Private Shools vs Public Schools

it depends on where you live i think. medium to large sized cities seem to have a good number of private schools. some religious some not. in our area, there are a lot of religious private schools. i would say from the people i know.... they are likely to send their pre-school and kindergarten aged kids to a private school and start public school in elementary school. some may even extend the private school through elementary, but i dont know anyone who has kids in private school past that point. middle and high school private schools are more for the upper income families (at least here).

we have private schools where i live. when i first went to highschool my mom and i moved that summer to a new town. the public school was just a pre K for the local pirson.... and the private school was ...like taking a time machine back to 1950 in the south. and yes a Christian school. my cousins all went to that school because my aunt and uncle didnt like the alternative. their youngest son decided at one point he preferred public, but he then he started acting like a little heathen and getting into trouble. dont know if thats because he was one anyway or because of influence.
anyway when we moved to this town it was just after my grandad and my aunt (my dad's sister) had both just died. their timing couldnt have been better because i was close to both of them and was allowed to take the allotted time off from school (make that the first week off) but that gave me time to decide which school i wanted to go to.
the public school scared me to death. i had come from a small close knit fishing community, i went to public school there but it was a high standard school. kids just didnt act the fool there.... but when i checked out the public school they made me take a test to see if i qualified. my mom was waiting in the other room and no doubt telling them all our recent history. she had moved here because she had been laid off from her old job, her mother being alone now, and her sister was here etc.
i already knew i was going to fail that test. it was covering things i had never seen before, and the stuff i did know was foggy because it had been a whole summer since i had seen any of it, add to it the recent stress of moving and two deaths in the family.
So they said i wasnt up to their standards, have a nice life....

so i was enrolled into the public school. i pitched a screaming hissy fit too.... i wanted to go live with my dad or be home schooled, or just drop out, anything to avoid Jefferson County High School..... but i had to go anyway.
so later on, i was hanging out with my cousin and her friend who was a tutor at the private school. he asked why i didnt want to go there.. i told them it was because .. in so many words.. not smart enough. he got mad and said that was BS and just wrong. he figured my mom mentioned unemployment had something to do with it. we had the money, otherwise it wouldnt have been an option. but you gotta hand it to them for assuming and judging.. Christian school my ass....
Well before the end of the year was out a friend of mine got mugged in the gym (the one and only coach in his office while everyone was just killing time in the gym)
a friend and i decided we didnt like being at school one day so we hitch hiked all the way home (30 miles) and the last week of school i was asleep in the back of the bus and someone threw a pen which jabbed a hole in my neck..... yeah there may be a bit of a stigma about SOME public schools.
they're not all like that. JCHS was a real piece of work.. when i went to the principles office to report what happened he hemmed and hawed and made some crack about rats.. i.e. people ratting on each other to get folks in trouble.... and my boyfriend and i cut class one day to go to the hearing of his best friend who was caught stealing from the private school i got turned down from.....
of course my mom and i moved again the following summer to a school that was closer to what i was used to as far as being a higher standard public school that showed interest in the kids and their activities.

Depends on where you are from. The schools in my town are pretty good, so really no need to spend the extra money on a private school. My daughter has a few  friends that go to a private high school, really expensive, but their  arents are loaded and are thinking they  will get accepted to better colleges if she goes to a good private school.
 

We went to private schools b/c the public schools here are a JOKE.  We are religious, but more inwardly so, and we weren't sent to the private school to become indoctrinated.  I don't know how it is in Canada, but around here you can't pick your public school, only private school, so if the assigned public school in your zone sucks, you can only pick a private school if you want to pick.  Also, the private school I started in at age 4 was in walking distance (it was about a 20 minute walk and as a little kid, I walked with a 5th grader that lived on the next block).

 As for religious freedom vs. being open-minded, my high school experience (in a private school) was VERY open.  I read all these articles about people banning this word and that type of clothing and that book and restricting sex ed in the public schools, and I can't help but think how ironic it is that my private school didn't ban books, taught us evolution in biology, taught us ALL major world religions in religion class, provided plenty of comprehensive sex ed, and let us write on or talk about any topics we wanted.  It seems that a lot of the public schools are trying so hard to appease everyone than anything even slightly subjective or controversial is automatically banned.  However, I don't think all public education is the same, nor is all private education.  There are some ridiculously conservative high schools here and there are some public schools that I seriously do not think are safe.  It kinda depends on the territory.

Whether or not I send my kids to a private or public school will depend on the quality of both schools. 

It seems that a lot of the public schools are trying so hard to appease everyone than anything even slightly subjective or controversial is automatically banned.

this is true. there was one incident of a boy making a joke about raping girls for fun, when i reported it to the guidence counselor she just said "Well Joey isnt exactly *laughs* right in the head.. so you have to excuse him sometimes*laugh again*"
[:-]

In my area, the schools are considered some of the best, so everyone sends their kids to the public schools.  In the greater Sacramento area though, many of my friends have chosen private schools instead.  I went to a Catholic school k-8, my older brother and sister went K-12.  Having been the only one to go to the public high school, I think my parents knew what they were doing and I would've been better off had I not escaped the private school environment []

I grew up in a very affluent area of CT just outside NYC.  Very few of my friends went to private schools, but we used to party with those kids a lot.  The private schools nearby were largely "college prepartory" or "prep" schools, and, frankly were mostly for boys who had problems focusing.  They were VERY good schools, but my public school education rivals a lot of private schools.  Academically, where I went to school was very competetive.  The kids at private schools always had great houses and parents who were jaunting in Europe, so I spent a lot of time gettting drunk in their hottubs...[sm=devil.gif]

I would say the public vs private thing depends largely on region and income, at least where I come from.  Only the *exceptionally* wealthy or children of famous people really went to the private schools, and at that, they were local kids being shipped off to other faraway rural towns.

