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Working Moms
haleymay18
member
Aaaah, the age old debate: private vs. public schooling
haleymay18
member
in Working Moms
What is your stance?
We are going to be sending our girl into private for pre-6 then re-evaluate. Of course this assumes our circumstances stay consistent with finances, location and all that jazz. We have a lot of reasons for choosing this path. My dh and I both want our girl raised in a place where she feels okay praying as we are both trying to teach her a life of Christ, we also don't like the prussian ideals of our public education system.
However we are tax payers and that in its own right makes me want to go public. I don't want to pay "twice" for school for our kids.
What about all of you?
My baby is two!!! Baby girl 9/17/09
My other baby is still a baby! Baby Boy 11-30-11
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Aaaah, the age old debate: private vs. public schooling
I went to Catholic schools growing up. I teach in a public school and will be sending DD to public schools. I grew up in Chicago and many people send their kids to private schools because many of the public schools aren't that great. But now we're in the burbs and I am happy with the schools out here. She'll do CCD once a week.
public-- there is a great school right in our neighborhood.
I would consider montessori or something if it was convenient, and I really loved the school.
For us it really depended on the public school system where we lived. DD will be 4 in July so we have been looking into the options. If we stayed where we are now we would do private catholic school. I am not a fan of our county schools here. We instead decided to move and the new school system is wonderful. She will be going to the best school in the county and my mom also teaches there. My DD already says blessing at every meal and goes to a christian daycare (that just was by luck not something we had to have).
I personally believe it is the parents to teach the child about faith. Even though DD is in a christian daycare our beliefs are still a little different so I do talk to DD about things. We also will have her in CCD when she is older which I teach.
If the public schools are good then I would send then to the public schools and then teach religion at home. Also be active in the PTA and learn what is being taught at school. I think no matter what school you send them to you have to do this so you know what is being exposed to your child.
I am curious: what "ideals" are there that you are unhappy with? I have heard this from other parents who are religious but I don't understand what the conflict is.
DD is only two but we've already talked about it a lot. If we stay where we are and the schools are assigned the way they are now, we may send her to public school. If they have not built a new high school by the time she reaches that age, we may look into private.
We may be moving soon and if we re-locate it will all depend on our neighborhood. There are good private and public schools in the area we are considering.
Most likely we'll go public since both DH and I did, and teach her a Christ centered life at home.
I live in Canada where there are public Catholic schools. Since we are Catholic, we'll be going that route.
A couple of things about my background: I work for a large, non-denominational church. Second, I grew up in a small town where the only private school options were tiny, dinky Protestant schools which were basically for the kids of the zealots and the kids who were kicked out of public school. Thirdly, I'm extremely libertarian and believe strongly in separation of church and state.
OK, now that that's out of the way. I plan on sending my kids to public school, for a number of reasons:
1) It's "free," and we paid more for our house to be in a top school district.
2) It's my job to teach my kids how to live like Christ. At school I want them to learn how to do Algebra, diagram sentences, etc., along with how to function among people who are different than them.
3) I know too many people who were "ruined" by private school one way or another. I know lots of people who do not know God at all because (their words) they were "burnt" by Catholic school growing up. I also knew some kids in college (where I went there were lots of private school kids) who were too sheltered, either because the school was all WASPS, or all conservative Christians, etc. Whatever the case, they were not shown what the real world looks like. College is really late in the game to find out what the world is like, especially when you are away from your parents and their guidance.
They will get their spiritual guidance at home and at church. They will (in my opinion) learn how to function in the real world at school.
For us it will depend on the specific options available. We're hoping to move before DD starts school, but in our current location we don't have any choice we're particularly happy with. None of the public schools in our area (outside of one magnet elementary) are good, and because of our personal beliefs we are not sending our kids to a religious private school. There's no non-religious private school in our area, which would leave home school, which is not our first choice because of the value we see in socialization in the classroom environment.
Basically, our plan is for me to find a new job and us to move before it becomes an issue, and at that point we'll do public if we are happy with the local system or non-religious private.
We both went to private schools, and in our area public schools are horrible. The whole state of California is a mess with budget, policy etc issues.
From our experience, private schools can really give the child a "leg up" and can have a huge impact on overall self-esteem. Of course, a lot of that has to do with other factors, most importantly the parents. We've seen the typical "negative" impact of private schools too, but with a total package (family, worldly exposure, teaching acceptance, work ethic etc etc) we feel private school is the way to go for us.
