Re: Do public schools look down on private schools?

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As a 25+ year board member for a Christian School (now retired from
the board), I would agree with Bill that when times are tough you are
in danger of changing your standards to keep enrollment up or submit
to the families with money. I have seen it happen. From experience
let me add that lowering your standards will probably cost you
students in the long run as previously contented families decide to
leave.

In my tenure as a board member we had two or three times where
certain helicopter parents tried to get our Superintendent to make
changes that were not in line with our mission. In some cases the
parent decided to leave and even recruited some other parents to
leave as well. These turned out to be blessings in disguise because
the atmosphere improved considerably and our word-of-mouth recruiting
improved.

Our school is highly regarded by the local school districts. In fact,
the local technical high school likes it when our 8th graders decide
to go there. They appreciate their leadership and other qualities.
Our tiny school has even provided some of their star athletes.

On 7/24/10, Catsister wrote:
> It depends on what type of private school. Bill, you sound like
> you taught in the Gossip Girls school!
>
> I've taught both public and private in the inner city (and one
> Catholic school in the burbs.) The kids in the city schools are
> about the same, save for the very worst problems like truancy,
> gambling in the back of the room, and trying to beat the
> teachers up. The level of academic achievement is a little
> higher, and the overall behavior is a little better--but not by
> that much. In my one Catholic grammar school, there were several
> AIDS orphans, crack babies, etc. So the social problems were not
> that much different.
>
> What I noticed is that Catholic schools use more traditional
> methods of teaching, and the public district I worked at was
> beholden to a bunch of educational consultants pushing the
> latest trend, and beholden to a standardized test. I got a bad
> observation because I first had the kids doing lab (which he
> didn't like), then presented a lesson on the 9 planets. I wasn't
> supposed to teach a lesson or do a lab. No, I was supposed to
> lead a discussion of higher order thinking questions and present
> scenarios. Every class. A hands-on activity was wrong, and so
> was a traditional lecture to present brand new material. i was
> supposed to ask stuff like "Imagine a planet. What would it be
> like?" "Compare and contrast what your life would be like on
> Jupiter and Mars." In the suburban Catholic school I subbed at
> after my public job, they would have shot me if I did something
> like that. You were supposed to sit the kids in rows, and teach
> them science in a lecture. Period
 

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