Our friend has only one child, chose a private school and may have to take a part time job to help pay for it.
I would rather do what I can now to help my child and save the money for later, college, camps, enrichment, etc...I don't think the cost of the school usually guarantees anything other than a pricey bill
lol!
It's a really tough call. I love homeschooling, but if the homeschooling parent has a certian income-earning potential, then it can be just as expensive as private school. Plus working can lead to more income-earning potential. I don't want to say homeschooling is bad - I think it's so good that it is worth it for many families to make the sacrifice, but I don't want to sell homeschooling as the inexpensive choice. If the primary wage-earner can't work at some future time, the homeschooling parent who has been out of the job market for a long time may have lost a lot of opportunity for economic growth. Of course this all varies in individual situations, and I think it's a lovely and wise choice if a family decides to live a live a simpler lifestyle so that one parent can be out of the job market and have more energy for parenting. That has real value, and is a hard path in a consumer culture.
I've had personal experience with 2 private schools, neither marketed for gifted, but both 'college prepratory' in orrientation. In one school there was bullying that wasn't addressed because the parents had clout. I can't imagine that happening in the school my son is at now. Integrity is certianly possible in this world, just not something one can assume. It's possible that private school who are only for high schoolers can afford to have more integrity because they only loose for 4 years instead of potentially 12 years.
If a parent can't use what resources they can corral to help their own children have better lives, then what's the point of corraling resource? I also recognise that it's in my best interest if my children's intellectual peers get a good education regardless of those kids' parent's ability to corral resource or even advocate. I think if one is politically in favor of public schools that work for everyone, including gifted kids, then one should work for that in various ways - politically, direct service, short of keeping one's child in a public school that doesn't work for that individual child. My responsibility to my own child is quite different from my general responsibility to children in general. That's why I'll advocate for a school meeting my child's individual needs but not put energy into advocating for a local gifted program. A local gifted program that meets most gifted kids needs would be unlikely to meet my own child's needs, and would convince the school folks that 'we're already doing enough.' That is the true problem with independent school that market themselves as 'for gifted students.' As you know there is no standard accepted definition of what 'gifted' is, and there is no certianty that a gifted school will have a definion that inculdes any particular child's reality. Go and observe the classroom. Ask for specific examples of how outlier gifies were helped in the past.
/vent
Grinity
