Public Vs. Private School

Marcy - posted on 07/02/2010

Thanks ladies for your comments...very helpful. I grew up in small town in Rhode Island. We walked to school, walked home, did our homework and our teachers were our parents friends. I see the kids that walk home from the public school down the street and I am so worried that my kiddo will end up like one of them...I also don't want him living in a bubble. Again, I appreciate your feedback. Happy 4th of July.

Sylvia - posted on 07/01/2010

I'm afraid I don't know anything about public schools in California. Where I live (Toronto, Canada) the public schools are good to great, and in general people send their kids to private schools for one of the following reasons:

1. They want "faith-based" education, so they send their kids to a religious school (although for complicated historical reasons the province of Ontario has a parallel publicly funded Catholic school system, so this only applies to Jewish, Muslim, etc., communities; Catholics can get "faith-based" education for free, sigh)

2. They don't want their kids associating with the riff-raff who attend the public schools, so they send their kids to very expensive, very "exclusive" private schools that, variously, train them to be extremely snooty and/or push them academically and/or athletically like whoa

3. They have what they feel are irreconcilable philosophical differences with the public school system and/or its curriculum, so they send their kids to something like a French-only school (not just the publicly available French immersion option), a Montessori school, a Waldorf school, etc.

4. Their kids have special needs beyond what they feel the public system can handle (although from what I gather, most schools in our public board do a good job of handling special needs)

You can probably guess from my tone of "voice" that my kid goes to public school and I'm 100% happy with that choice. Even if we could afford private school, which we can't, DD would be staying right where she is.

However ... if you know from doing actual research that the public schools in your area suck, that's a whole 'nother story. Living in a large city with an ENORMOUS number of immigrants, which means a high number of ESL kids in the majority of schools (although obviously it varies by neighbourhood, and ours is probably a school with fewer ESL kids than average), I am reluctant to see "the local school has lots of ESL kids" as a disadvantage -- but it's all in the way those kids are handled by the school, and I know there's a whole spectrum of good and bad ways to handle them. (I've read a fair bit about this as part of my job -- I edit academic journals, some of which address bilingual education.) I know that NCLB has been a total disaster for kids all over the US. I know that teachers in the US are paid far too little, are given far too little support, get far too little respect, and have an incredibly high rate of burnout, which has made the profession a magnet for ... well, let's just say it's *not* attracting the best and brightest anymore. (From what I understand, there are places in the US where you don't even need a B.Ed. to teach in the public school system. WTH?)

The teacher, especially in the early grades, makes a HUGE difference. It doesn't matter how awesome the system is if your kid gets a lousy teacher in kindergarten or Grade 1, and a really good teacher can go a long way toward making even a pretty dreadful curriculum work. So check out the local schools, talk to the principals, see if you can meet some of the primary teachers. Find out as much as you can before you make your decision. And don't forget, there's always the option of switching from one to the other if your first choice isn't working out, right?

Geralyn - posted on 07/01/2010

As the daughter of two public school teachers who always pushed education, and as an attorney very familiar with the failings of the California public schools (very much related to the area of law in which I practice), I would have to say "private" all the way if finances are not a consideration. There are some excellent, excellent public schools/districts in every state, including California. And if finances were an issue, I would recommend moving to an excellent public school district. This issue is so dear to my heart, because I have been planning my kids' education long before I was even assured of having any - lol. Education is pivotal - and it has a lot to do with how we were raised by my parents. I remember when I was 6 and my brother was 7, and people asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up, we clearly knew that we would be going to school past college, there was no doubt in our minds. I could write for days on this issue. I would love to share some thoughts with you this evening after my son goes to bed....



My opinions are no slight against public school teachers in the least. The problem stems from a lack of support and way too many demands being placed on the teachers that make the responsibilities that they are given impossible to carry out....