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Private school - worthwhile/good idea for not rich people?
Did you or someone you know go to [edit public private, parent paid] school, esp if the students' parents can't easily afford it? Did their parents actually move to be closer to a prestigious school? Is it worth it for folks who aren't old boys/old girls and in general are neither new nor old money? Does it ever make sense to use the college fund to pay for secondary education?
As others have said it isn't clear what region you're referring to, however, here's my perspective from going to private schools in the US.
My mom was certain that private schools would provide a better education and environment than public schools in the area. All of the private schools around there were backed by a church or religion, and the ones I went to were Christian. My parents were not religious and didn't have any interest in converting, it was purely their opinion on the educational value.
All in all, I went to 4 different private schools from Kindergarten to 8th grade. Class sizes were incredibly small, and the entire school population was also very small. In one of the early ones, I recall there being 3 boys and 17 girls in my grade, and there were no other classes for that grade.
Educational perspective: It's hard to say for the early grades, but the teachers seemed more interested in teaching. I do recall the textbooks were different for the sake of being different, as they were all religious. (Believe it or not, there are even Christian math textbooks.) The science curriculum was missing anything that didn't align with the religion, so I never had formal education on the big bang, etc. I think the biggest benefit was the smaller class sizes. In middle school (7th & 8th grade) where there were multiple instructors for each subject, I remember struggling with some of the subjects. I was told unexpectedly that I would skip Pre-Algebra and go straight to Algebra I. The gym teacher also taught the Algebra I class, and I quickly became lost, but struggled my way through it. I have severe test anxiety around math, which is linked to this failure of the school to identify that I shouldn't be skipping a grade. You also end up losing valuable school time with the various religious aspects - mandatory bible class, chapel service at least once a week.
Social perspective: When you're in such a small class, you end up becoming friends with everyone, mostly. But on the other side of it, very few of those friendships survived when I transferred schools. There were never any situations where I felt "unsafe" - but it did help support my mom's goal of having me grow up in a bubble.
Financial perspective: I don't think any of these "pros" made it worth the cost. I'm still floored that my mom invested so much money into it. Not only for the cost of the school itself, but also the after-school "daycare" because my mom worked until after 5pm - that had an additional hourly cost. They also try to guilt kids into convincing their families to tithe 10% to the associated church. And even though they charge tuition, they also still hold fundraising events.
I can talk about charter schools too, if you're interested.
Charter schools don't exist in my area but I would be very interested in hearing your contrasting experience against private. Why did your family stop after grade 8? And christian math...... I steer clear of those things, I always felt suspicious of them leaving out information at best and downright hostile against those that seem like they were there to stoke fears --> make more money.
long aside re Christian curriculum people
One teen girl I talked to who was raised with this material didn't think fossils were real, that they just dig up random bones and jumble them around to whatever scientist want them to look like. I asked her, what about skulls, how do you rearrange present day small animal skulls and bones to form one big t rex skull? Whole femurs that are as wide around as a tree? Can you use many chicken bones to arrange me a tiger? And she just stared at me blankly. I hope she thought about it some more later.
There was also this one Christian homeschool thing they told me I absolutely "must" join called the homeschool legal defense group or whatever, whose sole existence is to stoke fears about the government taking away your right to homeschool. I asked the booth person if they do pay legal fees for members who end up being sued and they said after some equivocation, no they provide legal flavoured advice without representation. My friend thought it was a 'legal defense fund' as their materials / people implied. And anyway homeschooling is either currently legal or currently illegal: it's not going to suddenly change and retroactively parents get sued. Cowardly blood suckers. Just come out and say you're a lobby group for more power.
So, I went to charter schools starting in high school (grade 9) because my mom knew a national guard recruiter who worked at one of them and he recommended it. (I'm sure my mom was also running out of money at this point.) To be clear, charter schools in the US are still free to attend (aka taxpayer funded).
So this charter school was somewhat of a military school. Not in the sense of being a place you get sent to by your parents and live there, but more so there were a lot of military adjacent activities. Had to get into formation and do drills every morning, rules about when to speak and how to speak to teachers, etc. This screwed me up a bit because I was already a quiet kid and was basically told to talk even less.
Education at that school was a joke. I can't remember learning anything from it, and even recall a time that a teacher told us to just memorize answers for a standardized test without even reading the questions. I also dropped out of a Spanish class because I couldn't make sense of it (but already had trouble with pre-Spanish at my private middle school, so I don't fully fault the charter school for this).