Please, someone explain to me what the "evils" of public school are and what "Prussian Ideals" people are against?
I know some public schools can be dangerous and the education crappy but other than that, what is the issue?
We live in a good district, so we will send to public. If we lived somewhere questionable, then we'd probably do private.
But... since he's only 6 months old, I can't say I've given it a ton of thought. Who knows what will change by the time he's school age!
As long as the public school is good (how that is decided, I'm not sure... haven't gotten that far, lol) then I'm fine sending DS to public. I've also looked into private Catholic school and the only thing I don't like about that is how damn strict they are with the uniform and appearance policies. ::barf:: I think expressing oneself through (appropriate, of course) appearance is important. I'm all about individuality so even though the public schools also have uniform codes, it's not nearly as bad and they don't go so far as to say where you buy the clothes and what your hair can look like.
I know that sounds so lame but... I'm lame.
Matthew Kevin
7/31/83-7/20/11
Met 1/8/00
Engaged 4/21/06
Married 9/29/07
Two beautiful legacies: Noah Matthew (2 yrs) and Chloe Marcella (8 mos)
Day Three
We are not religious at all, and so that's not an issue for us. Both DH and I went to public school, and we'd like for our children to do so as well. The schools in our area are hit and miss, though. We bought our house in large part because it was in the school district for the best public elementary school in the area. Assuming we are still here when DS starts school, he will definitely go there.
It may be unreasonable, but I suppose I am a bit biased against private schools, where a good public option is available. And, I would move in order for our kids to go to a good public school before I would send them to a private school. Even to another city or another state.
I personally do not like religious based private schools (regardless of the religion) as I feel strongly that kids should be exposed to all types of people and you just don't get that in a private religious school. My kids will be going to public school. If I had the money, my kids would go to a private school like Breck (in the Twin Cities) which is very diverse (my niece and nephew go and I'm so impressed with it). They teach about all religions and while they have chapel, it is not based on one religion. I was there for a program once and they touched on a few different religions.
My kids will get their religious education through our Temple Hebrew/Religious school and will go to public school for the rest of their education.
For Kindergarten, it will be a financial decision. Our region still holds strong to the belief that everyone is a SAHM, so our schools only offer 1/2 day kindergarten. We will still be paying for daycare for the rest of the school day. There is a private kindergarten at my DD's preschool, so if the tuition for that is less than the daycare that she would be attending along with public school kindergarten, we'll just keep her at her current preschool next year.
For 1st grade on, it will be public school. We purposely moved to a good school district and I am sick and tired of paying tuition!
I have never thought that public schools were evil by any means. The prussian ideals that I was talking about was the theory of teaching children to obey orders as opposed to thinking for themselves. You are very educated yourself so I am sure that I don't need to go into detail about predeterming American education based on Prussia (way back to ::sings:: the thirteen original colonies).
Essentially public schools conform to meet government standards and often hold prejudice to many variables (standarized testing, English being the only language etc...).
I believe public schools should ABSOLUTELY seperate church from educatoin as they are afforded to exist through taxpayers contributions and all not every American believes the same thing. As for me and my family, I think we will go another route.
My baby is two!!! Baby girl 9/17/09
My other baby is still a baby! Baby Boy 11-30-11
DH is a public school teacher; therefore, we both felt it would be extremely difficult to send our children to private school. Our district is very good and we are happy with the public school that DS #1 attends (first grade). DS #2 attends public preschool and we use a private in home daycare one day per week. Both boys attend bible school at our church on Sunday mornings. They are exposed to our religious beliefs at home and we enjoy talking with them after bible school on Sundays to see what they have learned about.
If we lived in a horrible public school district, I would consider private school but probably not a Catholic school, per se.
I couldn't agree more with seperation of church and state. Which is why I am sending my dd to a private school (probably) and paying for it rather than just blitching that public schools aren't teaching what I want taught.
It is absolutely my job and my dh's job to teach our family about what we believe. But I went to public schools and never felt comfortable talking about my religion and I don't want my dd to feel alienation the way I did.
My baby is two!!! Baby girl 9/17/09
My other baby is still a baby! Baby Boy 11-30-11
We live in an excellent school district so our kids will go to the public school. We pay a ridiculous amount in taxes, the schools are walking distance from our house (except for the 9/10-grade high school), and we both did great in public schools. If we lived in an area without good schools, I'd re-evaluate.
It another poster who talked about public schools having evils - not you. I was asking about both posts.
