Some reflections on a recent conversation with a Very Trusted Professor, Mother, and Parent (with experience in private, charter, and public schools in NOLA):
“If I could afford it, I’d put all of my children in private school. It’s not the academics (although I do think they are just a little better in private, they are really comparable with the best public charters) — it is the personal attention. In public schools, your child is a number. If there is a problem, you hear about it on the report card. Not before. There is no specialized attention, nurturing, or shaping the learning towards your child’s needs and interests.”
This really made Paul and I stop and think. Because even though we went to some of the country’s very best public schools, we agreed that we were numbers within them. Private schools offer half of the class size as public schools. She had a real point that is turning us on our heads. We are back into not having any idea what to do with our children. Are we looking at a life of sacrifice to pay for the best schools we can afford? Is this what we should do?
Andrew Kottenstette | 25-Oct-07 at 8:25 am | Permalink
There’s a subject I have some thoughts and queries on.
Why do today’s public schools have to be so large?
I worked on an elementary school that just seemed to be about herding small people. I’m sorry. Put barbed wire around the place and architecturally it resembled a prison for dwarves. What’s that all about? Why not have some combination of neighborhood collective with no more than ten or twenty kids to a bunch?
I get the impression it’s more driven by some unspoken cultural force, like football and cheerleading! (Interesting that Frank DeFord at Sports Illustrated proposes that kids be allowed to “major” in football.) It’s like a system that gets them used to being a small cog in a larger wheel. Like getting them used to being in the military.
There’s a subject that peeves me about consolidation, with not enough room here to assess. It’s local to Colorado, and constitutional issues in massive imminent domain aquisition of land “to prepare for the wars of the future”.
I’ll stop here.
shokufeh | 25-Oct-07 at 9:46 am | Permalink
I don’t know if I’d agree. I do realize that it’s been a good long while since I was a student in a New Orleans public school, but the fact that I’m still in contact with some of my teachers indicates that the system does have teachers who provide specialized attention and nurturing. Just because I’ve left the system doesn’t mean they have. I would argue the same for the public school I worked at last year. I think the challenges come from students who don’t want to be in the classroom, and from our national educational policies.
But I also recognize that the small classes of the private schools, along with other advantages, do offer a lot.
Good luck with making your decision!
Cold Spaghetti | 25-Oct-07 at 9:59 am | Permalink
Thanks, Shokufeh. I really appreciate your insight on this. This issue seems so polarized here — folks tend to be dead-set against, or completely for the public schools. Many that I talk to use the public schools but only because finances preclude them from doing differently. It is tough since teachers only last a year and the quality can change in an instant.
I, too, have and had great personal contact with my school teachers — at all levels of schooling. But I was not an average student and I do tend to stick out in a classroom. (When I lamented this to a professor over concern that I was somehow an attention hog, he laughed and said that was completely wrong… “no Holly, you don’t have to find the spotlight… it finds you.”) But I do think that in classes with 30 other students, it is impossible for any teacher to have an individual memory of each student. (Having taught classes this big, it is my experience as well.) Having a class with 14 makes for a very different experience.
I’m not sure if my kids need the nurturing attention. If money weren’t an issue, it probably wouldn’t be a question. So are we doing the wrong thing if we go the public school route? I’m not sure. The newness of these choices is difficult and I am uncomfortable with the way these choices divides the community and families. I’m not sure what is best for us or for our kids… or for anyone, really.
Leigh C. | 25-Oct-07 at 11:05 am | Permalink
My son is currently in a Montessori classroom with nineteen other kids, and, because of the way it is structured, he has the same teacher this year as he had last year. This is a PUBLIC Montessori, which I know is an anomaly. I also know that he is doing well and that his teachers are very concerned with his development…and these are teachers who have been there for a long time and will most likely still be there until something else crazy happens.
Weigh your decision carefully. Juggle some funds if you have to. Look at what will be best for your kids. This isn’t an easy decision. If the current school the little guy is in hadn’t worked out, I’d be in the same boat…and I can tell you that just as it depends on the public school in terms of the individualized attention, it depends on the private school, too. My husband and I had my son in a synagogue preschool in Queens shortly before we moved back to New Orleans, and…well, here’s the link…
http://liprapslament-theline.blogspot.com/2006/01/my-son-had-preschool-evaluation.html
chrissie | 25-Oct-07 at 11:57 am | Permalink
I know what we should do: exactly what we’re doing now! Abeona House Elementary!
I’m not totally kidding. Like the first comment here, I’m all for the idea of small, “neighborhood” collectives.
Emily | 25-Oct-07 at 5:09 pm | Permalink
I don’t necessarily agree with the number thing…ultimately that depends on the person who is across the desk from your child. Be it public or private, there are teachers who will do everything it takes for your child…and there are teachers who will turn a blind eye.
The more you’re in each school before you decide the better!!! Visit prospective schools as much as possible during school hours! Tour them, ask to see a class in session, ask to speak with a teacher during their planning time, ask to see the library, ask if they are having any after school functions you can attend (maybe a Fall Festival?). If they have a main cafeteria, that can be a great place to see the true atmosphere of the school (go while students are eating)… This is all very time consuming, but your gut will tell you if they school is right for you!! Good Luck!