Social experience at that school was totally fine. Everyone was new in the 9th grade class, so I approached some kid sitting alone and he ended up being one of my best friends throughout the time I was there. There were a couple of kids with a bully-like attitude but it wasn't serious and the teachers kept them in check. Class sizes were very small here too.
Simultaneously, as I attended this school I was placed into a lottery for a different charter school. It was in high enough demand that they couldn't accept everyone who wanted to go. Halfway through 10th grade, they called my name and I switched schools.
Social experience at this second charter school was rough. I didn't know anyone, got picked on (but not physically bullied), kept to myself because I couldn't figure out how to engage socially. Eventually I started to fit in to a couple different social groups. But someone told me later (in front of many other kids) that they were glad I started talking and were worried I was "going to go Columbine." That was a pretty fucked up comment, but teenagers can be mean and I don't fully fault them for it.
Educational experience at this one was better. They had some tie in with NASA so I got to take an astronomy course I enjoyed (even though all of the other students in it were in middle school or young high school). I was able to take two film classes that were really fun. Math classes were hard for me but that's likely because of my previously mentioned experiences. I did have a lot of stress towards the end of 12th grade and had what I'll call a mental health episode. But that could have happened anywhere, assuming there were finals and projects and other things piled up at other schools.
All I can really say to summarize my experiences is that everything is mixed. I honestly think my high school education would have been the same in public schools, assuming bullying didn't get physical or anything like that.
I will add in a side comment that Arizona now allows a portion of children's taxpayer funds for public school to be diverted to private schools or homeschool. This is bullshit and will lead to poorer education quality at public schools, and create a greater divide between the different income level classes. I hope that gets reversed one day, but I'm not very optimistic about that.
Your stories honestly read like horrors from my Central European perspective.
US education apparatus is just as chaotic as all the other news you read about us would imply. It's completely dependent on millions of factors that could be controlled by proper funding and management from government, but it's instead been purposely defunded over the years for ulterior motives. The most important things for successful education in the US are zip code and parental engagement. You can definitely find great public schools in the US, but most of the times you need to live in the right neighborhood and have really active parents fighting for you at every stage.
Don't forget the wonderful "fund education with local property taxes" plan many states use which ensure poor neighborhoods have poorer schools from the beginning.
Predictably, a lot of responses so far are focusing on the quality of the education. Private (or public in the English sense of the term; a paid for school rather than a government funded one) can be 'better' quality wise. Not guaranteed though. And really not the thing I think matters most.
Networking is what matters. Life success comes from who you know, not what. Sure there's base levels of 'competence' in any field, from construction to fiance, entertainment to retail. Anything. But there's base, then there's brilliant.
The most base guy, who's friends with the right people, that's who's likely to advance. That's who gets the great jobs, the cushy office, the big success. The brilliant guy, odds are they'll probably manage to be comfortable if their brilliance is in something that pays well, but successful? Like, wildly and easily successful? More of a dice roll. Not a penalty, not a disadvantage, but not a sure thing.
Knowing the right people? That's more of a sure thing. Looking for a job? You're better off if you have friends who can help. Need a promotion? Same thing. Need help with an initiative or charity, a program, even just moving a body? Know the right people, it's more of a sure thing.
Private school, if your kids know to (and can) make the right friends there, that can set them up for life. Same for college/university. Sure the degree's nice. The degree isn't an anchor that'll drag them down, far from it. But if they hang out in the right college circles, make the right college friends, that's what sets them up for success.
Of course, this all depends on being able to make those friends. Horse, lead, water, drink, that old tale. Some people are just wallflowers, so the best they could hope for in this context is competence as their calling card. But if they have enough charisma, innate or manufactured, to become a childhood (or college) pal of people from useful families, who go on to do useful things ... there's a reason Alumni and Fraternity/Sorority networks are so valuable.
Basically what I'm saying is sure going to Oxford or Harvard is good. Beneficial. But going those schools and coming out of them with the phone numbers of the right folks who'll return your calls is worth ten times what the degree is. Same for education before university.
Right now the kid's four best school friends might just be pals, but later in life they could turn out to be people who can be helpful at the right times. That's what'll matter more than "oh, the school's ratings were top notch."
ps: and in case I wasn't clear, I'm assuming a private school is more likely to have the 'right' people attending. People who become useful to know because of their and their families' influence. The more the school costs, the more likely it probably is they're going to be able to help a pal if they want to.
bingo. it’s the major value. just look at who gets jobs with say, vanity faire, or cush govt stuff, and who becomes wealthy tech guys, and so on. list almost exclusively people who went to ivy league schools.
