Public school teachers whose child(ren) attend(s) private schools

[AKA2D '91]

Originally posted by SATX*APhi

On September 11th, I went to my 9:45am government class where my teacher knew nothing about what had happened. Stunned, he said it was only right that we not have class and all go to the chapel to pray. This would have never happened at a public school.

Never say never....
I work in a public school system. The school did not stop everything at that moment, I did, but the next day, school was canceled for the ENTIRE school system in light of the events.

[SATX*APhi]

Originally posted by AKA2D '91



Never say never....
I work in a public school system. The school did not stop everything at that moment, I did, but the next day, school was canceled for the ENTIRE school system in light of the events.

I apologize. What I meant by On September 11th, I went to my 9:45am government class where my teacher knew nothing about what had happened. Stunned, he said it was only right that we not have class and all go to the chapel to pray. This would have never happened at a public school. was that never would a public school have cancelled class to have its students all go together and pray. Classes may have been cancelled in public schools, which I think most were, but being able to go to a chapel 2 minutes away from your classroom to pray with your fellow students, professors and staff is something that is so awesome and doesn't happen in a public school setting.

I just wanted to clear that up. I hope you all understand what I meant now.

[tammy-]

I attended public schools my whole life and I must say that I am grateful for the education I received from my teachers. I think people tend to criticize public schools and the education that students receive there. I would not send my kids to a private school because I feel that learning starts at home and if I raise my kids right and give them a strong foundation, I won't have too many problems with them.

I also learned to deal with various situations that I would have not encountered had I attended a private school.

I am happy I had the opportunity to attend a school where I did not ge asked ignorant questions.

I attended an all black high school and grade school.

I don't think any one should be an adminstrator in a school district and not send his/her child to that school if they live in that district. They don't have that much stake in the district.

I think people who are curious about public school might want to actually check them out for your self. You never know what you might find.

[tickledpink]

Originally posted by DeltaBetaBaby
This is something that hasn't been considered yet:

Some teachers do not want their children to go to the school at which they teach. They don't want any personal issues/conflicts to interfere with their professional lives.

There are negatives and positives to this. For me, the negative was one of my children had a kindergarten teacher that was new, did not seem to genuinely like children , and was inequipped to deal with them. I am very stern, and she was a bit different. Her classroom was very unstructured and you could tell when you walked in it. Anyway, because I worked there, if my child had a behavior issue, she felt the need to pull me out of class several times a day. For talking, because his feelings were hurt and he cried. Mainly he was a talker (still is). My point is, I had dealt with him, would do "spot checks", but I felt it was more convenient for her to pull me rather than for her to actually be stern with him. It was very frustrating. It got to the point to where other teachers noticed and commented that she was making a mountain out of a molehill. When she began to see how apparent it was, she cut it out - and tried to ween me off of the "spot checks" but she'd already sent alarms ringing in my head, so I had to make sure he was in the best environment.

Now, the positive thing was that I could monitor my child very closely. Being on the inside, I was aware of which classrooms would do the best for him, and I could suggest certain teachers. That was a definate plus. If I still worked for the school system, I would't put my children in a private school for this very reason.

I no longer work in the system. I wanted to make a difference, especially after my child's initial experience and some of the crap that I've seen, but I couldn't afford it. I've said it b4 and I'll say it again - teachers are underpaid. The school that I worked in b4 was an excellent school. The school that my kids are now in has made me loose faith in the public school system a bit. For instance - one particluar room didn't have a teacher for the entire quarter, then did not have a set teacher - they had rotating subs. All of the kids were graded for the quarter on one assignment and over 1/2 of them failed in that subject. One grade. And these are elementary school kids. And over 1/2 of them did not remember either be assigned the project, or said they turned it in, but with inconsistent amounts of teachers in the room, ... ... who would have reiterated this to them? Guess what classroom will be regraded and will do that project over? I'll try it one more year in a different school, but if things are not right, I will put them in a private school.

[lovelyivy84]

Originally posted by tammy-
I attended public schools my whole life and I must say that I am grateful for the education I received from my teachers. I think people tend to criticize public schools and the education that students receive there. I would not send my kids to a private school because I feel that learning starts at home and if I raise my kids right and give them a strong foundation, I won't have too many problems with them.

How optimistic of you. I know a lot of kids raised with some strong foundations who went to public schools. Not all of them went bad of course, but MANY of them did not reach their full potential. The public schools were unable to give them the slightest notion of what was out there for them in the world- academically, with scholarships, professionally with jobs, and let's not even talk about SAT prep.

