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There are just so many variables. I was lucky to go to a large public high school with tons of options: AP subjects in just about everything, International Baccalaureate program, robust foreign language department (I went to Spanish 7 and took two levels of AP Spanish, and also took 2 years of French!), many career-prep courses, and lots of arts. I was always challenged and feel very strongly that my education was about as good as I could get anywhere. But I was also very self-motivated, knew from an early age that I'd need scholarships to move away for college, and was considered academically "gifted." I think students who did not have that going for them may have fallen through the cracks - and I certainly heard folks complain about the school system!
One of the people complaining was my childhood best friend's mom. She didn't think the education was up to par in the public school, so she sent her to private school starting in middle school. My area had two private schools - a Christian school and a Catholic school. Neither had anything close to the academic, arts, athletic, or career opportunities that the public schools did (there were 3 public high schools in my district at the time) and when you looked at where students went after graduating, the public schools were far and away more impressive. My high school graduating class of 800 always had a few kids go to the Ivies (from Georgia) or other elite private schools, at least one or two to a service academy, and many more to UGA, Ga Tech, and Emory. The private schools with graduating classes of 300-400 mostly focused on state schools with a handful to UGA or Ga Tech or private religious colleges.
But that's not to say that all public schools, private schools, or students are the same! I presented my parents with a Powerpoint in 6th grade expressing why I should be allowed to go to boarding school, including research into the academic and personal opportunities I'd have at schools like Choate, Phillips Andover, and American Hebrew Academy. I also didn't understand just how expensive they were! Similarly, I would love to be in a position when I have kids to consider Montessori for elementary school and a private Jewish day school for high school. The local Jewish day school is far better than the private schools of my hometown! That's not due to my lack of faith in the public school, but instead in the kind of learning environment I'd like for my kids. I'm sure that people who sent their kids to the private religious schools in my hometown were interested in that kind of learning environment.
It's hard to make a blanket statement about any type of school. Are some public schools horrible? Absolutely. But there are also some private schools that make me scratch my head at the cost when local public schools are great.
To each family their own. But private school should remain private without state or federal funding.
Using current marketing puffery (diversity, inclusion, equity...) as a metric for the education they deliver, or their political leanings, is ridiculous, Completely ridiculous.
Does not feel ridiculous when you have a real life experience with it.. I wish you well!
I went public in elementary, then switched to something similar to a Montessori in middle school. I don't really remember the elementary too well, except for being disciplined for misunderstanding how to do one of those artpieces where you stick a leaf or something under a piece of paper and rub a crayon, on its side, over the top of the paper. The middle school was overall a pretty happy place for me. Not because of my student peers, but the adults who taught or volunteered. They all reaZlly got me into learning. There were no grades. Just comments (I prefer traditional A-F in retrospect).
For ninth grade, I was enrolled in a high school of less than 20 students that met on the first floor of what looked like a residential house on the outside. Lots of laughs there, with an interesting mix of personalities, but bad homework oversight, and, predictable, no money to really have much choice.
After my biological father died, my mother moved us to Florida, and enrolled me in a similar private school, maybe a few students bigger. The teachers were stressed out. The kids mostly had ADHD, with a few having autism, etc. It was unpleasant, and the headmaster was racist.
I was sent in junior year to a Catholic school with several hundred pupils. Plain-clothes nuns. Kids averaged as fairly well off. Maybe 5 classroom buildings. An athletic department, extracurriculars and a trip to France, IIRC, for some of those enrolled in French. I still struggled, but I sensed that more people cared. There was even talk about college, which excited me even though I struggled. This school had it together. Plain buildings, but well-kempt campus. Very white, but a diversity of lifestyles.
After that year, My mother and adopted father decided to move back to San Diego. I was sent to a non-denominational private school in Arizona for senior year. It was in an affluent suburb of Phoenix. Most kids were affluent, and sons and daughters of Aramco. They had previously lived in Saudi Arabia or Hong Kong, largely. Non-white majority. It was a boarding school. The campus had a ton f gravel on it, plus some asphalt pathways. Very old buildings, but not in a stately way. Good athletic department, which included a rodeo team. I don't recall any advising, though.
I think my moving around so much was socially detrimental, complicating the fact that I am visibly disabled. I'd use crutches or a wheelchair depending on my needs. I spend a lot of time processing how I was brought up, and feel like I wish we could have moved out of our suburb in San Diego, but not out of state. In 9th grade, I lived in a good school district and was within range of two very good private schools.