I can't imagine someone starts building this type of network in elementary school though. High school? Maybe. University? Absolutely. I feel like I missed out on those connections not going to university.
A valuable viewpoint.....it's not a straight meritocracy out there.....
At the very least, being surrounded by folks who also want to go onto post sec education seems better than people who are only legally waiting to graduate
I'd like to add a small spin to this sentiment. Peers will have the largest impact on your children, in terms of connections as has been mentioned here, but also in terms of life expectations (i.e. what grades are expected, what activities are cool, etc), and personality.
Connections will be helpful and having the expectations of bold aspirations can also be very encouraging (the I can do anything I put my mind to mindset). Both of these tend to be in full effect in private schools and higher ranking public schools. But be mindful that successful kids aren't always happy kids. The Dutch do a great job at removing a lot of the stress of life by telling kids they aren't special and not to worry about it. Private schools do the opposite. Just something to chew on.
The other point is personality. Your kid will be influenced by their peers and will likely act like their peers. Their peers in turn will mostly be influenced by their parents. So a question I would as is "do I like the parents of the school I'm enrolling them in". Are the parents entitled? Are the parents classist? Are the parents generally unpleasant? I would think about these things and how they might influence your own kid.
Lastly, one often unmentioned part of private schools is that they have a vested interest in your child progressing from grade to grade. You are paying for it and they are delivering it. I have a few friends who work at private schools from K-12 and at the university level. A common theme for all of them is frustration at students who know they don't have to work to pass their classes, and admin who push them to hold the student's hands through things. Want to fail a student for turning in bad work? (and I'm talking at a university level) You better have documented that you reached out many times to help them and give them extra tutoring.
One of the biggest advantages to education is, as my mother says, "learning to manipulate a large bureaucracy". When you sign them up for private school, at any age, you take away those lessons and put the onus on their teachers. Students shouldn't have to do everything by themselves, but the consequences of bad or lack of work should come back to them, not the teacher. And this is from someone who did fail out of college after my freshman year, got my shit together, and went back. The kids gloving of private schools does them no favors in the real world.
Powerful, powerful mother.
My best friend came out of secondary education with the opposite lesson: you are on your own and the powerful bureaucracy will crush you. They were bullied relentless and their parents did nothing for a year, then "worked it out with the school", only for the main bully to be in their homeroom first class of the new year. Then they shrugged and said oh well we tried. For sure this experience shaped how they see the world, decades later.
And I am in the opposite situation where I have every ability to affect change on my kid's environment right now, and I'm trying my best to make
the besta decent decision. Just enough motivation, but not to be a pressure.That's a fantastic point about the "quality" of the parents. Definitely some kind of attitudes rub off on the kids. Back in my day a lot of kids in my school were "my parents got money, the house is in my name, they're not home most of the year, they bought me a fast car and that's all I need in life". Fortunately there will always be a small clump of weird nerds who actually love learning and want a fairer world. Fairly confident as long as even a small cluster exists my kid will gravitate to them.
High quality schools (either private or public) can make a big difference in your child's life, but they aren't a panacea. Whether to send your kids to private school should depend on your values and financial situation.
Ihmo, if you're going to spend $$$ on a high quality education, then pay for elementary school. By the time kids hit highschool, their learning habits are hard to change. The kinds of kids who get the most from a fancy secondary education are the same ones who would succeed at a good mid-tier school.
I'd be a bit cautious with that line of thinking. One of the more painful parts of school for me was the boredom: anyone who was ahead of the material was pretty much just expected to sit quietly in the background doing nothing, because the teachers (largely through no fault of their own) only had the capacity and incentive to focus on the middle ~30% who might actually move between the grade boundaries that the school as a whole was assessed on. Anyone who'd already hit the ceiling (or floor) was out of the picture.
Admittedly this was quite a few years ago, and the school I went to probably wasn't "good mid-tier" by any reasonable definition, but it was a fucking rough time - for that reason and for others. Private school fees weren't remotely on the cards for my family back then, so it doesn't really feel like an opportunity missed, but threads like this do still leave me wondering how my life and mental health might have differed if I'd found something closer to the opportunities and peer group I had at university back when I was starting to form my identity as a teenager.
