Public schools are in the business of educating children. Private schools are in the business of turning a profit. Why anybody would trust their child's education to a private school is beyond me.
Statistics Canada has some interesting statistics on private schools, although they're admittedly from 1998. On average, they spend almost exactly the same amount of money per student as public schools (so you're not getting any more value from the extra money).
The value comes in things that you might not consider like school class sizes. There is a big difference between a teacher dealing with 20 students vs 30 students.
Studies have shown that and honestly this seems pretty obvious; the less kids a teacher has to teach, the better the teacher knows each student and is able to help each student.
This isn't exactly consistently true.
50% of the variation in grades is due to socioeconomic factors that are independent of class sizes, teacher, school etc.
Gut the education system by putting your kids in private school.
No, that's not how it works. Every parent has an individual responsibility to do what's best for his kids given the way things are, not how we wish they were. As a society, we have a collective responsibility to make our public systems competitive -- and that's the role of government.
You know what would be really good for those two girls?
Put the $6,000 in their accounts, at age five, and teach them how not to buy a bunch of useless crap, but how to make the account grow every year. Maybe by the time they are eighteen they are collecting rent from people on some houses they own.
I remember visiting some friend back in the late 1980s and their daughter was about fourteen years old - she had $40,000 in her bank account. Never went to no private school. Lived on a farm. Always out there pulling weeds on a big garden. Never spent a cent on useless stuff.
Now - she owns a big house in Grande Prairie.
I didn't know young kids could have big bank accounts. I always thought we have to be broke all the time, and buy nice stuff.
Instead of wasting hundreds of hours in public school, and paying thousands of dollars for private school, kids should learn early how to: publish a book at ten years old, trade stocks at twelve years old, be an artist marketing your work online at nine years old run your own business profitably selling vegetables at eight years old compose a song at seven years old
that type of thing instead of coming out of grade twelve, and can't do a thing.
what do they do in grade one? sing songs? draw little pictures?
They were writing, reading and doing math in kindergarten.
With them going into Grade 1 now, were they Full day JK/SK?...I don't know about the systems down south but the Rainbow District School board (that's the board in Sudbury I kid you not) was offering fully day JK/SK in their program...
Just wondering if you calculated that in because those prices seem a bit high for daycare unless they were going say only half-day every day or every other day full-day SK....
That being said, rankings and rating systems are overrated IMO. Ultimately you want to do whats best for your child, but you have to weigh the pros and cons and figure it out for yourself.
The only issue I'd say Donoreo, as the father to a child going into SK, is the socialization aspect...and continued socialization aspect....there were kids who were homeschooled/private schooled in elementary school that I went to with in High school and they were definitely unprepared for life in high school, not from an academic standpoint, but a social standpoint...
I want my daughter to be exposed to as many different people as possible as I want her to gain those social skills and continue to develop them. Being gifted and being smart yourself, you can challenge your children outside of school academically (I was doing crazy long division in Grade 3 because of my math aptitude)...I don't know if they do long division anymore but was just my point.
That'd be the only reason why I'd keep them in the public system...but again check the numbers on before/after care with them going basically a full day every day now....I feel like the numbers should be less....either way, good luck!
Congrats Don I'm a big believer of private schools. The kids are much more well behaved and imo well rounded. The public system is a mess full of undisciplined kids that the schools are too afraid to deal with. Environment is everything when it comes to healthy kids and I believe private schools while not perfect are certainly the better choice overall.
Congrats Don I'm a big believer of private schools. The kids are much more well behaved and imo well rounded. The public system is a mess full of undisciplined kids that the schools are too afraid to deal with.
There's a huge difference from school to school, regardless if they're private or public. My wife's a teacher, and her best friends are teachers all over. Some private schools are the biggest joke. They don't care about anything but collecting tuition fees and making parents happy by giving kids good grades.
A friend worked at a private school, and she got fired because she wasn't on the same wavelength as the administration: she refused to give passing grades to kids just because the number of kids who didn't do any work and deserved to fail exceeded their maximum of 'only 3 kids per class can fail'.