Well up here, in Thunder Bay at least, you can go to whichever public school you like.  The only stipulation being that in order to ride a bus, you need to go to the school you are zoned for.  If you have transportation other than the bus, any school is an option.

Kale's school that he goes to now is pretty good I think.  Kale brings home some homework that is interactive between him and us.  His teacher has called personally a couple of times for things like permision slips that got lost.  Once when his babysitter went AWOL the bus driver wouldn't let him get stay here and brought him back to the school where his teacher and princpal stayed with him and let him play on the computer until I got there.  When I've gone for interviews and even just casual, picking him up after school visits, Kale's teacher always has tons of informative stuff to say about him.  And not just things like,"Oh, he's great to have in class."  or "He's such a good little helper."  but real details, which says to me that she really pays attention to her students.  She also keeps a puffer for him in her desk and reminds him to take it when he needs to.  (Sometimes he doesn't seem to notice)

Kale has come home talking about China, Mexico, Russia, Italy, and lately India.  He's learned dances from around the world in gym class and can tell me most of the countries in Africa.  He's working out long subtraction in his head and knows most of his times tables.  His reading has improved immensly too this year.

At least twice a month a permission slip comes home for some field trip or other.  They have gone to 3 plays, a reading by Robert Munsch(so wishing I could have gone to that.)skating every Friday in Dember and January,  swimming every Friday this month, and the annual school picnic is this Friday at 5:30. 

So far all 3 of Kale's schools have been similar to this one, with slightly varying degrees as far as teachers go.  Mine were the same and the involvement that I had with my neices and nephew's schools lead me to believe they were similar too.  All public schools.  I've not ever heard of a bad school up here. 

I wonder if Angel will be around.  I'd like to hear her opinion on public schools since she's in Ontario too. 

The challenge in my state is to find one that isn't religious. Most are, here. Lily went to a preK-8th grade one for her preK...and it was FABULOUS. Bargain too at only $8000/yr. But we couldn't afford to do it for both and it doesn't seem fair otherwise.
 
IF I had money I'd send Lily to an all girls school....I think she'd do better there and stats would tend to bear that out.
 
Probably THE most annoying thing I find about public schools? Unless your child is ESL, or developmentally behind, special needs, or you are below such and such a financial line...my son CANNOT attend the preK at the public school his sis attends. That boils my blood. truly...I'd even be willing to PAY something for him to be able to go...but it's simply not even an option. PPPPFTT! [:@]

We have JK(junior kindergarten) and then SK(senior kindergarten) up here.  So kids sometimes start school when they are 3.  As long as they turn 4 by December 31st.

The elementry school that Madison will attend is a good school.  I have no problem with it but when she starts middle school, I am planning on putting her in a private school or at least tranfering her to a different school district.  The middle and high school that she "would" attend are terrible.  Lots of drugs and gangs and I'd have to hurt somebody if they laid their hands on my daughter.  Also, there are fewer students in private schools so the teachers have more time to help the students when needed.

My sisters and I all went to a Catholic school K thru 12, but back then if you were Catholic you went to a Catholic school - no questions asked.  Also, along about that time the public schools stopped teaching phonics and went to something called "whole word teaching" which pretty much resulted in hundreds of kids graduating who hadn't learned to read or to write a complete sentence. Here, the public school system is excellent.  I think that's pretty much the norm when you have a small town that's home to a major university.  The overall educational level of the parents is higher than average and there's a lot more parental involvement in the schools, at least at the elementary level.
 
Joyce

rwbeagles- which school is Lily at? I'm just curious- I went to Hockaday!

I *loved* private school- I grew up in what is probably the BEST school district in Texas, but frankly, hated the social side of things and the pressure to fit in. (And the emphasis on sports and boys and designer everything.) It really depends on where you are- and who you are- a good private school is pretty worthless if you can't handle it academically OR if it's just not the right match for you.

The problem in the US is that most school systems are funded by their tax base - made up of people who own their homes/properties/businesses. It pretty much garauntees that suburban schools are best funded and urban and rural schools are not (because of small tax bases). So a public school in a well-off suburb is at least well funded with well paid teachers. Can't garauntee that means it's a good school, but it stands a better chance of bieng a good school.  Where I live in rural PA the next county over has such a horrible school system that anyone who knows what's good for him homeschools.

So in such a muckity system often if you can afford a private school you will at least have small class sizes! I don't know what I would do. There are still so many race issues in public schools, especially with minority boys, that I might send my kids to mosque  and deal with the fallout later, just to improve my odds of them graduating with a useful (for college) diploma. There was a news article on NPR some time ago about how school districts were inflating their graduation rates. One way they were doing that was by finding ways to remove 'troublesome' kids from the list. The expert being interviewed said that nationally the real graduation rate average was about 77% and for minority kids it could be as low as 50%!

It is worrisome. I expect that's why your friend seems so defensive about where her kids are going to go to schoool.
Paula