I went to a really good public school but I never studied or anything and I'm pretty sure that a lot of my issues relative to others come from never learning to apply myself properly, but the good news is that I don't think I would have learned much more at most other schools!
I used to think this about myself, but instead I have been diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. I wasn't studying because of my undiagnosed ADHD, but I just told myself I was so smart I didn't have to study to pass. While it was true I didn't have to study to pass, in college I just dropped the courses that were too hard and stuck with an easier major.
There's an argument in there that I would have been diagnosed earlier if the curriculum was harder, but given the 90's and presentations of inattentive ADHD being ignored back then, I'm not sure if would have mattered. I could have just gotten worse grades.
I was diagnosed in like fifth grade, so catching it earlier wouldn't have necessarily helped. I didn't drop the hard classes, but I did switch to an easier version of my major so that I didn't have to retake them.
Good advice which I can agree with. My learning habits are abysmal, have turned my teenage and early-adult life into a nightmare for achieving any diploma. Being smart is not enough. You need discipline and I lacked a lot. My avoidant personality made me invisible and my marks/grades were mediocre but passable.
Make sure you connect with your kid about their needs and give them structure. A quiet kid still has a ton going on in their mind.
What context is this? I know that "public" schools in the UK can be very different (like, full on Harry Potter).
For my part, I was in a private school for a while in the US, and in retrospect it was a good environment. The main difference is that the school populace is just much, much more well mannered. Kids paid attention in class. People cared about their grades. No one wore a tophat or anything.
Bear in mind in the UK private schools are called public schools, and state schools are the free version. This is because they historically allowed anyone from the public to join (but pay) and not limited to a subset of people from a class, family or location.
It's a bit more complicated than that, private schools also exist and are called private schools, but public schools are a certain type of older private school, typically significantly more expensive. There isn't really a formal definition of what makes a school public vs private, but most of the fee-paying schools in the UK at this point would commonly be referred to as private schools.
All true, but I felt the nuance wasn’t really needed in this conversation. It makes sense to avoid the term public, and move to private but I don’t think this is yet universal done, hence my comment. In this post “public” seems to refer to private school from context.
I appreciated it because like two sentences of nuance just means I'm better informed now and didn't really distract from anything.
That being said, I know that the implication for “public” schools in the U.K. is like a boarding school, hogwarts-esque experience with prefects and all that. Which I’m not sure if OP means or not, and changes the question a lot.
Oh whoops, yeah I meant public as in free and paid for by the government.
Perhaps of interest, as it blurs the definition a little: I went to a public/private school in the UK but on an "assisted place" which meant almost all my fees were paid for by the government. I'm from a working class family from a "poor postcode", to use your phrasing, and the school was in a "rich(er) postcode" some distance away. I was at the school for secondary and sixth form years (age 11 to 18).
Looking back on things I see both pros and cons. I definitely missed out on various things both good and bad, and various aspects of my development were neglected or missed by being at such a school. In short, it's all very complicated.
Yours might be the perspective that would be closest to my situation. We would indeed be the poor kid in a rich class if I pushed for it. I would very much love to hear your pros and cons if you would be so kind to share
We were solidly middle-class growing up and my parents really wrenched their budget in order for us to attend paid/private primary school; I attended a free/public secondary school.
As other commenters have mentioned, while the teachers are often better, private curricula are often the same or worse. The single biggest benefit of paid school, therefore, is that few families who don't value education will bother to pay the tuition for a private school. This means that you're far more likely to be surrounded by other students who value education and want to succeed.
This is always important, but far more so in primary school. By the time you're in secondary school, you have a much greater ability to choose your friend group and what you value. For that reason I think it's rarely worthwhile to use college funds to pay for secondary education - but I would use college funds to pay for primary education without question.
Paid school tends to have a much more intelligent (on average) student body, in part because more intelligent people tend to be more successful and can therefore afford to pay tuition for their children.
I went to private schools in different countries growing up, and my kids were in public school and switched to private school very recently. The only reliable answer is "it depends".
How well is the school resourced? How involved are the parents in supporting the staff and getting involved in the school's success? What is the school's pedagogical philosophy? Other than teaching, does the school provide other resources for students (e.g. guidance counselors/school psychologists, school nurses or other medical staff, engagement with associations that support students in other areas)? What curriculum are they following and is it accredited by the country or recognised international education body (like the international baccalaureate)? What are their policies and plans for dealing with bullying/harassment and other issues that can impact students? These are aspects worth looking into whether the school is public or private. It's just that in general with public schools some of these things are easier to figure out, since they're more standardised across the country.
