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Why do I get the feeling that everyone is associating "private school" to a school like the one portrayed on the movie Dead Poets Society. From kindergarten through high school I went to two different private christian schools. Sure there were a fair amount of rich families that went there, sure their kids had a new car (maybe a new VW, or a racer boy Honda), but I think for the most part most families were middle class suburbanites.
^^^^Yes, this^^^^^
Many parents of children in private schools are not necessarily "rich" some just place a greater emphasis on education and believe (rightly or wrongly) that their children receive a better standard of education in a private school.
I went to a private school for kindergarden until eleventh grade. What I first have to point out is your stereotypical view of private school kids that was probably skewed due to watching a movie or something of that sort that made them seem like overly proud and dignified brats. I don't know what private schools are like in your area, but I suppose there are some that are like what you described. The high school I went to had a lot of kids who seemed poor, because I went over to their houses and they lived in deprived areas with bullet holes in their homes. This contradicts your statement of the students coming from affluent families. Most of the parents were middle class.
The private high school I went to was competitive, yet you are acting as if that is a bad thing. About one thousand students took a test to get into my high school and about 200 were let in. The students were geared towards college and having an award-winning school on a piece of paper is aesthetically pleasing. I won't be bias and say that I enjoyed every minute of my private school and that I recommend sending your child there, because frankly I despised and regretted going to my private high school. The elementary and middle school was a somewhat benevolent experience, but I advise not sending your kids to a school where the teachers may have outlandish statements relating to conservative religious views. Some kids may have a different religion (witnessed Atheists, Agnostics, etc), yet the student is most likely receiving a better education than the counterpart public school. I was also taught discipline and responsibility when going to a private school. I had 3+ hours of homework daily and never complained when I hear of my friend who very rarely has homework to do. I noticed this first hand when attending a public school for the first time. It was 12th grade. I rarely had homework and the classes were straight forward and relaxed. This made me question the state of public schools in the United States. I wanted to defend the public school educational environment, yet I couldn't find a solid reason to explain the incompetence of education (I graduated a couple years ago, btw). For example, my teacher had a terrible car accident and had to travel to doctors across the country for operations. The substitutes (many since the teacher was absent for most of year) knew nothing of the subject that this teacher taught. They assigned homework and said to "help each other out". Many people did terrible in the class due to not having a sufficient teacher to explain the complicated material. I'm not a stiff or anything of that matter, yet there needs to be a more strict format to the public education system in America.
There is no clear answer to either type of school. You have to take each school in a case-by-case basis, because, judging by my case, you would most likely shy away from private schools, yet you may find a much better private school for your kids. There are good and bad in both schools, but if you would ask me if I regret going to a private high school where you get a detention for not showing work on 4 simple homework problems and are sent to detention where you have to copy down the dictionary, work-for-word, for an hour and a half (yeah, it happened to me), I would say that I do not regret that type of experience. I learned a lot and became more responsible due to going to an overly strict and peculiar private high school.
I went to an elite private school in my area! I think I'd know the environment. And at least where I live, the private schools are all mostly the same. The cliques, the overly competitive attitude where a B will doom you for life, the snootiness of the student body, it just wears one down. And I don't think I would want to subject my child to that. I'd have to really look into private schools in other areas of the country, so as to make sure the one I would potentially send my child to wouldn't be like the one I grew up in. I blame it more on the culture already established than anything else, but the student body is also to blame. They feed into it.
I went to an elite private school in my area! I think I'd know the environment. And at least where I live, the private schools are all mostly the same. The cliques, the overly competitive attitude where a B will doom you for life, the snootiness of the student body, it just wears one down. And I don't think I would want to subject my child to that. I'd have to really look into private schools in other areas of the country, so as to make sure the one I would potentially send my child to wouldn't be like the one I grew up in. I blame it more on the culture already established than anything else, but the student body is also to blame. They feed into it.
This isn't exclusive to private school, though. There are plenty of public schools where the vast majority of kids are rich, snooty, competitive, etc. In fact, my kids go to a school like that.
I went to an elite private school in my area! I think I'd know the environment. And at least where I live, the private schools are all mostly the same. The cliques, the overly competitive attitude where a B will doom you for life, the snootiness of the student body, it just wears one down. And I don't think I would want to subject my child to that. I'd have to really look into private schools in other areas of the country, so as to make sure the one I would potentially send my child to wouldn't be like the one I grew up in. I blame it more on the culture already established than anything else, but the student body is also to blame. They feed into it.
Dude you can send your kids to whatever public or private school you and your wife decide on, as long as you can afford it or qualify for financial aid, and your kids can pass whatever entrance exam is required. You can even choose to homeschool your kids.
I'm sure there are plenty of people who had bad prep school experiences who have vowed never to send their kids to one, just as there are plenty of people taking the same vow because of public school and because of Catholic school.
Hello all! Is there anyone who went or is going to an elite private school who have decided that, due to their experiences there (my case: students are stuck up and entitled, everyone is too competitive and takes themselves too seriously, money is not an object for anyone, school run by "old money" families), they just won't send their children (or future children) to one.
I have recently decided when the time comes to have children, no matter how great the education is, I just can't stomach having them go to a place like my that.
Have any of you all, either graduated or currently going to high school, made a similar decision?
I went to a public high school, but also went to catholic schools growing up. Most of the people I was friends with went to the Catholic school.
Did that high school do anything for them? Nope, the smart ones made it and the dumb ones didn't. I know more people who became doctors and engineers from my public school than the catholic one.
In our area, there were a couple good high schools and about 3 ghetto ones. The people who would have to go to the ones with a bunch of people from the ghetto ended up sending their kids to the private school and the ones who were in the good district just went to the public school.
Private schools don't offer a better education than a public school unless you live in a terrible district or the ghetto.
Private schools don't offer a better education than a public school unless you live in a terrible district or the ghetto.
This is another blanket statement that is absolutely not true. My children attend a private school where the published standardized test scores average in the 99% for the nation. Our local public school which is considered excellent is around 65-70%. And unlike the public school my children's school doesn't prepare for the test for a month beforehand.
At my private high school one of my teachers was a consultant for NORAD and later for NATO. Another was a best selling children's author. 90% of my graduating class was accepted into their first choice of colleges.
Not all private schools are exceptional but some are, to say otherwise just isn't true.
I went to a public high school, but also went to catholic schools growing up. Most of the people I was friends with went to the Catholic school.
Did that high school do anything for them? Nope, the smart ones made it and the dumb ones didn't. I know more people who became doctors and engineers from my public school than the catholic one.
In our area, there were a couple good high schools and about 3 ghetto ones. The people who would have to go to the ones with a bunch of people from the ghetto ended up sending their kids to the private school and the ones who were in the good district just went to the public school.
Private schools don't offer a better education than a public school unless you live in a terrible district or the ghetto.
They often differ in curriculum, however, which can most certainly equate to a better equation. When I taught, it always surprised me how much better prepared the Catholic school kids vs. the kids who came from the public middle school (considered 'good') were for a honors level high school English class. They were knowledgable on grammar, had read classics like The Odyssey and Little Women, were familiar with literary analysis and had written formal papers - compared to the public school kids who seemed to have an English curriculum heavy with poster-making, song writing, and books like Harry Potter. There was just such a gap between skills.
I only taught English though, so perhaps it's different in other subjects.
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