Private vs public

[castleview]

Parents at our public elementary are very involved as well. It really depends on the school.

I have friends who really stretched to send their child to "THE" private school. Where everyone drove the fanciest cars and had the best stuff. It turned her into a terror, being surrounded by all that money.

You really want to try to match the child to the school. You'll get the best results from that.

It sounds silly, but this is very true. We have a neighbor who received a scholarship to a very expensive private school. Yes, she got a great education. She ended up at a small private college that was on par with our state school only it cost MUCH more money. That was only one of the expectations the girl had after being around kids who got things very easily.

OP, I would put her in the public school since you say it's good. You have time to decide on the middle school. Whatever you do, don't go by the rumors. Had my parents done that, I would have been locked away in private schools and missed out on a very good education at the local public school.

 

[mefordis]

If anyone does really want to know how our kids stack up globally, here's an interesting calculator.

http://www.theatlantic.com/misc/global-report-card

Now, take into account one fact before you use this - our public schools educate everyone and test everyone. Other countries do not all do this.

Still, my public system has fortysomething percent free lunches and we're at about 50% compared to the rest of the civilized world. All our kids, even the ones who have challenges, are tested. So, all things considered, I'm pretty happy to live in this district.

Math: 84%
Reading: 86%

 

[SLP958]

It sounds silly, but this is very true. We have a neighbor who received a scholarship to a very expensive private school. Yes, she got a great education. She ended up at a small private college that was on par with our state school only it cost MUCH more money. That was only one of the expectations the girl had after being around kids who got things very easily.

OP, I would put her in the public school since you say it's good. You have time to decide on the middle school. Whatever you do, don't go by the rumors. Had my parents done that, I would have been locked away in private schools and missed out on a very good education at the local public school.

OP here - This is what we are leaning towards. We would like to save the cash and it seems silly to spend it when there is a good elementary school. The only hang up is having to adjust to new people if we do decide to change at the middle school level.
We have tours set up at both schools in January.
All your suggestions have been greatly appreciated!

 

[IheartMickey]

Math: 84%
Reading: 86%

Wow, my county is 30% for Math, and 45% for Reading. That's just sad.

 

[Southernmiss]

OP here - This is what we are leaning towards. We would like to save the cash and it seems silly to spend it when there is a good elementary school. The only hang up is having to adjust to new people if we do decide to change at the middle school level.
We have tours set up at both schools in January.
All your suggestions have been greatly appreciated!

With technology these days and how kids use social media, I would think it will be easier for your child to keep in touch with old friends while making new ones at the new school than it would have been when I was in school.

 

[jodifla]

I live in an area with mediocre public schools in my opinion. My child is in private school. I agonized over this and put her in what I felt was the best private school in the area.

A friend recently took her children out of a different school district (supposedly the best in the area, the one that people move to just to get the schools) and put her kids in my DDs school. She said they are about a year and a half behind the other kids. She has to get them a tutor.

My story takes a turn when the best private school in my area is not doing it for my child. I have to look to another larger geographical area for other better schools.

It's going to take a major sacrifice to afford one and it means more than a 60 minute commute back and forth each day.

College is VERY important to us but without a great foundation she is not going to get into a great college.

My feeling is this. The public schools are broken. Some argue they live in a great school district. Maybe you do for your area. How does it stand up nationally and even the best in this country how do we stand up globally?

The people in my area find all kinds of way to say their test scores are just fine, good enough.

I want better than good enough for my child.

I can't see a better place to put my money than in my daughters education, her future.

It means less Disney, it means less of everything but I am happy to do it.

I know it's a tough decision, I have shed more than one tear over the best way to educate my child. I am blessed to be able to pay for private school. my heart goes out to the ones that want it as bad as I do and can't afford it.

If you have not seen the documentary Waiting For Superman and you care about education, you should see it.

Lisa

Your concerns seem way, way overblown to me.

There are plenty of great public school districts in this country. Mine sends most of their kids onto college, somewhere in the 90 percent range. And many of those go to the state schools here, U-M and MSU. U-M in particular is one of the best universities in the country.

In my home state of Florida, almost all of my friends' children go to public schools, and they are getting into to really good colleges - UF, FSU, or UCF. UF is also one of the top schools in the country.

Also, "best" college for your particular child may not be the toniest, most expensive one. What if your child wants to be an artist, or a musician, or something else?

To have a successful life, match the education to the child.

 

[jodifla]

OP here - This is what we are leaning towards. We would like to save the cash and it seems silly to spend it when there is a good elementary school. The only hang up is having to adjust to new people if we do decide to change at the middle school level.
We have tours set up at both schools in January.
All your suggestions have been greatly appreciated!

I may send my child to the other middle school for the programming, and when I expressed concern about him not being with the kids he grew up with, the university researcher we work with said that in middle school, kids tend to make a different set of friends.

That was true for me, I realized as well. I had a few best friends in elementary school, then a different set in middle school, then actually went back to my elementary friends in high school.

 

[esk]

I went parochial K-6, then public 7-12. Got into a good college (state school) and I turned out OK.

Nextdoor neighbor went to private K-12 ($20K a year and this was in the 80's), dropped out of college and at last check, was a ski bum.

Eh. There is no way to know.

Other than you know your child. We're military, so we move every 2-3 years and our kids make new friends. That's a fact of their life....so having to "meet new people" at age 12, for possibly the only time in 12 years, wouldn't be a big deal to my kids.

But at our last assignment, the public schools were bad. I mean, bad. They told me my daughter (5) was a "genius" because she knew her colors in Kindergarden. I mean really. My son's 3rd grade teacher told him every day how he was so smart, he didn't need to do the homework since he spoke up in class. My son also had some maturity issues and a class of 25 kids wasn't helpful to that.

So we went private when we got to where we live now, because the elementary schools, while reputed to be "excellent", have 23-26 kids per class. Our private, non parochial school has less than 20 per class and the kids move at their own level....my DD, in 2nd grade, is doing 4th grade math and my DS, in 6th grade, is learning things I'm pretty sure I learned in high school. We're very happy with it despite the expense, no bus service, weird days off, etc.

When we move next year, we'll look at it again. It's a case-by-case, year-by-year basis for us.

I also don't know of anyone that has friends from elementary school they are still friends with. I have some from high school, but I'd think in a metro/urban/suburban area, that would not be the norm. A small town of less than 10,000 people maybe.

 

[tvguy]

We're military, so we move every 2-3 years and our kids make new friends. .

Showed this to my wife, the air force brat. She laughed, she grew up thinking NORMAL people moved every 2-3 years. Her personal record is 6 moves in 1 year, 3 countries and 2 different states. Guess military doesn't move folks around as much these days.

 

[esk]

Showed this to my wife, the air force brat. She laughed, she grew up thinking NORMAL people moved every 2-3 years. Her personal record is 6 moves in 1 year, 3 countries and 2 different states. Guess military doesn't move folks around as much these days.

Nope, not as much.....people are staying in one spot for 4-5 years now. Budget cuts....