Just as I've seen some public schools being way better than any private school. The school will only be as good as their administration, and currently the administration only comes in two flavours: 'kids can't fail, parents must be happy so we can get more funding' or 'kids need to be held responsible, need to be helped, and need to be educated'. The two are found in both public and private, so picking one over another is pointless. Only way to know is to actually go to each school.
Of course there are variations from school to school, that goes without saying. I have very little faith in the public school system which may come across as more pro private school than intended but there it is.
I don't know if there's a fool proof way to choose a school unless of course it's Hillfield or similar.
Physicaly going to each school is a start but it may or may not give you an accurate view of the schools. That would depend on many subjective factors including each individuals ability to assess personality types.
Test scores, curriculuum and how teachers and administrators handle difficult students are all factors to be weighed in. How did they handle the last bully for example.
In the private system they have more control over their students or they'll be thrown out. Public system - not so much.
You could however attend an open school meeting between staff and parents. There you would see what the parents complaints are. Do all schools have these?
It really depends. I had a great experience in the TDSB system. It really does depend on the teachers & the schools though, and the willingness of the parent to pick up any slack in assisting the child to learn.
Anytime I came home confused (say in math for example), my dad would sit me down, explain things to me, help me through a few of the homework questions, then would assign me additional questions (on top of school-assigned homework), to make sure that it really hammered home.
You should just always assume that test scores are lies, for the most part. A lot of schools like to make them higher than they really are, private or public. All schools should have parents-teachers meeting. However, you also won't know everything from just visiting, but it can tell a lot more than grades and whether it's private or public.
I'm luckier being with a teacher, as we can judge every school in our area by actually talking to people who have worked or still work there... that's probably the only real way of knowing how good a school really is-- befriend a teacher.
Mind you, the best high school in our area, if not the whole city, is a private school. But, at the same time, I know of two other private schools that are considered amazing by parents to be simply horrible. A friend worked at both, and like i said, the only priority to the administration is to keep parents happy by saying how amazing their kid is and by giving them good grades, even if they deserve to fail.
If you agree with the lesson plan, and you can afford it, go for it.
I am very happy with the private daycare that my son goes to. There are occasional issues but they are immediate to fix the issues. If I could afford it, I am also consider IF it is worth it to go to private school.
Right now I think he will go to Public School and we will see how it goes.
Of course part of my issue with Public School is the current lack of control over the Kids... not sure if that is much better in private schools.
Excellent point. Having an 'in' with a teacher or two who's judgement you trust would be excellent.
So Don.. Are the girls excited about their new school?
After they did a day there, they are. We sort of have an "in" with a teacher. We discussed the school with someone who is a teacher and they said they heard good things about the school.
The whole thread has moved away a bit from where I started, but a lot if it valid.
It is going to cost us $950 or so per month if they go to public school for before and after. That is a fact. So why not spend $200 more for private school? It seems so simple.
It is going to cost us $950 or so per month if they go to public school for before and after. That is a fact. So why not spend $200 more for private school? It seems so simple.
doesn't seem too bad to me...plus, it might help keep your kids away from the "less desirable", as most parents who are paying a premium for their kids are likely to have better behaved kids...not a guarantee, but i am sure it is likely.
It is going to cost us $950 or so per month if they go to public school for before and after. That is a fact. So why not spend $200 more for private school? It seems so simple.
doesn't seem too bad to me...plus, it might help keep your kids away from the "less desirable", as most parents who are paying a premium for their kids are likely to have better behaved kids...not a guarantee, but i am sure it is likely.
. Really? I would imagine there's quite afew spoiled brats attending this school.
For JK/SK we kept them at the daycare. We had no before or after school program at the school they would go to, we were on the waiting list.
My daycare prices are normal Toronto bullshit prices. They are correct.
Socialization is a concern and that was partially why we got rid of the nanny and went to daycare.
I heard lots of places are not teaching long division anymore.
I see....I guess I live in diluted little Sudbury where I forget about prices for daycare and such .
I read the rest of the thread and I'm glad that things worked out for you . If I could afford to, I'd put my little one in private school too, but for me unfortunately it didn't add up but I'm glad for you though .