They were also unable to adequately prepare them for that first year of college. I know so many kids who were completely unprepared for what colleges put on their plate because of the sub-par education the public school system gave them.

This is something that seems to vary by economic levels. If you are from a middle or upper-middle class community then there is no reason in the world not to send your kids to public school for the most part. But for those of us in the urban blue collar or worse neighborhoods (who happen to be raising more than half of all black children in this country)the best thing you could possible do is to get our kids out- and that means private education for a lot of them (I remember at the public school in my neighborhood the drug dealers never bothered to hide. They were sitting on the front steps of the school every day. Why? CAUSE THEY WENT THERE. I was afraid to walk past the school after dark!)


I also learned to deal with various situations that I would have not encountered had I attended a private school.

What situations were these exactly? There are few social experiences in public school that you can not have in private too. In my experience it is sometimes the exact opposite- private school kids have way more exposure to different people and situations. In real life you have to deal with white people. You don't get that in the 95% black public schools with no funding that the majority of OUR children are going to.


I am happy I had the opportunity to attend a school where I did not ge asked ignorant questions.

I attended an all black high school and grade school.

See above point. White people are a fact of life. Teaching others about our culture because they have either been too ignorant or too lazy is an unfortunate fact of life. Going to private school can give you some lessons in diversity - not just with Whites but with Asians and the hispanic diaspora that can be great experience for when you enter the workforce.


I don't think any one should be an adminstrator in a school district and not send his/her child to that school if they live in that district. They don't have that much stake in the district.


I think that's a very naive thought.

[AKA2D '91]

Originally posted by lovelyivy84
[B]Originally posted by tammy-
Going to private school can give you some lessons in diversity - .

Our (public) school played a very prestigious private school in our metropolitan area. When our cheerleaders (squad made up of asians, blacks, and whites) who are anything but your "traditional" squad went to visit the visitors, they were bombarded with racial slurs, ice thrown at them, boos, and other melicious acts. So, if that's diversity, then Lawd help us.

Our assistant principal sent the archdiosese (sp?) and the school a letter regarding the incident. Do you think they responded or apologized, heck no! We have since removed them from our schedule.

So much for diversity...

[lovelyivy84]

Originally posted by AKA2D '91




Our (public) school played a very prestigious private school in our metropolitan area. When our cheerleaders (squad made up of asians, blacks, and whites) who are anything but your "traditional" squad went to visit the visitors, they were bombarded with racial slurs, ice thrown at them, boos, and other melicious acts. So, if that's diversity, then Lawd help us.

Our assistant principal sent the archdiosese (sp?) and the school a letter regarding the incident. Do you think they responded or apologized, heck no! We have since removed them from our schedule.

So much for diversity...

I wish that all private schools did not have race problems but that would be unrealistic. Our society has race problems, so every facet of it has race problems.

I didn't say it was always going to be a loving and supportive diverse environment. A lot of times with diversity comes conflict, and yes there are private schools where it is not a priority. I suppose that my thoughts are colored by my experience in NYC, where all of the private schools are fairly diverse.

And my main point was that we live in a world where we are 12% of the population, and not everybody likes us by a long shot. Private schools will expose you to how the world works, the good and the bad in terms of race relations.

[AKA2D '91]

It's unfortunate that money had to spent to learn that.

I fortunately was exposed by my parents and also my teachers (public school) of how the world works..the good, the bad, the ugly interms of race, LIVING and SURVIVING.

It must be that Southern (chopping/picking cotton, sugarcane, cleaning up the man's homes/camps, and taking care of their chil'ren)experience that had them to expose us.

[Shelacious]

I am a proud product of the public school system. I went to a pseudo-private public school (on a military base), a neighborhood junior high and a sr. high school across town. Having said that, I am not a public school teacher, but if I were, I would probably send my child only to public school at the school in which I taught, or to the 3-4 out of 40 public schools in the city.