If I had any inkling to have kids (I'm 46 now, so that ship sailed), I'd like to think I'd start them off in a Montessori. Then do anything in my power to stay in the same neighborhood through my kids' high school years. And that neighborhood would be one with a good school district and/or a good private non-parochial school of a few hundred students at least. I would want lots of academic offerings, good advising, and a good choice of meaningful extracurriculars, be it athletics and/or clubs that might help lead to careers. I'd say my third high school had that (and that's the only one that still exists, btw). I'd be very hands on in the school community.
But again, that ship has sailed.
Thank you for sharing this, this is very valuable and most helpful advice! Unfortunately we cannot fully follow it and we have to relocate..
We're all in favor of non-religious private schools that emphasize advancement for gifted learners.
DD was disappointed in her local school district. Oldest grandson's birthday missed the deadline for entry into Kindergarten by only two months, and she fought unsuccessfully to get them to enroll him anyway (he was reading at a second grade level and doing advanced math by then, so he was already way beyond their Kindergarten curriculum). When she was told they wouldn't have any accelerated programs for him (they sure do manage to have programs for SPORTS), she opted to find a private school for gifted kids. They allow kids to work at their pace, and at 8 he's almost completed the fourth grade for all subjects except math (where he's in the seventh grade). His math teacher says he'll be ready for algebra next year. His younger brother just turned five this past fall, and is in the first grade. Like his brother, he's also gifted at math.
If I had children I would send them to a non religious private school. However, I don't think parents should be given tax money to send their children to private school. I think that undermines public schools.
In my neck of the woods, property owners pay real estate taxes - a noticeable chunk of which finance public schools - whether or not they have children, and whether or not any of their children attend public or private schools.
Now, private schools as property owners, similar to many other “non-profit” entities, do enjoy property tax exemptions on the land and buildings that they own and operate.
Is that just?
Debatable.
As for variety in curriculum, in my neck of the woods, public and private school curriculum is often the exact same, repeat, the exact same, with the exception of any courses related to the cultural tradition that the private entity purports to represent.
Again, in my neck of the woods, only the most elite and expensive private high schools offer college-level STEM courses.
Apart from that, again, in my neck of the woods, the main difference between public and private schools is the quality of physical infrastructure and the financial statements of most of the families, and there is only one highly elite and expensive private high school that has a noticeable percentage of high school graduates who go on to Ivy League universities.
Elsewhere, there may be districts where public schools are well endowed with state of the art infrastructure, I don’t know.
As for the quality of outcomes, except for a few notable exceptions, I don’t calculate any difference attributable to that one single variable ‘public’ or ‘private’, there are so many other variables involved.
As to private grade schools, the Montessori schools (grade school only, AFAIK) make up for any such deficiencies with their teaching methods, which go far beyond any other school. The teachers are thoroughly trained in child brain development and capabilities beginning with pre-school, and are trained to make learning fun. Kids are doing pre-algebra exercises in kindergarten, and having fun with it. Go figure.
This is spot on. The Montessori teachers are miracle workers and the private Montessori school that my kids attend has a student teacher ratio of 6:1 in the classroom. They are able to do this without making tuition unreasonable (6K/year) because they are affiliated with the university where I teach and they have a robust Montessori Masters program that allows experienced "student" teachers to get classroom and observation hours under the direction of a Montessori education faculty member.
I simply cannot believe how well the Montessori classroom is run and how advanced the curriculum is for my kindergarten son. He writes multi-page stories in cursive and mixes all of his own paint shades from primary colors. He can multiply 2 and 3 digit numbers and he solves word problems that give my 11 and 12 year old niece and nephew trouble. His teacher can simply ring a bell and the entire classroom of 3-6 year old kids quietly clean up what they are doing and sit silently in a circle. There are no behavior problems to speak of and the kids are very sweet to one another.
In my area there are some public Montessori schools but unfortunately the administrators don't understand Montessori. The teachers are great but the curricular restrictions greatly dilute what the teachers are able to accomplish, and the lottery system that allows kids to enroll is flawed because it gives priority to siblings and district transfers and gives the teachers a very challenging demographic slice. I play on a softball team full of Montessori teachers and they are all looking for private school jobs even if it means taking a big pay cut.
We only have experience with private Montessori schools for PK-K grades and I absolutely agree with post above that Montessori schools do absolutely great job! Cannot speak about all of them obviously, but the ones we have experience with teach kids very well and provide a good quality education in small class format and many (not all) teachers seem to be the best people whom you would entrust your child. Before enrolling we asked directors of the schools very straightforward questions about their approach specifically in regard to propaganda and the response was that this is not compatible with Montessori approach and they do not teach that... Our actual experience confirmed that...
What is your opinion on private schools? Do you have one?
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