I don't understand how private religious schools are that different other than being religion-based school in terms of testing, government standards, etc.
Not sure yet...
When we bought our house we purposely bought in an area with great public schools. If we move between now and then, schools will be #1 on our list of wants.
BUT there is a very competive private school really close to us, that we will probably apply towards. If we get her in at kindergarten, then she's in all the way to middle school. It's free (govt grant or something) and it's renowned for being a great school.
They don't have to do the achievement testing. I do hear complaints from teacher friends all the time about how public schools are all about just teaching you what to know for a test. NCLB made it way worse, too.
Private schools don't require minimum results on achievement testing in order to get funding. They don't have to cut programs because they are underfunded because their kids didn't make the grade. In addition, many teachers in private schools are given merit pay bonuses based on other criteria besides student progress.
Most gov't standards don't apply to private education.
My baby is two!!! Baby girl 9/17/09
My other baby is still a baby! Baby Boy 11-30-11
I spent all my time in public schools and DH was in private schools. Several years ago we bought our house specifically in an area that we felt had good public schools. They are still ranked high so we plan on sending DS to public schools when the time comes. Also, while I know some public school systems are much better than other, I believe that you get out of school what you put in. No matter where you go, I think a child needs a good, loving home and supportive family in order to get the most out of his education.
LOL, yeah! Like all this talk about how private schools aren't diverse... my Christian private school was super diverse. Just to give one example, there was serious talk about making Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur into school holidays, due to the large Jewish population at the school.
Anyway. We're starting to think about this some for DD. There is an excellent public elementary school just two blocks from our house, and an excellent K-12 charter school about a mile away, so we'll certainly look closely at those. But we will also look at private schools, to see what the options are there. And who knows, we may end up moving before she starts K.
Much like I don't say today that I'll only consider daycare centers for her, or only consider in-home daycare... I won't say in the future that I'll only consider public school for her, or only consider private school. I'll look at the options, weigh the pros and cons, and make the right decision for her and our family.
Mommy to DD1 (June 2007), DS (January 2010), DD2 (July 2012), and The Next One (EDD 3/31/2015)
dh and I both went to catholic school K-12, I have to say that the private and periochial school students in my hometown state had to take the state standardized tests. there were certain requirements by the state for students to graduate (that or maybe they just followed those requirements?) . I do know an ex whose mom homeschooled her younger children and they had to test each year to move up a grade in the state's view (different state). in order to receive a diploma, they had to do this each year. this may be state by state. ?
that being said, it will depend on where we live. dh is a college professor. he assesses a base knowledge with his students at the start of a semester and by far the public school children have a stronger base. this could be the electives/programs available at the public h.s. could just be the related to the requirements to get into this school... or that they can even afford an expensive liberal arts college (higher socioeconomic class, more resources available?). So if we stay here, dc will probably be attending public school. definitely for grade school.
I do have to say public school is run a little differently here than what dh and I were used to "back home." There are zones. However, there are also better high schools and schools with special focus... students take a test much like the ACT or SAT in the fall of the 8th grade and then apply to h.s. in the area (if they want to go to one of the schools for advanced students). dh was working with a science teacher at one of the public high schools in the area... his college students were teaching classes at the h.s. the h.s. science dept budget was more than dh's dept budget at the college. of course, he's at a small liberal arts college. dh was highly impressed by the equipment and lessons provided at the high school. stuff we would have never even seen at our h.s. back home.... and this was not at one of the "advance" high schools.
now if we were to move ... who knows??? we would have to do our research. And if dc were zoned for a not so nice school zone here, we may have a different opinion. but we're in a great zone for grade school. we'll just have to see for h.s. but the cost of private and perochial schools here give me heart palpitations.
AlisaS, I think you got a pretty good answer, but I will go on to add that private schools are also not obligated to follow IEP's (Individualized Education Plans). If a child is evaluated and found to have a learning disability, the private school has no obligation what so ever to provide services. In Pennsylvania, most specialized services are contracted with other agencies (We have intermediate units) and do not equal the services a child would receive in a public school. I'm not sure how other states work.
You would be surprised how many children with learning needs are kept in private schools, some at the parent's discretion, others.....for the $$$$.
Also, many private schools do not have the funding to provide quality continued education for their teachers.
The public schools in my area are wonderful, so our daughter will be receiving a public education. I can certainly understand looking elsewhere if your district is lacking in quality.
Good luck with your decision!