It seems to me, at least in Cali, that we have constrained public schools to the point that most cannot provide an effective teaching environment.
1. Public schools are tasked with educating ALL children in the area--with all kinds of emotional, physical, mental and behavioral problems. If little Johnny is majorly acting up and disrupting the class, it can take at long as 6 months to get him out of the class/school...meanwhile, he's also ruined or disrupted the learning experience for the other 20+ children plus the teacher. Public schools have to fund other classrooms and schools for little Johnny, which is why public schools are always short money. Another reason, IMHO is the way we've set up the promotional infrastructure: the only way, outside of seniority, to be promoted as a teacher is to move into administration--as a result, we have a lot of top heavy school districts, with the best teachers earning good $ in admin while new teachers are teaching. There are no "uber teacher", "master teacher" levels that would reward you for being the BEST teachers (with more $, regardless of seniority by testing and other methods).
2. Because classroom sizes are so large, teaching to the slowest student in class is a real challenge for public schools—one student could be a grade below the class, and the kids performing at a higher level are stymied. It is un-American to admit that students should be “tracked” based on testing to certain classes, so most teachers are left with 3-4 ones unprepared for the classwork, 8-12 at grade level and 3-4 above grade level, but not necessarily G&T.
3. Safety: A student is not going to perform at his/her highest level when they are more concerned with the local dealer/violence than arithmetic. Safety is a factor in private schools too, but it tends to be easier there to round up the trouble makers.
4. Academics: As a product of public school, I have noticed that it is difficult to be "smart" in a public school. It's even worse for black boys. Most of the kids at the average public school act like they are not interested in benefiting from an education, and mock you for doing so...therefore, I've seen many supersmart black boys and girls succumb to peer pressure and devalue their intelligence and desire to learn in order to be with the "in" crowd. I want my children to attend schools where everyone's trying to get into college (or some post secondary education), and studying after school is not a "nerdy" or "square" thing to do.

Having said that, I would not carte blanche send my children to any type of private school either...there are a lot of bad private schools out there, and can be worse than the public school experience for children. A private school must meet with my values, objectives and goals before they get my $.

[tammy-]

I went to a public school that had a college prep program for the more intellegent children. I had all honors classes all through out high school. I had the opportunity to interact with people who were not motivated to attend school. I saw just where that type of thinking took them. I use to teach high school for several years at a public school. I was able to to tell my students about my experiences in school and what happened to people around me that did not take school very seriously.

I learned how to deal with violence in my community and how to stay away from trouble makers. I can now spot people who are not goal oriented by talking to them for a few moments. I also know how to get out of bad situations because I went to school with some people who did not have my best interest at heart all the time. I was also able to relay that info to my students in the classroom- how to get out of situations like that etc.


I also feel it was a great experience to inteact with people who were not middle class and understand what they were going through. Although it would be good to interact with people of various races- I had the opportunity to interact with people of my own race first before interacting with people of other races. I attended a college that was mostly Caucasian and I had the opportunity to interact with people of other races there.

I was very prepared when I went to college. I did not miss a beat. Everyone seems to think that there are so many problems in public schools but I don't feel that way. Maybe the students will work harder if they know they have to be better than the other kids because they don't have the same resources that they have. Blue collar kids have to work their butts off to get the same education as middle class kids. Everyone cannot afford private schools......... I know I worked my butt of to succeed and rise above the B.S. that may have surrounded me in grade school, high school, and college.

Once again- I applaud my teachers in the public school system who told it like it was with no half stepping. That is what I did as an educator also....

[Honeykiss1974]

In no way am I against private schools or anything like that. Honestly, I feel like we are dealing with a problem that was caused by "WHITE FLIGHT" from our cities. So while THEY are chillin in the suburbs, we are left the clean up their mess.

I am a product of not only a public school, but of one in Mississippi as well (although I did attend high school in Kansas). The public school system in Mississippi (in my town that is) was the TOUGHEST curriculum I have ever encountered! Failure was NOT an option (unless you dropped out of school). If you failed a class, you had to repeat that whole grade over again (or attend summer school). In junior high, our required curriculum were courses such as pre-algebra, algebra, civics, foreign languages, etc. So imagine my suprise when I moved to Kansas and found out the following:

1. In high school, you pick your own classes! I knew plenty of juniors and seniors taking easy classes like basic math and physical sciences just for the grades. In Mississippi, this was unheard of! All freshmen took Algebra, sophomores took Geometry, juniors took triganometry, and seniors took calculus, and so on. Huh, you want to chose your courses...THIS AIN'T BURGER KING!!

2. Teachers did not grade homework! OK, why should a student even bother to do it?

3. In Kansas, the grading scale was as follows:
A=100-90
B=89-80
C=79-70
D=69-60
F=59 BELOW
Also, some teachers did grade on a curve

In Miss, our grading scale was as follows:
A=100-95
B=94-90
C=89-85
D=84-80
F=79 BELOW

What's a curve?

