Private Schools

[CodeChrono]

It's all relative. I think education should be a choice based on the child's desire. I attended a public school, and I met some ofthe bst best friends I would ever know. I got a good education, had great teachers, although had to deal with the "drama" of high school.

I probably would have loved to have attended a private school. There is one private school nearby, where some of my "richer" relatives attend. They are all good Catholic people with some of the best attitutdes and personalities I've evern known. Two have graduated from the school, one becoming an ecnomics major in college and works in an accounting firm, while the other one took cosmotology classes and now does a great hair cut.

I've also known several homeschooled children. Now, while they are usually great people and have just as good of an education as others, they seem to have a much lower level of social contact. One of my old buddies was homeschooled from elementary to middle school, coming back in high school. He kind of acted a lot less mature, and wasn't sure how to act in social gatherings.

Really, I think it should be up to the kid. Because ultimately, it's only the kid that can truely know what's the best method of learning for the kid! Sometimes I just think parents go a tad off the deep end. :O

 

[wgreer25]

I know I found girls to be extremely distracting in school but managed to pull through. Perhaps the secret was that girls generally didn't find me nearly so distracting in return? A lot of it depends on how much you put into your own education - often the back parts of the books that don't get covered have the most interesting and useful information. I also credit being in a poor rural school district without the money for the latest idiotic craze in education.

I think that private schools offer a better education, but mostly because parents who pay the extra money to put their children into private school are more likely to pay attention to the child's education. We have two public high schools in town that are #1 and #2 in the state. Both are in rich areas, where parents put more importance on a quality education AND have more time and energy to ensure this for their children AND tend to have fewer children on which to focus AND have more resources to supplement the education both within the school and outside of it. Most public schools are afflicted with parents who either don't care or who are most interested in making sure their little angels are not "disrespected" or given "negative self images" rather than whether their little angel can read, do math, or continue on to college or a skilled trade.

Well said. I also went to public schools growing up, but I was in a very rich part of town. Brentwood, TN. Wereposum will understand when I say rich and that city (BTW, my family wasn't rich, it just grew up around them, so now they are sitting on a gold-mine in thier house). My education was very good, because my family cared. If I didn't bring home something greater than a 3.5gpa, I was just shy of being horse whipped (not really). My wife, however, went to a public school in downtown Atlanta (very poor area). But she also was urged by her parents to excel in school. We now both have very successful careers. So in general I will say that your education can be largely a factor of what you will try to get out of it and how much encouragement you have.

I will agree with many poeple on this thread that some private schools produce asshats. To that point, I think that there is something that public school offers here in the states that private school cannot, diversity. The US is the most diverse country in the world and unfortunately the racial diversity sometimes coincides with the level of income. Private schools are typically filled with Whitey McWhiterson, while the public school offers a more realistic view of society. Is this valuable? I don't know. I don't have kids yet and we haven't yet seriously discussed where we want our kids to go to school (the area we are in has private schools about every 2 blocks). As the private school may have better tools to help teach our kids, I don't want them to go to a private school and think that the whole world is made up of well-to-do white people.

 

[werepossum]

I know I found girls to be extremely distracting in school but managed to pull through. Perhaps the secret was that girls generally didn't find me nearly so distracting in return? A lot of it depends on how much you put into your own education - often the back parts of the books that don't get covered have the most interesting and useful information. I also credit being in a poor rural school district without the money for the latest idiotic craze in education.

I think that private schools offer a better education, but mostly because parents who pay the extra money to put their children into private school are more likely to pay attention to the child's education. We have two public high schools in town that are #1 and #2 in the state. Both are in rich areas, where parents put more importance on a quality education AND have more time and energy to ensure this for their children AND tend to have fewer children on which to focus AND have more resources to supplement the education both within the school and outside of it. Most public schools are afflicted with parents who either don't care or who are most interested in making sure their little angels are not "disrespected" or given "negative self images" rather than whether their little angel can read, do math, or continue on to college or a skilled trade.

Well said. I also went to public schools growing up, but I was in a very rich part of town. Brentwood, TN. Wereposum will understand when I say rich and that city (BTW, my family wasn't rich, it just grew up around them, so now they are sitting on a gold-mine in thier house). My education was very good, because my family cared. If I didn't bring home something greater than a 3.5gpa, I was just shy of being horse whipped (not really). My wife, however, went to a public school in downtown Atlanta (very poor area). But she also was urged by her parents to excel in school. We now both have very successful careers. So in general I will say that your education can be largely a factor of what you will try to get out of it and how much encouragement you have.

