Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments How did you choose your child's school?

Okay, I've been away from this thread and will comment on some things going back to Friday.

1. As Kriston hypothesized, I don't see private schools as an educational Mecca. I'm actually not wild about having to fork over thousands of dollars every year for tuition when my property tax already pays for schools. But I'm not just unhappy on behalf of my kids. I'm grumpy about the appalling educations foisted on millions of kids in this country. Remember, I live in California, the home of whole language reading.

In California, private schools offer two very important advantages:

A. A longer school day. Private schools offer ~6 hours per week in extra time in California. They start at the same time and end at 3:30. Public schools in this state let out at 2:15-ish except on Wednesdays, when they close at 1:15 for "in service days." This is EVERY Wednesday and it's ridiculous. The extra time gives the private schools time for music, art, science, etc.

B. Private schools are often more open to acceleration.

A minor advantage in private schools is many don't force the AR stuff, which strikes me as a bit silly. If my kid wants to read his science encyclopedia instead of a book that has a calculated AR factor of 4.7, he should be encouraged to read the encylopedia! The whole point should be to encourage them to enjoy reading, not to force them into lockstep with some synthetic reading level.

2. I agree that systemwide reform is essential. While our own kids have to be a priority, that doesn't mean that we can't make noise about changing the system as a whole. We're all forced to waste and incredible amount of energy by dealing with the same 6 issues.

One major thing that needs to come back is ability grouping. There are still plenty of people in this country who are old enough to remember the A, B, and C groups in math, spelling, and reading. Many don't know that these groups have all but disappeared.

In my school at least, there was no status or stigma attached to being in a particular group. It was just where you were, and that was that. From what I could see, no one cared, and besides, some kids in the B math group were outstanding at things like music or art or sports that kids in the A math group couldn't do to save their lives. I still remember a girl tutoring me in how to draw; she was in super-accelerated honors art. I just couldn't do it, and yet it was so easy for her. Yeah, ability grouping was a good way to teach us that different people have different talents.

Val