Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments If you send your kids to a private school R U bad?

Public school teachers earn more than private school teachers in the US.

Here's a nice turn-round of that article.

http://m.nationalreview.com/corner/...ol-you-are-bad-person-michael-j-petrilli

ColinsMum, Thanks for sharing the link to the article which offers a great counter-point.

I especially enjoyed the author's views on gifted children: "Your child will not learn as much or be as challenged as she could be. Don’t let anyone tell you to “live with that.” Especially if she is gifted. The world needs her to fulfill her whole potential."

This author's personal anecdotes reveal involved, engaged parents. This author's credentials also reflect a depth and breadth of experience beyond their own.

Thanks again for sharing the link!

hee - i know i've said this before, but this whole subject cracks me up whenever i think of it. we only even looked at private schools for DD on the recommendation of her Montessori teachers, who were sure she would need more than the public system could offer. so when we found The One School To Rule Them All, we only applied there. all their talk was SO close to how we operate at home - the biggest draw being (apparently) NO academic ceiling.

i was totally open with this school about DD's personality and (odd) interests during the GRUELLING application process, and in our final interview, they literally told me DD was their top pick based on these peculiarities. i never once said the word "gifted" to them (mostly because in my head she was just weird and fun!)

and i thought we were in heaven until DD's depression set in. and in the end, no matter what i said to the school, they would not, and could not accommodate her needs. i felt like i had gone insane, and it took all of you sage folks to explain to me that private actually can buy you less flexibility, and if they don't want to help a kid who is cruising comfortably 4 years ahead (and frankly accelerating)... they really don't have to. at least in the public system, you can get an IEP and overtly advocate. in the private school, if they want to shut you down, they can.

i don't think we were bad people for trying the carefully-selected, yet completely disastrous private school... as has been said up-thread, our first duty is to our kid - she's an individual and should not be sacrificed to a belief in what education, public or otherwise, should be.

with gifted kids, (who are all different!) what you really need is a flexible environment not steeped in dogma or the whims of fashion. frankly, it needs to be able to keep up.

but man, am i ever happy to be shot of that school. i drove past it today and literally laughed instead of welling up. that has to be progress!

Ennnh. I don't like the counterpoint article either.


Indeed? Tell me again how white flight has fixed poor urban schools.

I actually see many of these attributes as negatives, especially the one about having degrees in education. From what I've seen of course offerings and requirements, it's a fluffy subject. Plus, education majors tend to have low SAT, GRE, and Miller Analogies scores. Obviously, there are some education majors who have high scores on these tests, but they're not the rule. Personally, I'd prefer to see subject experts teaching, even at the elementary level.

And having union protection can also encourage mediocre teachers to stay where they are.


IMO, part of our problem in this country is that we lack a serious national interest in educating our kids and young adults (too many administrators, stratospheric college costs, and student loan debt being a good illustration of what I mean here).

Being a subject expert is good, but it's not a substitute for knowing how to teach. (Reference terrible TAs in grad schools who may be brilliant but have no idea how to convey their material effectively.)

Knowing how to teach is good, but it's not a substitute for knowing your subject. (Reference lovely, kind elementary teachers who use apostrophes to pluralize and don't understand math.)

You really need both. And that's our problem.

I think my DD may have a teacher this year who is the total package.

THIS.

Oh my goodness, YES.

Some people have the time, energy and inclination to advocate with sufficient... er... tenacity/determination/emphasis-- to affect change in a local school system-- and some DO NOT.

I don't judge people who opt (for reasons particular to their own family and selves) to walk away instead. Everyone has a "walk away" point. It is just that only people at the edges of the distribution tend to get pushed past those points.

AMEN.


Also:


Maybe-- and maybe not, too. In our state, homeschoolers or private schoolers actually DO 'cost' a district $$. The state keeps that tax $$ rather than redistributing it locally from whence it came.

CA and OR both have property tax/school funding equity legislation that works this way. So UNLESS a kid has a butt in the seat in a public school in the home district, that home school is losing that $.

It's in the state's interests to have ALL students opt for private/home-school.

Strange bedfellows, yes. But that's what it amounts to.

I also just want to shout out to Moomin, here. That post rings true as a bell.



My DH and I are both very good teachers. VERY. We're both conscientious, deep subject experts with a wide variety of knowledge to draw from, and we both are reasonably adaptable for differences in student pacing and individual needs.

However-- I am by far a better teacher for students who are struggling with their own demons. He is by far a better teacher for people who are highly assertive and slightly abrasive by nature.

My mom was a remarkable-- really STELLAR-- elementary teacher with a reputation of managing kids with fairly significant history of behavioral issues, and kids who struggled with learning disabilities. She was legendary for maintaining quiet, calm classroom environs that ran like clockwork-- without ever needing raised voices or harsh discipline.

But all of us have had students that we just couldn't/didn't reach. GOOD teachers care about the fact that they can't find that lever. It BUGS them.

There's just so little of the educational process that teachers actually control or have influence over.

At the primary and secondary levels, that's even MORE true than in post-secondary. In post-secondary, at least you have the ability to tackle the elephant in the room; "You seem very tired. Joe, is there something happening that is preventing you from having the time to work outside of class? Maybe I can help." (Yes, I've sent people to student health, the local health department, the public assistance office for food stamps, campus employment offices, etc. etc.) Profs have the ability to "refer" willing students in order to tackle some barriers to learning much more directly.

I don't necessarily blame teachers for the decisions of: a) taxpayers (to only fund 'fun/new' ideas) b) administrators (making a name for themselves with 'fun/new' ideas), c) unions (who are about teacher JOBS, not student education), d) parents (some of whom do NOTHING to help the process)...

All of those things matter at least as much as what happens INSIDE classrooms. Crappy curriculum or impossible edicts from on-high are unfortunately commonplace.