One BIG difference I've noticed between the two however is the question of resourcing. Private schools in general tend to have a lot more money to work with, and it often (but not always) makes a difference. I see countries' resources for public schools being whittled away bit by bit across the globe and it's very concerning. If your child naturally does well academically, then it probably doesn't make a huge difference. If your child falls outside of the norm (especially if they're neurodivergent) a public school more often than not won't be adequately resourced or have the infrastructure and policies in place to help much. Large classes also mean teachers are spread very thin. A very disruptive student who isn't getting the right help and can't be sent somewhere else can eventually drag everyone else down as teachers struggle to handle the situation (I have unfortunately witnessed this many times where I currently live).
At the end of the day, it's a bit like choosing where to live, or what career you'll take on. You need to look at multiple aspects, pick your priorities, do a lot of research on each option, and then go from there.
Is this just a curiosity question, or do you have children whose schooling you are starting to think about?
School quality in Atlantic Canada will vary, although I’m sure not as much as in the U.S. Philosophies on when to send the kid to a private school vary, although something to consider is that many secondary schools tend to have more specialized resources and classes. It’s a lot easier to find someone to teach first graders basic math versus teaching a senior calculus.
Older child going into highschool.
Resources are a consideration, yes: basically rich postal codes get good schools and poor ones get poor schools. It's quite the divide here.
Hence the request for opinions regarding "is it worth it for families that can't easily afford it".
I have also heard one opinion that, (years ago) if was cheaper to buy a whole new house in a good (free school) neighborhood than to send the kids to a private (paid) school. That route is no longer available after the massive housing cost increase
Do they have any particular interests? Is there a particular school in the area that caters to such interests?
Pretty much we're in rural Canada, and we're thinking about moving INTO a school board that would be the best fit. The local school is very rural and we're nearly better off homeschooling all the way through.
Rural as in underfunded, rural as in culture clash, both, neither?
Rural as in opposite of urban, where resources are few and really far away. Closest swimming pool 45min drive away kind of thing
In your first sentence, do you mean “private” school?
I will be interested to hear what others say.
My general expectation is that many private schools are academically better, but possibly with some blinders due to differing experiences.
Edit:
More succinctly, I guess, is that with public schools around me I would expect to be helping my kid after school with subject material, and with private school I would be helping after with social material.
So in the UK "public school" is the name for fee paying schools. Possibly OP is from there.
As someone who does not live in a country copying the UK in that usage but who did read a lot of UK originated fiction, this lead to an interesting misunderstanding in my childhood.
That's right. Public in that anyone (with money) can attend, whereas state schools are tied to your home address in some form or another, eg by cachement area.
I hadn't considered that and didn't know it, that may be it.
But also, the title of the post is "Private school- ....", so I think it's still kind of ambiguous about whether this is a typo, or in the UK.
But all the same, it's clear they mean a school for which you pay your own tuition.
Yeah weirdly in the UK we use both. Public school tends to suggest particularly notorious private schools for the very few - landed gentry, politicians, billionaires, celebrities etc - though that's not a formal dichotomy.
Not parent, but maybe consider for a while what do you actually want for your kids. If it's positive attitude towards knowledge in general, maybe some specific skills, it might be way easier to just make time to show / teach them instead of staying at job and not being with them, just to pay other people for possibly unreliable results.
If you know of a good school, with teachers you feel you'd be able to discuss any issues with, then by all means go for it. Otherwise I'd just settle for best public school available and instead be there for them.
Also, saving the money means you can spend elsewhere. Specialized camps full of people who feel enthusiastic about the topic. Various extracurricular activities ranging from swimming to amateur rocketry, possibly scouting. Spare cooking ingredients that can be wasted during unsuccessful attempts / option to order when the food is not good. Actual, real life hardware to e.g. build together their furniture, bake their own bread. 3D printer.
Just don't buy them stuff only, make sure they are interested in it first, then shop for it together, then use it together.
This is quite true: when I have money to spare is perhaps when I'd be the most patient, the most charitable and the most relaxed around my child. These past years where we homeschooled indeed afforded these opportunities and I wouldn't trade them for the world.
