Why I Hate Back-to-School: A Rant

Even though I firmly believe that our nation's public schools are still our biggest asset and hope for the future, I also, just as firmly, believe that until schools are allowed to require good behavior from students so our children can walk the halls without fear of their safety, possessions, and lives, and can sit peacefully in every class without being constantly bombarded with poking, hitting, grabbing, and disruptive outbursts that are never dealt with because administration is more apt to send such kids right straight back to the room with not even a slap on the wrist, we'll continue to flush our kids and their education down the toilet.

Teachers' hands are tied - the lowest common denominator gets most of the attention, focus, money, and concern. Loyal as I am to our public schools - I mean, back in the day, immigrant families came here expressly so their children might be educated for free, and they took pride in the knowledge their kids brought home, knowledge that was more often than not completely new and unknown to the parents - I think our schools are being taken over by people who care nothing for learning - they are interested in daycare, freebies, and entitlement. "Cater to my kid or else." There are genuinely DANGEROUS kids in our children's classrooms, and there's seemingly not a damn thing we can do about it.

Put frankly, I think non-participatory parents who are raising their children to expect something for nothing, no matter what that something might be, and who are ready to sue at the drop of a hat any and every time their disruptive darling is disciplined, are responsible for a lot of our public school problems.

It all harkens back to this simple thing: If people would just behave themselves, wherever they are, and do what they're supposed to do, and not find excuses for everything, and respect the lives, possessions, safety, and property of others, the entire world would be better.

Or, to sum it up even more succinctly: If everyone swept their own doorstep, the whole world would be clean.

Then again, this requires effort, and a lot of people aren't willing to exert themselves and resent the school's expecting their kids to, too.

Why have we allowed our public schools to lower themselves to cater to this societal segment?

P.S. I am NOT referring to SPED here.

As a product of public schools (and a former coach at a private school) with grandparents and greatgrandparents and a sibling who teach or taught in the public school system, I certainly never thought I'd homeschool. I never thought I'd be one of THOSE people. Then I had my own children and, well, here we are five years into our homeschooling career (if you don't count those first five also known simply as "parenthood").

For those of us who've been able to make it possible (I quit my job and we live on a relative shoe-string budget), who enjoy being with their children (really, some people don't), who are inquisitive and willing to put in the time and effort, it's a godsend.

Do I ever doubt our decision? YOU BET! But then the new school year comes around and we hear our friends, or strangers in supermarkets, or folks in the park talking about the trials and tribulations of the new school year - and once again I'm certain we made the right choice.

Jen

Homeschooling, traveling with kids and random thoughts - jenpb.blogspot.com ( http://jenpb.blogspot.com/ )

Our 2009 project - charitabledeeds.blogspot.com ( http://charitabledeeds.blogspot.com )

The book - BestFamilyAdventures.com ( http://bestfamilyadventures.com )

This year, I homeschooled one child, and sent the other to public school. I'm sort of an outcast in the eyes of both sides of the fence.

I also took this to my own blog, and took my sweet time doing it, because I had too much to say and didn't know how to say it... ( http://www.homeschooledyear.com/?p=1532 )

We have ONE school in our district. We're rural. Like, 700 people in the town rural. Our kids are at the same complex from k-12th grade and graduate with the same kids they start kindergarten with.

The sense of community is amazing. But the academics LACK.  The only solution for children that are ahead of their grade level is to skip them a year, which has all sorts of social aspects attached.

I went through public schools and loved it; this is also the school that my husband (and his parents) graduated from. I have strong issues with the school's lack of high-school curriculum and the elementary/middle school's tactic of teaching to the lowest common demoninator. But sure, my daughter could be a cheer leader and prom queen if she wanted. She'll always have a starting position on any of the sports teams. 

But will she have the skills to get into college?

To touch on another part of your post (wow, what a treasure trove this post was!), we have a school here (equally rural) that has been crushed because a "migrant camp" was built in the school district. They are also an ag community.  So now because of the new, large community of people that do not pay property taxes (and the property tax on said land is low), there are far too many children (many with additional needs) in a school with too little funding.

There HAS to be either a divorce in the property tax funding of the education system, or at the very least some checks and balances. This school is in the situation you spoke of, outdated textbooks shared between students, and zero parental involvement. Our school's open enrollments shot up 25% when the exodus of parents who could travel/move (wealthy/white) wanted their children out of their district.