I will agree with many poeple on this thread that some private schools produce asshats. To that point, I think that there is something that public school offers here in the states that private school cannot, diversity. The US is the most diverse country in the world and unfortunately the racial diversity sometimes coincides with the level of income. Private schools are typically filled with Whitey McWhiterson, while the public school offers a more realistic view of society. Is this valuable? I don't know. I don't have kids yet and we haven't yet seriously discussed where we want our kids to go to school (the area we are in has private schools about every 2 blocks). As the private school may have better tools to help teach our kids, I don't want them to go to a private school and think that the whole world is made up of well-to-do white people.

Agreed. The poorer houses in Brentwood are worth as much as the very nicest houses in Dayton.

We've got some good private schools in Chattanooga, but we also have some good public schools that compete with any of the private schools. And I had a neighbor whose son was always near flunking out of Boy Buchanan (prep school more expensive than many community or state colleges.) Education is what you put into it - or what your parents force you to put into it.

Public schools expose you (sometimes literally) to a variety of people, but private schools expose you to a variety of people who will be the ones doing the hiring. Money speaks to money. I think one of the reasons private school kids do so well career-wise is the contacts they make in primary school and in college.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

1) Behaviour. With some kids behaviour management is a very time consuming job, which affects learning for the rest of the class.
2) Whether or not there's school funding riding on it, as a teacher you (should) always want all your kids to succeed - that's what you're there for.

which leads to another issue that i rarely hear any discussion about. the worse are teachers who care too much and end up focusing on individual human train wrecks just to get a contact high from turning a potential junky into a gas station attendant.

we'll call it the "Stand and Deliver/Lean On Me" complex. it's where the entire wall of children is too overwhelming and any changes made have no immediate gratification. where as helping 1 totally screwed up child seems more noble and is filled with more emotional rewards. meanwhile, 50 B+ average students could have transfered to advanced placement classes but who cares since they are average, uneventful, and less exciting kids.

between this effect and the detached apathy that other teachers express, normal kids are screwed.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

It's all relative. I think education should be a choice based on the child's desire. I attended a public school, and I met some ofthe bst best friends I would ever know. I got a good education, had great teachers, although had to deal with the "drama" of high school.

and ultimately that is entirely true. all of the information people need lies in a book somewhere. wether or not you buy the book or get one paid for by the state is irrelevant.

as a parent, i wish there was a seperate schooling system that only consisted of people who intentionally opted in and want to learn, because the public school system is filled with too many idiots that don't want to learn a thing... and the last thing i need is their peer pressure encroching on my kids.

when my kids do get old enough... if they demonstrate the apptitude i might very well accelerate their education via community college and night classes.

 

[Kikosemmek]

I went to a very prestigious Arab Catholic private school in Israel (if this seems confusing, know that many religions and cultures exist in that tiny place). I'm personally only half-Arab by heritage and agnostic by faith, both of my parents being secular. I went there because of the prestige, and I read just a few years ago that it was rated #2 or #3 in Israel. Most of my classmates graduated to go to universities straight away at home and abroad.

I, however, left Israel when I was fourteen and came to live in Los Angeles, attending a public school for the rest of my years as a minor. What I learned in Israel as a 13-14 year-old I learned again as a 17-18 year-old in the US.

If you ask me, it's not the school being public that's the problem, but the teaching methods being ineffective and outdated compared to those in Israel that took their toll on the students. Maybe it's nation-wide throughout the public schooling system? I am aware that my school won the US national Academic Decathalon competition, and that I judged myself to be more intelligent than most of the members of my school's team, having known them well. More than knowledge, I judged quick-thinking, improvisation, and maturity.

However, I will say that I participated in a secondary learning program while in Israel, which recruited from the top 10% of every class and then selected from that group the half which performed best on an IQ test. Now, because of my class there were around ten students who got into the program along with me, I am assured that it is not my own intelligence that was exceptional, but the education that I received at school. I will admit that I am good at most things academic, but I've certainly met more efficient students than I whose minds I did not envy.

 

[Alotak]

I have been to both and each has their benafits.
I must say that the major problem with my school (private) is the fact its an Roman Catholic school. In RE i constantly argue that god doesnt exist, and it get anoying that they all believe without any proof (this is my opinion not an asualt on theists). I even told the preist when he asked my to serve.

Anyhow im indifferent to either as they have different pirks and downsides.

 

[John Galt]

I went to a private school from K-8 and it turned out pretty well. My family, being one of the poorer families attending the school, did not allow me to develop the prickliness that is associated with private schools while they kept enough pressure on me that I did great, even by the school's standards.

In high school, I'm doing pretty well. I don't carry the social baggage of private school and I'm in an engineering magnate program and taking the highest math courses I can get my hands on. My only real complaint is that despite being in the engineering program, there's still the kids who are in there that have no real desire to learn. I guess that's a problem no matter what type of class, but the fact that the waiting list for the program is so long makes me resent them even more.

