My brother and I both moved from private to public school at the same time - I was halfway through 5th grade and he was halfway through 3rd. We had sort of outgrown the small private school we attended, and the atmosphere was kind of going downhill as kids whose parents helped start it up because they were looking for a higher-quality education moved away, and those kids were replaced with kids who got sent to private school out of desperation because they had behavior problems that the public schools weren't addressing. We lived in a small town and the only options were the public school or the alternative program within the public school. My mom arranged for us to sit in on each for a day and let us choose which we wanted. My brother chose the alternative program and I choose the regular public school classroom. I was glad I moved because the private school wasn't working that well for me - most of the kids were younger and I was getting tired of the teacher. It was a frustrating transition though, to go from 20 kids of different ages, 2 or 3 teachers, a non-competitive, non-graded atmosphere, learning at my own pace and helping teach younger kids, to a class of 25 kids all the same age all having to work on the same things at the same times, playing competitive games, being singled out for doing good work, and just generally being in a far more intellectually and socially restrictive atmosphere. It was kind of scary and it made me pretty shy through about 8th grade - at least I think it helped, junior high is the deepest pit in hell after all so who is to say what different factors contribute to each individual child's suffering. For a lot of the kids I knew who made the private-public transition, they eased into public school partway while doing some homeschooling. If you have the time and ability to do a little homeschooling, why not? For a kid who is used to doing advanced work, big public school classrooms can be really boring. I remember days when silent free-choice reading was the only relief from utterly agonizing boredom. If your child finds that he is too far ahead in some areas, I think you are better off handling those areas yourself than letting him sit through them with the rest of the class and then letting them give him extra work through the gifted program. Quantity doesn't make up for quality in education IMO.

One of the things that we would love to see changed, would be that ALL children take the SAME standardized tests. As a parent, it makes it very difficult to compare between a public and private school because the students do not take the same test. So you cannot compare whether the students in the private school are actually scoring higher, and getting a better education. IMO, there are some private schools handing out A's because they want the parents happy so that the tuition/donations they are counting on, keep coming in. The parents end up with more power than they should have, because they threaten to pull their kids out, and the school does not want to lose the tuition/donations, so in some cases they "cater" too much to these parents. Many of the public schools have their classroom sizes way down, so you may be surprised at the number of students in a class. Also, public or private, much depends on how good the teacher is. Both private schools and public schools have good and bad teachers. We panicked with our first born and put her in a very elite private school, foolishly worried about the influence of children from the guests on the Jerry Springer show.LOL We then started hearing so many great things about a certain public school, that we decided two years later to just try it for one year. We were so worried that if we gave up our "spot" at the private school, that we would not be able to get her back in. But we took the chance. We never regretted the change, and the public school has been every bit as good as the private school (with the exception of one teacher two years ago, but the rest have been truly excellent teachers). Granted that this is a public school with alot of parental involvement, in a better neighborhood. Our state grades the schools in how well they are doing, and this school was rated an A. If you have really good public schools in your area, take a look at them. Talk to other parents. What are they happy with? What would they change? But find out how their students/school as a whole scored on the standardized tests.

popi We are Christians and wanted a Christian education for our kids. What I have found out though is that many of kids at this school put themselves on a "I am a better Christian than you are" pedestal and judge very harshly students that don't follow their lead. My son is more outside of the box. He skateboards instead of playing football. Listens to harder rock "Christian" music than most and is does more his own thing. We are far from wealthy and don't run with they parents who are and who have seats on the board or contribute extra money to the school. My older daughter had the same experience and she left the school. She told me that the kids that got up on stage and professed their love for and commitment to Christ were the meanest, most two faced and hardest partying kids at the school. She never fit in either. I have a concern of being able to get him to school when the weather is bad since I will have to be driving SD10 to school if he goes else where. The drive to the school that we have chosen, should he go, is about 20 minutes without snow or ice. That is something that we have to discuss. My DH says that he will find those types of people at the other school and not like it there either. I agree that he will find those types of people there but since the school is much larger he probably won't be with them the entire day nor will the mold that he is expected to fit into be so strict. I want to meet with the principal and see what they have available to address his learning disabilities. I need to speak to his special ed teacher at his current school and get her honest opinion about it. I emailed her today but have not heard back from her. I will also talk to the super at his current school and let him know why my son would be leaving and that he should take a hard look at what is being learned there about being a Christian as apposed to what is being taught. I think it's a shame.

I have a very alternative view to public VS. private school. I am currently 18 and have attended both forms of schooling, and am currently in Home/Online Schooling. For me, Public School was not an option. I found that bullies were slapped on the wrist and pushed back out on the playing field where they could do it again and again, and the cycle was never broken...many a times there were "anti-bully" movements at our school, but very few were actually effective in treating the issue...if they stopped in school, it'd pick back up out of school... Many children in class were unwilling to pay attention and participate, and a long time was spent listening to them get lectured, instead of focusing on the curriculum. Not a lot was accomplished in class so we were expected to use a great amount of out-of-school time to focus on school projects and get them completed... I just wasn't happy. I also started hanging out with "the wrong crowd" and doing drugs and drinking under age, etc. Not every kid will do this, and if you stay on top of things and maintain good lines of communication and a FRIENDSHIP as well as a parent-child relationship with your children, you probably won't have an issue with this. My mom refused to see on an eye-to-eye level with me, and we had a very poor time getting along at home...my dad was always away at work so our relationship didn't account for much during my high school years. The upside, however, was that I was able to socialize and engage in extracurricular activities such as volley ball and track and field. Since joining online school, I have noticed that my grades are much higher...they make the courses so that anyone and everyone can understand them (so that they don't get a flood of questions every 10 minutes about different topics that are difficult to comprehend.) They provide online real-time tutoring, free of charge. There are still field trips for many of the distance education schools that help everyone get together and develop/enhance their social skills. You work at your own pace (I finished a single grade in half the time it takes public school to finish...this is excellent since I am a 2x drop out it means I have the ability to catch up with my peers more quickly.) you set your own schedule...as long as you are doing 4hrs of work per day you will be on par with the public system. I do 6+ hours which means I am surpassing them...since I should've graduated last year I will not graduate before my peers at this point, but I will definitely not be too far behind...a year at most. It really depends on the situation. I would say online schooling takes a lot of dedication, and if you are unable to supervise and ensure that work is getting done, public school would probably be a better bet. It is super easy for a student to say they are completing the work, when they in fact aren't. (Hence my second "drop out"....got kicked out of online school for not completing work in a timely manner...did nothing to re-enroll until recently.) I think if you are home daily and have enough time to contribute and make sure that the work is being completed and they are grasping concepts, online/home schooling is excellent. I like that I can decide who I interact with and who I don't, I have time to manage a work life as well as my school life...I get the social skills I need out of my work life, as many of us know we often interact with people we both like and dislike throughout our work days. Sorry this is so all over the place LOL, I'd edit through it but I am off to apply for a new job and need to get going . . . Hopefully I got my point across about the pros & cons of both! Both are extremely beneficial It just hugely depends on your situation at hand. OH another key point - if the kids are younger I think public school is definitely a good idea - it gives them a chance to establish a circle of friends and to learn how to interact in various positive and negative social situations, if they are too young to extract those experiences from a work life. :)