Private vs. Public School for kids

I have a question - if you have kids, or are going to, or if you just have an opinion on this - I would like to hear it. Do you think you public or private schooling is better for kids?

Message edited 11/30/2006 4:38:37 PM.

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

if i lived in a good part of LI i would totally do Public....

but if i had kids here in Brooklyn, Private ALL the way.


it depends on location to me.

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

I think it depends on teh school district. All things being equal, my preference is to send my DD to a religious school. However, if we are in a good school district, I would probably send her to public school. I would not send my child to a private school that wasn't religious.

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

I went to private school and HATED it and begged my parents to let me go to public school. In my experience, (it was a Catholic school) this particular school taught kids to be elitist self-centered people and taught that the Catholic faith was the only right faith. Based on that experience, unless I lived somewhere where the school district was horrible, I wouldn't send my kids. My experience was soured.

DH went and loved it all the way.

Message edited 11/30/2006 4:47:19 PM.

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

I think it depends on the schools you are looking at and it may also depend on the child. I don't think you can make the generalization that one is better than the other across the board.

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

i will be sending my kids to public school.

Living on LI, with the amount of taxes we pay, if you are in a good (or even decent) district i dont see the point of sending your kids to private school. The teachers make much less than the public schools (most teachers I know work in catholic schools first then get jobs in public schools).

JMO.

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

I am a public school teacher and I think that we do the best we can as far as reaching all the kids, but we work within our parameters. The more I hear about private school, the more I get the impression that their standard of excellence seems to be higher than that of puiblic school. THat being said, my kids will go to public school and I am totally fine with that. I think that most public schools offer a very high quality of education.

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

public if we stay in NY

Private if we move some place like Florida

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

totally depends on the district.

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

it depends on the schools in the area. If we continue to live in city of Chicago, our kids will definitely go to private school. If we ever move to the suburbs, I'll see what the district is like. If it's good, then public all the way.

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

For me it would depend on how good the school district is and the needs of my child.

Ideally we will send our kids to the public school in our town but if they were exceptionally gifted and not challenged, or if they had any special needs, I would evaluate if sending them to private school was in their best interest.

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

I went to Private (catholic) school and generally liked it.

DH went to Private school, HATED it (now has a view similar to LRusso's) and transferred to public where he was MUCH happier.

This is an ongoing debate between us. We pay SO much in taxes though that I cannot imagine sending our kids (if/when we ever have them) to private school...

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I would definitly send my kids to a public grammer school and then decide based on the child, what was right for High School.

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

I'm for public school system unless it's a really faulty SD I'm living in.

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

for me it would depend entirely on the SD that i lived in

I couldn't make a blanket statement wither way

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

definitely depends.

there are bad apples everywhere

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

It depends on the school district and my child.

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Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

I also think you need to make the distinction between catholic school and other private schools. They are very different from one another in my opinion.

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Message edited 1/17/2010 6:47:58 PM.

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

My kids will go to public school, because it's a good distict.

However, I teach middle school in NYC and the last place I want most of my students when they finish MS is a public HS in NYC. My school has a great record for getting kids into private and parachial schools, often on some kind of scholarship, and it open doors that often the public high schools can't. So I am hoping that this works out for many of my kids.

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

Since I've just switched my son from private to public mid-year, I'd say we're going public all of the way. The teaching is equal but the curriculum is not.The only reason I had him in a private Catholic school was for the full-day kindergarten. I found at least the kindergarten curriculum to be far superior to the public school one - although I'm not sure it's fair to compare a 2.5 hour day to a 7 hour day plus extra help.

In Catholic school, he was learning how to read (he already knew how to sound out words beforehand) & discussing cube shapes. Now he's not doing much more than letters & patterns - but I don't have to deal with a self indulged, meglomaniac principal while she works out her personal issues.
I did meet with his teacher today & she wants to get him into an enrichment program so he's not bored.

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I feel private school is more tuff on education, so my DD will go to that kind of school. I went to private for 9th grade but left cause I needed extra help in math, and they didn't have that extra help class that I needed.

I feel the teachers didn't give a damn if I passed or not in public school. I couldn't wait to get out, it was a nightmare.

Re: Private vs. Public School for kids

My kids will be going to private school because DH and I attended private school.