I'm really afraid that I will offend someone with this post, but it has been on my mind a lot as I go to help out at my son's public school and just wanted to say something. I know that many of you have tried public school and it has been a disaster and you have done what is best for your kids and I respect that. I just hate to see people give up on ordinary public schools; free public education is one of the foundations of our democracy and I think we should support it whenever we reasonably can.
For my DS, who is very social and adaptable, I really like having him in an ordinary public school. He meets a broad variety of people that I am sure I would never be able to find anywhere else. There are homeless kids, immigrants (many whose families don't speak English), migrants, working poor etc.
When the district started a full time dedicated class of gifted kids, the gifted class was suddenly filled with white middle class boys. No doubt this is a ascertainment problem since there are plenty of gifted poor/female/spanish-speaking kids, but still I really hate the idea of putting DS in a class of people that look just like him and I hated to support a system that was clearly biased. So I kept him out of the gifted class. (There were other reasons besides this, like the fact that he was still way ahead of what the gifted class would be doing and the teacher was brand new. By keeping him in the regular class I got to pick a teacher who was fantastic with DS and gave him tons more challenges than he would have gotten the MG class.)
DH is a teacher and I work in advocacy/couseling/health care. We both went to public schools with demographics similar to what DS's has. The exposure to people different than us has helped us be more effective in our jobs and, I think, contributed to our understanding of the world in general. For us, this exposure is an important part of why we send DS to public school.
Soap Box Warning! I have also watched a lot of middle class families leave the public school and as a result there are very few school volunteers, the percentage of kids with high needs is higher, and funding for the school is lower. DS's class has over 50% Title 1, and 6 kids with developmental problems, and no aid. This is wrong! I want to have my school work for everyone and one thing I can do to help the school and the kids and teachers who are there is to keep my kid there and volunteer! I think I have a civic responsibility to send my son to his local public school. OK, getting down now.
If, however, my son was very unhappy, getting depressed, or in physical danger, and I could not find a way to make the public school work, I would look for other options. I do understand that public school will not work for everyone and I am glad that private schools and homeschooling are options.
I hope I haven't offended anyone. I just want people to give public schools a chance.
