Private School- Worth it?

[PrincessFiona]

Im a private school convert. I also have to say that school is what you make it but classes are only as good as the teachers. In the formative years its the teachers leading, not a child's inner drive.

I think it depends on the public and private schools in your area though and what your priorities are. Our public schools are highly ranked, but they have no ability to cater to students who don't fit into a neat package. Our private school keeps class sizes to 15-20, the teachers are very involved, and we have a special needs child who has no IEP in part because they consider each child to be unique and in need of care and planning. He has excelled academically, missed only 2 questions on his pr-SAT and has had major social help.

Our public schools we're a major fail with him. None of my kids will attend public school when they are old enough to attend this one. We are very blessed though to have this school here and we know it.

[L.Jane]

I truly believe it depends on the school, and on the kid. I started out in religious private, but then they did not have the resources I needed for my dyslexia, so I was switched to public after second grade. I did public until high school when I chose to go to a secular private school. I had to take an exam to get in, and I did just fine. I was on level with half the kids. The others were in advanced classes. I would have done HORRIBLY at the public school. It was big and overwhelming. The private school had small classes and I had AMAZING teachers. I made leaps and bounds with my English there. On the other hand, my younger sister chose to go to the public high school and did amazing there because she was able to use the vocational system to take further her sewing skills.

[Chrisada]

I'll add that a Christian private school traumatized me. Those were the meanest, racist, most spoiled people I have ever encountered. My mother finally let me go to an academic magnet school (30th in the country this year ) and I flourished. You have to look at the whole picture. Private does not always mean better.

[niener]

I think it just really depends on the kid and the school. You can't really lump all public and all private into two distinct categories and label one good and one bad. DH and I only have experiences with private schools. DH's elementary school was Catholic and he hated it, the education was terrible and he wasn't challenged in the slightest. He got made fun of for being the "smart kid". I went to a Montessori elementary school which I loved because that teaching style really fit well with my learning style. It's definitely not for everyone though. We both went to the same middle school and high school, which was a fairly hoity-toity private liberal arts school where all the rich kids in town went (though neither of us were any shade of rich). We both felt we received a very good education there and that it was worth it, especially since neither of us was zoned for a particularly good school. The only thing I feel that most private schools lack is a vocational program. At least none of the private schools in our area had one, and I always felt that was a serious oversight. I would have loved to learn some "basic life skills," so to speak.

[Ravenclaw]

Our choice is pretty simple here. Our local public school is decent, the only private options are expensive and/or religious and/or a long way away and/or affiliated with education models I'm not totally behind (Waldorf).

Just heard about the Waldorf model today in DD's preschool. What are your thoughts on it?

Although I hate where we live, one of the positives is we're in a good school system. So we'll have DD in the public preschool next year for 2 days a week. Once we're done with training, we'll have to revisit private vs. public depending on where we live. I went to Catholic schools from K-12 and DH went to public. The Catholic schools like others mentioned were really not up to snuff academically, especially in math and science. My sisters and I convinced my parents to send our younger brothers to the public high school, where I think they got a much better education. Although, I've heard that public school has degraded in quality though over the years. DH moved around a lot as a child and was in some no-so-great schools but was nerdy (he'd read his history and science books cover to cover at the beginning of the year). So it really depends on the child and the schools in your area.

[GrayMatterWife]

Private does not always mean better.

YES. DS went to another private school for kindergarten, and it took a year for him to emotionally recover and for family life to return to healthy and normal.

[spotty_dog]

Just heard about the Waldorf model today in DD's preschool. What are your thoughts on it?

I haven't done a ton of research, but at its core I gather that the philosophy works to build on a child's strength of creativity and wonder during the early years. At its purest form, screens of any kind (TV, computer) are frowned upon for quite some time and used sparingly even when introduced, and reading is even discouraged before age 7 or so. Math is taught through fairy stories, I believe, and art and handwork take a high priority (all Waldorf students learn to knit). Toys are open-ended, materials are always to be natural, faces are never to have expressions so that children can use their imaginations, simple wooden blocks and soft dolls and pieces of silk cloth in bright colors are the name of the game for promoting imaginative play.

I think it's a fascinating concept, and I've seen kids flourish with it. A couple we know are both artists, both very into the fae and fairy world kind of imagery, inventive and creative -- their kids naturally followed in their footsteps, and Waldorf is *perfect* for them. But we're both such concrete, numbers, facts kind of people. I love my kids' creative play and I love providing them with Waldorf-inspired materials, but Starfall phonics instruction on the computer is also a pretty major part of our world, you know? It's just not a great fit with our family, and where there are people in the area who will travel an hour or maybe more, each way, daily to get to this school, it's not even worth looking into for me.

[Meenah]

I am in the camp of depends on the child and the school. You can have the very best teacher in the worst school, or the worst teacher in the best school. I've experienced both with myself and my children. DH and I each have two children, we both have one that went to very expensive prep schools, and the other two to public schools. There are pros and cons to both. Fom our experience, once you get to high school the "exclusive" prep schools definitely open more college doors and make the whole college process easier.

[HouseofWool]

C is only in 3rd grade, but has been in 3 different schools. Of them, I really liked the first one, was deeply ambivalent about the 2nd and flove the one he is in now. Currently, he attends a public charter school that integrates a lot of different teaching philosophies with a strong emphasis on both science and the Arts (drama, music, visual arts). There is a continuation of the school through 8th grade, but then they have to join the standard public high school. While it is entirely too early to focus on that, it is something that I think about.

The school he attended for 4k and 5K laid a fantastic foundation with strong pre-literacy skills, particularly phonics. In 1st grade he quickly became a strong reader in large part because of that foundation. Now, he meets with the high performance learning instructor at least once a week for both math and reading. I am glad that he is being pushed but yet it is not so much that he is fatigued by it.

[DCJenn]

to whomever asked- Crunchy School was pre-school although they'll keep kids in a 'home-school' environment until they're 13. (meaning that they're not licensed as a grade school)

We go to the slightly less Crunchy public school with at least 20 other families who went to Crunchy School. It's public Crunchy School.

J.