Middle / upper middle class family background in a third world country. Parents worked hard to send me to a religious private all-girls school all the way until high school. Then I went to a public university-- which I chose, against my parents' wishes, because they wanted me to attend the same private university they went to. But they were easily persuaded by the fact that the public university's tuition fees were so small (it was largely government-subsidized) plus it's one of the top universities in the country anyway, on par with private.
I agree with commenters who've said that you're paying for the network. Though in my case, I feel like I was able to network more during university and especially after university. (I'm still great friends with people I met through gradeschool and high school, but I think our fields are generally just different enough that we don't really give each other professional benefits.) I think you could definitely network outside school too-- extracurriculars, hobbies, local community stuff. Religious groups, if you're into that. (I turned out to be an atheist so the religious aspect of my schooling was essentially wasted on me... it actually turned me off of religion lol)
I still do think that my private education helped with networking indirectly, mainly because it taught me (by immersion) to speak and present myself in an upper / upper middle class way? Speaking a language is one thing; speaking it with a particular accent, knowing the slang, pop culture references, etc.-- that all helps a lot with networking too. But again, that's something that could still be picked up outside of school.
One thing I definitely don't recommend is a gender-exclusive school. While it was kind of fun, in its own way, to be in an all-girls school... it mostly just made me super awkward around guys until later on in university. I don't have brothers and don't have cousins near my age so I simply did not know how to interact with guys my age during all my time in an all-girls school. Just seems like an unnecessary social handicap.
That's part of my consideration, the culture through osmosis might require more "steeping" than extracurriculars can provide.......thank you for your perspective
I went to a private school from 4th to 6th grade -- about age 9 to 11. I believe the reason I went there was because my parents clashed with my public school over my 3rd grade teacher, who I remember yelling a lot.
Overall it was a positive experience for me. It was an Episcopal school (though my family were not Christians), and the class sizes were very small (only 10 kids in my entire grade by the last year I was there), and although we attended chapel in the mornings three days out of the week, I never felt like I was being pushed to believe a certain way. I also remember a fairly comprehensive sex ed class in my last year there, much better than what I've heard about from Catholic private schools, for instance.
Because of the small class sizes, education felt more informal and individual needs were more easily taken into account. This was probably pretty beneficial for me as a very much undiagnosed neurodivergent. At the same time, however, I never made any real friends there, though the other kids were mostly pretty nice. There were never any behavior issues from the kids in my class, and everyone wanted to do well and thought of academic success as a goal rather than something to sneer at. Though they didn't go out of their way to understand outsiders or weird kids, there was also generally no bullying (aside from one girl I could never figure out, but honestly she was harmless). After my time there, I went back into public school from 7th grade on, and although I did okay for a while in that less understanding environment, by 12th grade I felt like I had kept crashing and burning for a few years (although there were other things going on in my life that also had significant impacts on this).
Was it actually worth it though? Honestly, it's very hard for me to plumb those memories enough to tell. I don't think the education quality was significantly better than public school, though I also don't think it was worse. I don't remember any field trips, although we had school events that were fun, if homey and humble. We didn't have a school-provided lunch other than a "hot lunch" system, in which you could pay in advance each month for to have catered delivery from fast food restaurants on chosen days (I remember spending my allowance a few times on getting Popeye's or something). I'm not sure where the tuition money was coming from, though I have a vague idea that my grandparents (who were well off) sent money to help out. But even though the memories in general were positive for me, this was elementary school, so it was still easy enough that I don't think I would have been struggling in public school yet, if I actually had non-abusive teachers. (To be fair, the ones I had before grade 3 were lovely.)
I guess, from my own experience, I would say it was only worth it if your kid is struggling in their public school for whatever reason and needs a significant change of pace. And that depends on finding a private school that isn't clique-ish or plays too fast and loose with curriculum (especially science or religious studies) for your comfort. That really seems like it would be such a case-by-case basis.
Personally, I believe the money that was spent on my private school tuition would have been better if used for after-school programs that provide homework help and reinforcement of concepts that are difficult.
But if there are other issues with the assigned public school, it does make sense to explore private education. The quality just seems to vary wildly.
Very interesting, that afterschool enrichment might have been better allocation of resources..... something else to consider thank you
I grew up somewhat poor and went to a private, non-religious school from preschool through 6th grade. Very small classes, about 7 ppl in my grade from grades 1-5 and some kids left for 6th grade. I switched to a public school for Jr. High and high school.
