty confident that her academic skills are second to none but the oddball prodigy.

A more blunt way of saying it is that we want our child to be a "boss" not a "grind." We wanted a school to cultivate our child as someone who asks the questions that other need to answer and has the skills to get other people to see things differently. And it doesn't matter to us whether she chooses to be an artist or an entertainer rather than an academic or lawyer or doctor as long as she uses her talents at the highest level possible.