I’m going to blog a bit about my personal life today. Do any of you have kids? If so, did you send them to private school or public school? Our child is only four years old and we’re looking at different schools – wondering where we should enroll him. It just feels a bit weird, looking for enrollment options for a kid that’s going to kindergarten next year! The reason it feels kind of weird is because, when I was growing up, we just got on the big yellow bus and went to school. There was no discussion about curriculums, private vs. public, etc.
I didn’t go through all of this discussion about school until I was eighteen, getting ready to go to college, filling out financial aid forms, getting my high school transcript, etc.
After all this talk and discussion, our son might just be going to the elementary school around the corner! But everybody else is doing this, and my friends think I should research all of my options, so, that’s what I’m doing!
I like private school in the formative years because it gives them a foundation based on biblical principles. It seems like my children learned how to be confortable with being a Christian in a Christian environment. I also don’t like some of the alternative lifestyle being promoted in public school. Invest in your child’s spiritual education…and I don’t mean on Sunday.
Sistergirl said it.
My oldest was in private school for pre-k and K. We moved to Georgia and enrolled him in a “very good” public school where he stayed for 1-4. By 5th grade I couldn’t take the public school agenda. Teaching to test scores, bad teachers being protected, good teachers being worked to death and lets not even get into all the kids with behavior problems that disrupt everyone else’s learning. The environment was so high pressure. My son couldn’t sleep one night, told me his stomach hurt because he was nervous about the standardized tests that were beginning the following day. He was nine years old. He had almost all A’s and he couldn’t sleep. I had had enough. I realized the “good” district was good because they tested well, but what they did to the kids to get those scores was ridiculous. So we put him in private school for 5 through 8. It was wonderful. He learned so much. Then came high school. He wanted to go to public high school (of course he was tired of ties and vest and blazers). I had had a baby and money was tight, so we decided to let him go to the local high school. Worse mistake I ever could have made. I should have sold a kidney. I don’t think the kid has learned anything in four years. Most of the teachers hate teaching, don’t like teenagers and won’t be motivated to do their jobs without a teacher’s conference and even then I think they just raise his grades to shut his mother up. It’s horrible. I can’t describe how disappointed I am. There’s this ridiculous system that protects their apathy. They talk about all these support services they have, but when you try to access them you can’t. My son is a senior. Thank God. He’s taking honors trigonometry and really struggling with it. He struggled through Algerbra II. Math has always been his strength, but he’s had the same bad teacher for Alg II and Trig and most of the kids are doing really bad. They even had some little protest about the teacher in the principal’s office, because of course Honors Trig these kids are all college bound and their grades are not good. They have no tutoring services and you can’t even get a recommendation for a private tutor. How am I supposed to find one? Open my door and yell “Anyone know trig!” I tell you it’s disgusting. Okay, I am clearly not happy.
My recommendation, Cecelia, is that if you can afford to educate your child privately, please, for the love of everything that’s Holy do it. The public school system in this country is not good. Even in the best communities they come up short. And then there is always the anti-Christian values agenda that they push that Sistergirl mentioned. It’s a serious problem. Why deal with it?
If you go the private route, you have to be careful and observant. Many kids are sent to private schools to avoid the public schools-not because their parents have similar values to you. The curriculum needs scrutiny. We protested about banned books being on the approved list and was told it was important for them to read literature from that time period.End of topic.They tend to grow up believing all their classmates are saved which isn’t the case.Despite the dress code, the girls dress and dancewear is the same as public. The language,drinking,entertainment choices,promiscuity and all that isn’t any different than public except they may hide it more at school. Their MySpace and Facebook pages still has the foul language,clevage,drinking etc as every other teen. Save the $ and teach your child to be strong in Christ in whatever environment they are in. Public schools need Christians too.