Would you send your kids to private school?

[Oryx]

Like... wtf? I was a total outcast xD It was horrible. I mean if you've gone to private school all your life I guess you'd be fine but switching in your teen years... no I don't think it's appropriate.

I switched in my teen years and it was the best thing that happened to me. I went to public middle school, freshman year public high school, then finished high school in a Catholic school.

But in reality, it depends on where you live, so what your public school is. Mine, in one year, had bomb threats and things set on fire and evacuation after evacuation and it was a miserable learning environment. It provided a bad influence for my sister, who was going down the wrong path because of friends she made there. It was a place where I would get valedictorian without a second thought but wouldn't have actually learned anything.

Then I transferred into Catholic school and was challenged and met with people that were as motivated to succeed as I was. My grades went down because the difficulty went up, but I enjoyed the actual intellectual stimulation. My sister made new friends in the context of her new school, and straightened herself up and went on to college instead of where she was headed with the influence of the kids from our old school.

The thing is, if our school had been better to begin with, it wouldn't have been an option to go to private school. I don't think private is for everyone, but I do think it is a challenge and something that if you want to academically achieve and you're in a bad school district, it would be good for you.

Also a little offended by all the private school generalizations in this thread, honestly. Just throwing that out there for all the people that are extrapolating "this is my (maybe imagined) experience with private school" to "all private school kids everywhere are (insult), (generalization), and (insult)". Please think about what you're saying.

 

[Nihilego]

Then I transferred into Catholic school and was challenged and met with people that were as motivated to succeed as I was. My grades went down because the difficulty went up, but I enjoyed the actual intellectual stimulation. My sister made new friends in the context of her new school, and straightened herself up and went on to college instead of where she was headed with the influence of the kids from our old school.

The thing is, if our school had been better to begin with, it wouldn't have been an option to go to private school. I don't think private is for everyone, but I do think it is a challenge and something that if you want to academically achieve and you're in a bad school district, it would be good for you.

How exactly did you find your school more intellectually challenging? Just asking because I kinda... found the absolute opposite. While there were some good teachers at mine I didn't really feel challenged or motivated at all. That could have been just me though - I didn't really care very much lol.

Further to that, you say your grades went down? I'd personally be very concerned by that, as I'm under the impression that private schools are supposed to improve grades. At least around here anyway... idk. I just don't see how you can pay more to go to private school and be satisfied with worse grades. Or have I misinterpreted something? I understand why your grades went down but isn't that ultimately a bad thing?

 

[Khawill]

The public school I went to had a dress code, and even though my current school doesn't, my job has the same dress code. You're going to have to get used to being told what to wear, even though it sucks. I wouldn't send my kid to private school (if I had one) just because I'd rather not pay the money if he will do fine at a public.

 

[Oryx]

How exactly did you find your school more intellectually challenging? Just asking because I kinda... found the absolute opposite. While there were some good teachers at mine I didn't really feel challenged or motivated at all. That could have been just me though - I didn't really care very much lol.

Further to that, you say your grades went down? I'd personally be very concerned by that, as I'm under the impression that private schools are supposed to improve grades. At least around here anyway... idk. I just don't see how you can pay more to go to private school and be satisfied with worse grades. Or have I misinterpreted something? I understand why your grades went down but isn't that ultimately a bad thing?

When things are harder, grades generally go down. That's...how things work. Private schools aren't meant to improve grades, they're meant to provide a better education (or in some cases, just a more religious one, but in my case it was much better). I wasn't paying for a free ride, I was paying for a good school. I would find the school entirely corrupt if they gave everyone straight As or made the courses easier because people were paying for it. Thanks for the concern I guess, but I'm in a top 20 college, it's not necessary.

I found that a lot of students felt the way you do/did about private school, based on where they were in the school and how unaware they were of the privilege they were offered. I was given the challenge because I was seeking it out, while other kids that weren't seeking out a challenge got just enough to get by, or failed out because they didn't care that their parents were spending 7k a year on their education, lol. Certainly not all the kids were as achievement-seeking as the people I ended up around in the higher-level courses.

 

[Nihilego]

When things are harder, grades generally go down. That's...how things work. Private schools aren't meant to improve grades, they're meant to provide a better education (or in some cases, just a more religious one, but in my case it was much better). I wasn't paying for a free ride, I was paying for a good school. I would find the school entirely corrupt if they gave everyone straight As or made the courses easier because people were paying for it. Thanks for the concern I guess, but I'm in a top 20 college, it's not necessary.

I didn't realise that schools in America don't all teach the same thing, haha. Here every school has to teach exactly the same stuff as every other school so the idea that one school might be harder than another is totally alien to me. So that's why I was confused. We only pay for the teaching quality here, not a harder course (usually). There are exceptions but you still wouldn't expect your grades to go down in comparison to other schools.

I found that a lot of students felt the way you do/did about private school, based on where they were in the school and how unaware they were of the privilege they were offered. I was given the challenge because I was seeking it out, while other kids that weren't seeking out a challenge got just enough to get by, or failed out because they didn't care that their parents were spending 7k a year on their education, lol. Certainly not all the kids were as achievement-seeking as the people I ended up around in the higher-level courses.

Heh, I wouldn't say that having money being chucked at me and not being aware of the privilege I was getting describes my situation at all. But I don't think you were implying that's what my situation was like. I was actually at my school for free on scholarships and not out of my own choice; the sort of money needed to normally send a kid there was way above me haha. I was just really not happy there I guess. Being forced to go to a school and not liking how that school worked (as outlined in one of my previous posts in this thread), private or not, is never gonna end well. But whatever. It apparently worked out since I'm about to start at a pretty good uni so *shrug*.

 

[Khawill]

Idk if all schools are bad, id never even considered private school until I moved north on my freshman year. And even then I got lucky enough to go to the 3rd best hs here. Now there were certainly private schools better than it, they have more freedom, money, and teachers are more expected to teach.

 

[Gliberty]

Although most private schools are religious (85%), not all are.

If I am able to make enough money to send my child to a private school, I would.
The selection of the private school would be the important part of this decision though.
I would want to see statistics, curriculum, extracurricular, teachers' education, school policies, religious affiliations (if any) among other factors. Private schools are businesses, so if I am not impressed, I can take my money elsewhere; however, public schools do not have that same pressure, they have little to no guarantees and do not have to convince me to enroll my child into their school.

 

[CriticalKYUC]

If I had the money, I'd send them to the best possible. Pubic Schools are garbage. Also, this thread feels like a ploy for attention whoring.