[...] Vanessa Van Petten discusses eight different factors you should consider when choosing what kind of school your child should attend.  The first factor is cost.  Many families can’t afford private schools, so getting rid of public schools would be a bad move.  If we didn’t have free, accessible public education, many children wouldn’t get any education at all.  Plus, Vanessa writes that having your children go to private schools leaves less room for family vacation because of the cost, meaning less family bonding time.  Two more factors to think about are the teachers and principal.  This has to do with what I was talking about before.  There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with public education.  It could very well be the administration that is the problem.  The government needs to make sure that the right people are being hired to teach America’s children.  Maybe if this happened, our literacy rates would increase.  You also have to think about individual children, and how each one is different.  Not every child learns the same way or thinks the same way.  Some children learn better in different environments from others.  One child could learn better and be more comfortable in a private school setting, while another could learn better and be more comfortable in a public school setting.  It wouldn’t be fair to force all children into private school.  Besides, shouldn’t it be the family’s choice as to what school their children attend?  I believe so. [...]

1. Cost – parents are confronted on a daily basis with choices on how to prioritize their finances. I don’t know any parent who would not prioritize a good education over family vacations. There are always acceptable alternatives in family life. If a parent feels that a better education can be had in private school, it is quite easy to substitute a trip to Yosemite for a trip to Hawaii or exploring San Francisco over Paris. Too many family outings and activities are free for this to be considered in a decision as important as your child’s education. Finding and taking advantage of them is the key.

2. Teachers – When assessing the level of education that a school provides, rarely should you look at individual teachers. A) Teachers come and go. B) Every teacher has problems with one parent/student or another. C) Every school, public and private, has both good and bad teachers. Kids need to be flexible and learn to deal with both. The assessment of “niceness” or “passion” is arbitrary and is too often based on popularity rather than skill as an educator.

Parents look at standardized testing or matriculation when judging either a public or private school. They may look at what kind of families go to the school. “Are parents involved and supportive?” “Does the Administration provide a nurturing atmosphere that allows for creativity/structure/respect, etc? “Is there a good athletic/music/arts program?” “Are the students excelling in math/science/English programs?” “Are they inspired to compete with other schools in these areas of study?” “Do the strengths (and weaknesses) of this school compliment my child’s strengths and aspirations?” These are the kinds of questions to ask; the answers imply a great deal about the faculty as a whole.

3. Principal – See #2. A principal may well be problematic but if he/she provides those qualities in a school that best fits your child’s needs, who cares?

4. Location – Every psychologist well tell you that one of the BEST times for a parent to interact or communicate with children, particularly teenagers, is in the car. The commute to and from school has given me some of the most interesting, insightful and cherished conversations with my kids. Obviously commute time has to be balanced with other time commitments. Picking the closer school simply because it is closer is out of the question.

5. Your kid – Correct.

6. Friends – In almost every situation, kids move from smaller elementary schools to larger secondary schools and find themselves forced to make new friends. This can be due to old friends moving in a different direction or by the introduction of new kids who attract their attention. Kids are flexible and somehow persevere. I don’t believe that most parents would agree that friends should be taken into consideration when changing schools at a regularly scheduled time (i.e. between primary and secondary school). If the new school is well matched to a child’s needs, kids will quickly find others with whom they have much in common and the transition should be fairly easy. Changing schools in the middle of High School is an entirely different matter.

7. Your perspective – Absolutely correct. Kids read their parents emotions on these issues.

8. There are options – I am not sure that I understood everything you said in this one… The choice between public and private school is usually made at Kindergarten or at 6th-7th grade. These are still ages where parents are managing their kids lives and should have the final decision (i.e. there are no options). How the decision is presented to kids is crucial. Involving your child in each step of the evaluation can empower them to feel confident with the end result, but the end result is still the same. Obviously, the older the child, the more they have to be part of the decision making process. We don’t move from ‘managers’ of our children’s lives to ‘consultants’ until the ages of 15 or 16.

The benefits of a private education rest with an agreement upon mission. What is the mission of public education? Depends who you ask doesn’t it. Private schools have a tremendous amount of freedom and ability to change and adapt at much quicker speeds.

I don’t think to be fair that the staff at one over the other can be quantified. It is what it is in every building. What sets private schools apart is everyone there is agreeing upon the importance of education.

I’ll argue whole heartedly for the religions mission of schools and their ability to ask the core questions of meaning: who is God? who are they? why are they here? Public schools don’t have the freedom to ask these questions. Specifically at the secondary level these questions are asked frequently by young people?

I think to answer the question you have to be able to know what you want from your child’s school?

Case in point: My wife had a student this past year who was (more or less) helping to raise his younger brother and sister. Every night, his mother would call home at 10:00, waking him up to make sure he helped his siblings with their homework, got everyone fed, and so on. As a single mother, his mom was working two jobs, so she depended on her son to help. He was in the 7th grade.

My wife discovered these facts after trying to determine why he was falling asleep in class. Miraculously, the child has a great attitude, and was able to keep up with some additional help after school. This is some of what your local public school teacher deals with on a daily basis. – Tim

Similarly, private school is, for me, the half-way point between homeschooling (taking complete control, almost “micromanaging” your child’s education) and public school. Unfortunately, I think using those as extremes rather misses the point.

First, it’s ridiculous to put your child’s education completely and totally in the hands of someone else, and then expect them to teach your child EVERYTHING and do so exactly within the prescribed limits you set (no teaching about evolution if you’re a creationist, no teaching about condom use if you want your child to only be exposed to abstinence, and so on).

Likewise, to go completely with homeschooling ignores the socialization skills that come with being in an environment that isn’t of your choosing. (You can’t replicate this with your own social groupings, because you’ll tend to affiliate with people who think and behave the same way you do.) Exposing my children to opposing points of view has value for everyone involved, but then a lot of homeschooling parents aren’t interested in that, and prefer the intellectual/social/spiritual homogeneity that comes with this territory. Even private school misses this somewhat, because I will tend to choose a private school that lines up with what I would teach in a homeschool situation.

I think both extremes miss the boat.

If you’re not homeschooling your child, you should be, regardless of whether or not they attend public or private school. I say this, not just because there are “critical” things that you want your child to learn a certain way (I used quotes there because of the strange but common presumption that the way we know is the “only right way”), but because you have an opportunity to know your child in a way that no teacher ever will. You can watch and understand your child’s learning style and their social style, and can equip them to learn for themselves. Leaving this up to educators that have ridiculously difficult situations to deal with, is just irresponsible.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you’re homeschooling or private-schooling your child, you would do well to find socialization options that force your child to interact with people you don’t have much in common with. This can happen with sports, with drama clubs, and many different venues, but as I’ve said above, I think the most effective venue is public school.

In my opinion, the ideal solution is public school, supplemented with homeschooling. Where this isn’t possible or sensible (as Jean alludes to), a private-school + homeschool approach is a good alternative. – Tim

P.S. These are generalizations, I know. There are many kids for whom private school is a better option, and many for whom public school is the ONLY choice available. And, while I disagree with the philosophy of homeschooling (and get seriously annoyed at Christians who suggest that there’s something wrong with my faith because I don’t like it), I know kids who’ve been homeschooled that grew up to be reasonable, well-adjusted adults.

My comments are directed at the general student population, and are based on several factors: having raised two sons who went to public school; having a public schoolteacher as a wife; having taught and coached children from public, private, and homeschool backgrounds; and having hired and managed people from all three backgrounds. There are exceptions, but adults who went to public school but whose parents invested heavily in their education at home, seem to have the best chance of future success.