Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Public School VS Private School

Dose anyone transfer kid from Public school to Private school? My son is in First grade now. He is complaining about the school since he is in K. He said he doesn’t like school. It is too easy… We let him took WISC & Woodcock Johnson few weeks ago. He got 145 on WISC, Broad Math 5.4 Grade & English 9 Grade for Woodcock Johnson test. Also, some of his score in Woodcock Johnson is 15 Grade.

Should I transfer him to Private school? Because the budget cut so Public school doesn't have any program for gifted kids. I heard Public school will be a better place to learn social skill. But he doesn't like go to school now. I think that is not a good sign too. I just don’t know what to do now.

Where we are, the main difference is that you pay a lot of money for the privilege of paying a lot of money.

It depends on the private, but in general, it is not a lot different. If your school offers differentiation, that is actually better than a once/twice per week one hour pull out for a "gifted" program. Our school does both, I still don't think it's enough but our one foray into private had enough negatives despite better academics, that we chose to return to public.

Shannon L.

It all depends on the private schools. Public and private schools vary a lot.

My kids go to private school. We live in California, and the schools here are generally pretty lousy. For example:

1. The day ends roughly one hour earlier than the private schools, except on Wednesdays when it ends roughly two hours earlier. Plus they have minimum days most months, when school closes at lunchtime. And they've had furlough days this year when school was closed because of budget problems. I once calculated that all this stuff amounted to 4-5 weeks of lost instructional time compared to the private schools. This is huge.

Is this the case where you live?

2. The private schools around here use all that extra time for music lessons, art lessons, field trips, and foreign language.

3. Around here, the private schools are much more open to the idea of ability grouping and grade skips. I have three skips between two kids that never would have happened in public schools (I called around and asked and got some very anti-skip responses from local principals).

Private schools can be averse to skips too, but you have leverage because you don't have to send your kids there. You can always negotiate at an interview ("We're thinking of sending our child to this school; we think he would benefit from a grade skip. What's your policy?" Then sit back and let them talk.).

4. There are obviously bad private schools (e.g. The earth was created 6,000 years ago!!) and good public schools (e.g. Davidson Academy for this crowd).

I may come across as being very anti-public schools, but I'm not. I went to a public school in New Hampshire that offered everything I listed in point 2 and then some. They ability grouped starting in grade 1 and were open to skips. That school was great. AFAIK, it still has a lot of that stuff.

I don't like spending a small fortune on private school fees, but around here, we simply have no choice. It's not that the private schools are a perfect fit, either, but for us, they're a much better choice.

Our area enjoys the same "benefits" for private school, but also adds:

1) Tons of homework.
2) A requirement for parents to put in a set number of service hours for the school.

Our public schools do this.

In the state of MI, where I am, they do not have any budget for gifted programs in the public schools either. So, in MI, if I were to switch from public to private school, I would want to make sure that the private school I was selecting was actually targeted towards gifted children and offered a range of gifted services. I believe you can find a list of gifted schools on the Hoagie website.

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/schools.htm#susa

If it is not a gifted private school, I would compare the curriculum to the public school. If it is similar, then I see no point in changing. If it is a lot more challenging, then it may be beneficial to pay the tuition and switch.

LOL. If ours tried it, I'd mail them a copy of my property tax bill.

Yikes, Portia.

That sounds like a moment for an internal gut check-- I'm paying HOW much for this? WHY??

Our private schools are mostly pretty hippy-dippy here. The public schools are the pressure cookers.

I'm right there with you! I feel like sending them our property tax bill just as a reminder to do their job anyways! lol

As for private vs. public .... our privates require a lot of hours put in as well or they will charge you certain amount of $ if you don't do the hours plus since all privates in the area are church schools, you get charged considerably more $ if you're not their supporting parishioner. So for us it will always be a matter of choice between public and homeschooling rather than public vs private.