Now, with this these things in mind, I believe that my public school in Miss was the way that it was because of parental involvement within the school. Sure, there were plenty of private schools in the area, but I believe most parents felt like why should they pay taxes, levies, etc. and support a public school system that doesn't prepare their kids for the future? My mother, although not active within the PTA, was very involved/knew each one of my teachers and spoke with them at least every two weeks. If something went on that wasn't right, you better believe the principle and/or school board heard it.

Our public school system is in the shape that its in because a LOT of parents expect someone else to clean it up for them. Instead of actually going to parent teacher conferences, PTA meetings, school board meetings, etc. most parents will sit back and let the teacher shoulder the ENTIRE responsibility of looking out for their child and their child's future. Unfortunately, when something goes array, these same parent will fuss and say "the school system is terrible and I'm pulling my child out and putting him into a private school"! So as parents pull their children out of the schools, there goes the funding, the best teachers, etc. And what does that leave? It leaves mostly black and hispanic children in those public schools to be terrorized by violence and to receive a sub-par education from some teacher that really don't care (they are only their until all of their student loans are forgiven). And then some folks wonder why children now a days don't seem to care about anything

Situations like this in the MAIN reason that I do not support vouchers(public tax money) for private schools and I continue to lobby against them by voicing my concerns to my state senators and state BOE.

I know that I have gotten so far of topic that I am on another message board but I do think that if you as a public school teacher feel like the system that you work for and represent is not good enough for your own children, I really think you need to look in the mirror. You could be apart of the problem.

[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.

[AKA2D '91]

Originally posted by Honeykiss1974
Situations like this in the MAIN reason that I do not support vouchers(public tax money) for private schools and I continue to lobby against them by voicing my concerns to my state senators and state BOE.

Now, I haven't formed an opinion about vouchers, yet. It's been discussed a little bit around these parts.

I know that I have gotten so far of topic that I am on another message board but I do think that if you as a public school teacher feel like the system that you work for and represent is not good enough for your own children, I really think you need to look in the mirror. You could be apart of the problem.

Girl, that's okay. This board is a means of communication, where we exchange information. It's not like we can talk on the phone and chit chat...

SAY WHAT YOU WANT!

[AOIIBrandi]

I am a product of 11 years of public education and 2 years of private. How can that be you ask, the numbers add up to 13. When my mother received our class ranks in the middle of my junior year found out I had less than a 2.0 and ranked exactly 300 out of 600 she decided something had to be done. She pulled me out of public school placed me in private school and made me repeat my junior year.

I can honestly say that it was the biggest monetary sacrifice she had to make as a single mother (over $8000/year) and to this day everyone involved agrees that it was the best decision she ever made. I would have never been accepted at a 4 year institution without it. What she found out when they tested me to enter the private school that my grades were more likely a result of my being bored in class (not challenged) than that I couldn't do the work. The public school was treating me as if I couldn't cut it and didn't take the time to see if there might have been a reason. As soon as I entered I was making honor role every semester. And I scored well above the national average on the SAT.

My private school had a 0 drop out percentage and 99.9% of the graduating went on to 4 year colleges. Junior College was discouraged at this institution as well.

From my experience alone I will strive to send my future children to private school, and I will defenitely be checking out any and all schools carefully (for the criteria I feel is important) before I enroll my children.

***sorry so long this topic just hit home ***
Stepping off soap box now...

[RedefinedDiva]

I think that it is an individual preference on what type of school a parent sends their children to, even if that parent is a teacher in a public school. As a teacher, I have no preference about what type of school I will send my child to (when I have one). I do feel that it is a choice that will he made by me and my husband (when I get one).

I teach in a "private public" school. (It's a public school, but it's only for children with severe behavior problems.) I have gone my entire life through public schools and I have no problem with that. I also know people who have gone to private schools and the liked their experience. The opposite could have happened and those experiences could have been horrible. For me, the issue doesn't lie in whether the school is public or private, it lies in what kind of eduaction/experience will they receive.

I know that private schools tend to have more certified teachers, resources, smaller class sizes, etc., but will my child learn and thrive in that environment? I know that not all public schools have 100% certified teachers, resources, and classes may be larger, but does that mean that my child will be slighted?

It all comes down to preference. I personally like public schools (maybe because it's what I know), but I am open. If the school is fundamental to the eduactional and personal growth of my child, be it public or private, it has my vote.