 

[zari]

My education was very good, because my family cared. If I didn't bring home something greater than a 3.5gpa, I was just shy of being horse whipped (not really).

But she also was urged by her parents to excel in school.

This is the other big factor of course. You can have fantastic teachers at a fantastic school, but if families don't value education and learning it makes for a bloody big road bump to get over. I think it's interesting how some parents view this aspect as well. Some understand that school is a partnership between kids, teachers, and families, while some just don't get it - they expect to send their kids to school, which absolves them of any responsibility in their child's learning. Then of course you get the few which just view it as a baby sitting service and couldn't care less if their kids succeeded or not.

To BallPtPenTheif: I'm very glad that I don't work with any teachers who act the way you've described. Mind you, I also have trouble even imagining it happening in a classroom situation. There are borderline kids who I think I've made a difference to and naturally I get job satisfaction from that, but focusing on them to feed your own need for validation seems like a recipe for some sort of mental breakdown.

In response to your next post, I remember when I was doing my education diploma we were looking at case studies of different teaching (and behaviour management) theories, and one was a very permissive school (I forget the name) in the UK where students drove the learning program. They turned up to the teachers they wanted to, when they wanted to, learned at their own pace and so on. I loved the idea of it, but it would only work for a fraction of the population (again which would be very family-driven).

For what it's worth, I spent a few years in primary school at a Montessori school which was very much a self-paced and self-directed learning situation, but as with others in this thread I come from a family where learning was valued. I loved to read, I was encouraged to research ideas that interested me, but the problem was that this tended to mean I excelled in specialised areas but by the time (public) highschool came around I had to play catch-up in areas I hadn't had much exposure to like math and essay-writing (although this was offset by being quite literate, just not used to writing down reams of information). I suppose in summary, alternative education can be good, but if it's too alternative it can also be detrimental .

[My little brother is doing a liberal arts degree at uni atm - I'm somewhat curious as to what he'll do when he finishes. But hell, I did computer science and never imagined I'd end up teaching.]

 

[JC123]

I went to a mid-to-lower end Private School (just a few $1000 a semester, not $10k+ like some others) in Brisbane, Australia and from my experience I'd definitely say I obtained a higher level of education than I would have in public schooling. As pretty much everyone else mentioned, public school tends to be composed of a large majority of underachievers, those only in school because they have to be. The low average means slower classes, lower grade teaching, and lack of funding means poor resources. Only in private school can you have professionals come in to use your labs, train on your field, or use your recording studio. Not many parents are willing to spend thousands for their kid to mess around, so your student body is composed of those wanting to be there, or in the case of scholarship kids, deserving of the position. With more resources and higher wages bringing better teachers and a more expansive cirriculum, education standards are without doubt higher in every private school I've seen.

To those referring to public schools being of a higher quality in Australia, in what points are you comparing them? If you're talking about results, I'd suggest you allow for pure numbers - the only public school able to compete here is Brisbane State High, and that's only due to the sheer number of students it has - in 2000 kids you're sure to find a few smart ones. I doubt it would differ for the rest of the country.

The only thing that I've found public school can prepare you more for is the "real world" factors. Wealth is conspicuously dispersed across certain levels, so diversity is always lower in private schools, which can cause the "snob" factor in some children. Then again, these are the same kids who would wear their brand new Nikes and drive a BMW to a public school anyway. I also lacked much in the way of hardcore peer pressure factors: drugs, sex, fights, gangs, etc were there, but in far less number than my public school mates experienced in their lives. Although I was stunted in experiencing these realities I wasn't clueless, and you pick it up quickly in uni or the workforce anyway, so I wouldn't consider it a major downfall.

Someone (apologies to whomever it was, I can't find the quote now) mentioned earlier that a studie has shown students from private schools were more likely to obtain 1st round university entrance, but also more likely to drop out, and I'd definitely agree with that statistic. That's probably the only one negative I'd find in private school education: The far more structured environment provides better results and makes more people reach their potential, but does mean a lot of students have never had to develop self-driven learning - throw them in the freedom of tertiary education and some will always prefer to just drink and mess around than actually go somewhere. Public school children who reach higher levels have to focus, and fight for their achievements, and as such as already prepared for the differing learning styles.

My school was also a Catholic school, but despite what has been suggested earlier, I never had religion "shoved down my throat." We studied all religions, just like every other public school kid I've spoken to, and the only real involvement of faith in the school was a crucifix on the wall of most classrooms, a priest running the place (more a "face" than an actual leader) and a mass every few months. Most private schools are religion based, in fact I only know of 2 in the area that aren't - the girls and boys grammar schools. The majority of the student body is of another religion, or not really religious. Doesn't bother me, or the school.