[Discogoddess]

I find it interesting that some posters try to extrapolate other poster's experiences/opinions and make generalizations about the state of all private schools or all public schools. Most of the time, our opinions are merely a product of our individual life experiences, so we can't (or shouldn't) have an "answer back" for everything others might say. I say all this to say that while some of us may have had great/horrible experiences in either public or private schools, our individual experiences/observations don't neutralize or negate the opinions/experiences/observations of others.

*Taking a big breath*
Having said that, here's my two cents: While a recruiter/admissions director for a private, Catholic girls high school in Chicago whose students were predominantly below grade and poverty levels and had a host of urban socio-economic issues, I saw that hands-down, public and private school teachers chose to send their own kids to private school. Once, while making a presentation to eighth graders in a public school, I had a teacher exort her students to make sure and go to a private high school, since that's where her own kids had gone. She commented that the public high schools had nothing good for them. I also had another public school teacher ask me why I was in her classroom making a presentation, since most of her students weren't going to graduate from high school anyway. She also told me that her own kids would had never stepped foot in a public high school. I observed that low expectations were common among the public school classrooms I visited, while the Catholic school ones, mostly inhabited by the same neighborhood children (and plagued by some of the same issues faced by public schools, seemed to expect more of the kids, and often got it from them.

Personally, I agree with an earlier poster who stated that while as an educator, she believes in the potential that public schools have, she's not going to use her own children as guinea pigs while the school system works its serious kinks out. I can't fault a public school educator for wanting to ensure, not just hope, that their children's educational foundation is solid and filled with opportunities.