Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:OP, we can probably afford private, but I really do feel that I can do more for my community by sending my kid to a public school. My kid will get a good education no matter where he goes - we can supplement at home and with other classes, etc. But someone else's kid might not have that going for them, and by my trying to make the public school increase standards, it will do a lot more for our neighborhood and for our community as a whole.
If you can "probably" afford private, you can't comfortably afford it. Public school may have certain advantages, but no matter how much you supplement, it's not the same experience. I also think it's very naive to think that you can make the public school increase standards. Parents have much less power to influence the school systems than they like to think.
Anonymous wrote:OP, we can probably afford private, but I really do feel that I can do more for my community by sending my kid to a public school. My kid will get a good education no matter where he goes - we can supplement at home and with other classes, etc. But someone else's kid might not have that going for them, and by my trying to make the public school increase standards, it will do a lot more for our neighborhood and for our community as a whole.
Anonymous wrote:Well my kids go to private and are not snobby, intolerant, or entitled. They are great kids with diverse friends and interests, and volunteer and give back. Our kids dont get international vacations and we dont live in a big house. We are a mixed race, solidly middle class family getting great financial aid. Our kids are thriving at their progressive school, and we love the education they are getting.
Dont believe generalities.
Anonymous wrote:Of course! DC2 is now fluent in a 2nd language thanks to public. We tried a well-regarded area private for the DC1 for a few years, but honestly there wasn't a huge difference in quality, and we wish we had arranged the immersion for DC1 instead.
Anonymous wrote:I don't know anyone who does this. The only people I know who send their kids to public do it bc they can't afford private. Over the years, we've know. Many people who started their kids in public (in Jklm schools & Arlington & MoCo). They have all moved their kids to private or pariochal.
Anonymous wrote:I'm curious. How many of you PPs will really stay public past elementary?
My family didn't have the luxury of choice and middle school as a minority student was the stuff of nightmares. Drugs, 12 year-old girls pregnant, daily fights in cafeteria/lunchroom/gymnasium "multipurpose" room because facilities were so pathetic, students coming to school hungry or full of Lay's/Kool-Aid "breakfast"...getting swatted on the butt trying to get to class, hands put down my shirt, shoved into lockers etc. Diversity did not promote academic achievement nor did it facilitate understanding. In fact it drove us further apart.
So much time was spent on disciplinary issues and reinforcing classroom expectations that no real learning went on. I spent the majority of my classroom time in the corner with a book I'd brought from home.