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Hahahaha. Yep. Not really harshing on the OP, but why is it that the biggest experts on raising kids are people who don't have them?
The thread is about private versus public school. Last time I checked people who don't have kids still went through schooling (some public, some private) and are entitled to an opinion.
Furthermore, who's to say that I won't meet a single mother tomorrow, fall in love and then become an Insta-Dad.
Well consider yourself lucky. The vast majority (of the schools I knew other students) of the private schools in the city where I live (including my own) were like I described in the OP.
Most private school kids I've ever encountered -- and their parents by extension -- are just normal people like you and me who prize a rigorous education. That's all. And, truthfully, you'll find snobbery everywhere you go, whether it's in a private school or a public school. It's naive of you to expect otherwise.
Good point! In my public high school the snobbery was more prevalent among the athletes. The other thing to consider is that athletes and honors students express snobbery in different ways. For example the snobbery of the honors students would manifest in competition for attention from the teachers whereas the athletic snobbery (and this comes from personal experience) manifested itself via very public physical and verbal put downs of those who were not athletically inclined. As someone who was a teenage klutz due to a vision problem, the athletic snobbery was relentless and those memories do impact my opinion of public schools, however I do understand that not all public schools will emphasize athletics over academics like mine did. As an outsider looking in, how would one successfully investigate where the true goals of an educational institution line up? Are statistics enough to go on?
This thread is a bit sad in some ways. I could care less if people send their kids to public or private school, but a couple of parents commented on how the public schools were failed experiments in egalitarianism. The last time I checked the entire idea of America was about equality of opportunity, and believing all citizens are equals. So people who send their kids to elite schools might set them up for more opportunities in life, but it also seems some have confirmed exactly what the original poster was saying. We are living in a country where the economic equality gap is widening, and people do not seem disconcerted more money is not put into public education.
Now if you can afford to send your kids to a private school this probably does not bother you as much, but it is fundamental that are society begin investing more in public education. This entire idea of failed experiments of egalitarianism leads one to believe America is becoming more stratified than the UK, and Americans used to poke fun of them for having titles of nobility. It sounds like today people want the title of what school did they send their kid to, and what elite university will they be getting into. Those can be wonderful things for the people who are fortunate enough to have these benefits, but meanwhile we have many hard working kids growing up in poverty who would like to go to college, and how will they finance it?
I attended private school from K-12 and, although some were obviously more wealthy than my family, never felt the "snob" factor some here are describing. I went on to college and graduate school and obtained a Ph.D. Never once did I feel "unprepared to deal with the real world." I understand that this may be the experience of some, but it was not mine.
Yes, I send my children to private school. For us, it is a matter of wishing to have more control over our children's education. In our area, it's not unusual for public schools to have upwards of 30 children in an elementary-level classroom with one lead teacher and no assistant. In my humble opinion, that's too much to ask of any teacher, no matter how wonderful they may be. I know that my children's classes will never have more than 20 children.
My son, who has mild dyslexia, receives pull-out/individual help from a specialist three times per week at no cost to me over and beyond the regular tuition. That would not happen in a public school, given that he is too high-functioning to qualify for an IEP and dyslexia is typically not recognized or served as a learning disability in publics.
Private is the right choice for us. It is a HUGE sacrifice financially (we do not have "family money" or anything similar). But I would not change my choice for anything.
This thread is a bit sad in some ways. I could care less if people send their kids to public or private school, but a couple of parents commented on how the public schools were failed experiments in egalitarianism. The last time I checked the entire idea of America was about equality of opportunity, and believing all citizens are equals. So people who send their kids to elite schools might set them up for more opportunities in life, but it also seems some have confirmed exactly what the original poster was saying. We are living in a country where the economic equality gap is widening, and people do not seem disconcerted more money is not put into public education.
MORE money? OH and pay for everybody's birth control, too. AND free school meals (PLURAL) 365 per day. And the list goes ON AND ON.
The problem is that Liberals SHUT DOWN VOUCHERS because they are afraid of competition with the teacher's union. Have you ever even tried to get YOUR kid in a magnet school? I assume you have kids?
The underprivileged students are being held down by the people their families vote for NOT by the higher achievers who are still PAYING SCHOOL TAXES AND PRIVATE SCHOOL TUITION. The job CREATORS. The people who make sacrifices for their kids, not rely on STRANGERS to pay everything.
Furthermore, if you WANT TO LEARN- you can. It's a matter of personal responsibility. NOT throwing money at a fake problem.
The elite prep school I attended, now costs $23K per year. I'm not paying that.
Yeah, my old elite prep school in New Jersey costs $33,300 a year now (just looked it up). We choose to send our kids to our local Catholic school which costs $6,100 a year (or $7,100 if you're not a local parishioner). As you can see I'm not against private school, but there's really no way I would cough up anything close to $33k per kid for high school.
3 kids in my family, and I went to a private HS. Was mostly due to athletics as i was a good basketball player and they were a Div 1 school.
Looking back on it, I'm not sure it was really worth it. I didn't experience as much of the snobbery as more affluent areas probably had, but the public schools in my area were pretty good as well. My sis went to the local public school and got a full ride for Nursing and is not at a top Boston hospital...all from the public HS I didn't want to go to.
That's not to say I didn't do well. I was top honors, and got into all the colleges i applied to and went on to become an engineer. I'm just not convinced, however, that if i had gone to public school things would be that much different.
Another factor is that my school now costs $15K/year. I really dont want to pay $60K for HS when i'm not sure it really was that much better for my education. Thats what my BS cost me and It's not like employers ask where i went to HS either.
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