My early education was great, but it really needs to be supported by life at home. My parents largely ignored me, so my attitude towards education was entirely dependent on school, which focused on our independence (Montessori). It was good and bad. I learned how to get my work done asap so I could spend the remaining time drawing, but I didn't actually remember much. A fine skill for high-school, but less so for college. I should mention we had weekly classes in another language and swimming lessons as well. It was a very well rounded education and a good introduction to most forms of learning.
Socially I didn't really click with many kids at the private school. Most kids were well spoken with great vocabularies and the whole classroom would regularly have funny, witty conversations with the teacher, but I never knew how to participate in that. I should mention my parents were not fluent in English and neither were educated. I had a few friends but an effort was made to make sure I always went to their house, so there was a kind of an imbalance. The other kids were often very talented and had after school activities. In other words, I clearly didn't fit in. It was a very different environment from the public school I ended up going to (low income area).
I believe my early education served me well. I was able to focus on my social skills in high-school to somewhat make up for what was missing in early life. I went to college, mostly learned on my own, dropped out and got a desirable job in my field (degrees don't matter in my field), and in general had a great career. My early schooling helped give me an advantage and the confidence to learn on my own. It also helped teach me how to set a goal (get through my list of work asap) and achieve it. And a fun willingness to assess and take some risks, some that worked very well in my favor. I should mention, my parents worked very hard, and seeing that helped me as well. But my schooling helped too.
Edit:typo
Interesting....yeah that is part of my concern as well. It's not like if I scrunch up the money and get financial aid, our kid would be just like the kids whose families are either overseas or else don't have the same economic challenges...maybe it's better to be among more similiar if less advantaged crowds....
I and my siblings attended a (religious) private school for most of my schooling (it was K-12). Some of the disadvantages are specific to my circumstances and location (the religious aspect left plenty of scars, and my local public school actually had better course and post-secondary enrollment options). That said, one thing transcends those -- it would have made my early adult life a LOT easier if they'd saved the money they spent on so many years of private school and put it towards my college tuition instead.
Ouch, yeah university student loan sounds like its own hell.... I guess if we can't afford both it shouldn't make sense to put it in the one that could be free
Speaking from my own experience it's worth it. I went to a private school until the 8th grade and that was essentially all the education I needed. My curiousity wasn't beaten out of me and I learned how to learn. Public high school, by contrast, was both easy and boring. More people was nice but I wouldn't call it education. It's just checking boxes on the way to something else.
More people in my class went on to have successful and fulfilling lives than what I imagine the average to be. However, we were lucky. There were amazing teachers, some of which retired either while we were there or shortly after. The class three years behind us had a very different experience and outcomes.
Which is to say if there's a great school available to you, it's absolutely worth it, but it's definitely an 'if'. Finding and retaining great teachers isn't easy.
At the same time, as an adult having witnessed public school mercilessly rob kids of their love of learning multiple times, it's a very low bar.
I believe the pervasive idea that education is a college and career pipeline, rather than an exploration of the world, is shortsighted and self defeating (from the perspective of a nation). This is an US-centric perspective though, in some places they seem to do a much better job.
Depends on the quality of public education in your country. In Russia, 10k$/year private schools are MILES ahead of the public ones in every single aspect. I assume the difference is not as significant in any country which actually cares about public education.
I think, at least in the UK, public schools (paid schools), have a distinctly different purpose during primary education compared to its purpose for secondary and tertiary education.
At primary school, a public school, by having smaller class sized, less overworked staff, better funding, etc. is able to instil good working habits in the students, as well as potentially offering a broad education. In my opinion, this is the most worthwhile time of a child’s life to go to a public school.
Meanwhile, I find at secondary school and 6th form, the important aspect is less so about what they learn on specifications (eg. for exams), but about the “extension” work offered by the small class sizes and the general higher passion for the job by the teachers (due to better working conditions). As well as this (at least in the UK), state schools are not allowed to be selective in which students they offer places to, whereas public schools can be, typically raising the average intelligence and passion of a class
Of course, if the child struggles, then the main benefit of public schools is getting them the extra support that they require to perform at a similar level to their peers
If you struggle with payment, many public school offer bursaries (I knew someone who got 90% off their fees going to a public school). Or if you’re not eligible for a bursary, scholarship are available for especially achieving kids (yet these are typically a lot less than bursaries ~10 - 20% off)