I have what I think is a unique point of view on this subject. I attended private schools the majority of my life before my parents switched me back and forth from private to public and back during my middle school through early high school years.

On the one hand, private education generally exceeds that of a public education. Teachers are generally paid better and have fewer students to manage therefor they have more time for each student individually. It's also a good argument to suggest that parents who pay for their children to attend public schools, generally express a heightened sense of involvement in their children's lives and education.

I gained an excellent education in private schools. I found that I was usually months to even years ahead intellectually than other children my age who attended public school - particularly when I got to the junior high years (I'm speaking of 5th to 8th grade here). Book wise, I excelled in every category compared to those exposed to public education.

But let's be honest here - I was also being taught in a very sheltered environment. The schools I attended were not only private schools, but were heavily influenced by religious organizations (as so many of them are). I believe that I missed out on a lot that like you said, makes up the fabric of America.

In the middle of 6th grade, I made my first move to public school after being in a classroom of no more than 10 students - most of whom I'd known since I was 5 years old. It was culture shock for me. I'd only experienced a school in which all of my claases were taught in one room with the same teacher and the same students - and every year from K-4/5 until 6th grade, I was taught this way.

I found myself lost in this new setting where 6th grade alone had more students in it than my previous school had in its entirety. I suddenly had to migrate from classroom to classroom and often participate in classes that didn't have any students I'd sat with the period before. It sounds almost terrible, but that's the whole point of public education. It teaches you to work with other people and to surround yourself with different environments.

In the second semester of 7th grade and all of 8th, I experienced a new type of private school - again, heavily influenced by a religious organization. It was by far the best private school I participated in. The children were accepting and while some had been friends for several years, most were relatively new students and I found it easy to make friends. Classes were taught by a few different teachers and migrating from classroom to classroom was required. It was by far the closest thing to a public education I got in a private school setting.

In 9th grade, I had to change schools yet again as the previous school only extended to the 8th grade. I attended another private school that again, required classroom and teacher changes per course. That said, I ran into a problem in that 95% of the students in my class had known each other since they were children and despite the classroom changes, we all went from class to class together. There was never chance of befriending anyone else during school hours. In fact, there was hardly chance of befriending my own classmates as they were a very close group.

For 10th through 12th, I had the pleasure of attending public high school - what I'm claiming to literally be the best years of my life. It was a large school with lots of other students and teachers. There was classroom changes and on more than one occasion, I ended ip in classes with people I'd never even met. It was the true public education experience and matched up against all of the other scenarios I'd been exposed to... it was the best one.

I hope my little story gives you some sort of idea of what private and public education can be. It's all so multi-faceted and I think you really have to check out each type of school for yourself and make a decision. I for one am glad my parents chose to give me both experiences and I feel that being in private school during my younger years really was the best thing for me.

The Diary of the Short, Fat Cyclops ( http://www.shortfatcyclops.com )

No patience.  We couldn't afford private school even though we looked into.  But we wanted to give public a chance first.  I volunteer 2 times a week because I'm going to be part of the solution.

The biggest factor for us was just like you mention, getting to know the local parents.  I love that I see my friends drop off their kids at school when I do.  Several moms will hang out and talk after school starts.  I love that I know the kids in the classroom, I will know the kids my kids grow up with, and I'm connected to the community.  That turned out to be the overriding factor for us and I didn't even know it would be when we started.

At the end of the day, it's about so much more than test scores.

Yes, the school system funding is completly messed up.  And the legislature doesn't have a backbone.  The initiative process allows endless measure to be put on our ballots, many which are poorly thought out.  But aside from that, Oregon, for all it's political goofiness, is a beautiful place to live and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.  The people are friendly, the landscape is beautiful and diverse, and yes, it's pretty green in more ways than one!

Money gets wasted on tests that are created by companies who have a vested interest in seeing students fail so that they will continue to sell the tests.  Absolutely.

Time is wasted as teachers desperately teach to the test because the public wants good test scores but doesn't understand how these standardized tests really work.

Curriculum committees adopt new textbooks every year on an approximately 7 year rotation per subject.  I taught English and seldom used the textbooks because we didn't have enough to send home with students and often the content was irrelevant.  I was more successful creating my own.

And there are also an endless number of social services schools are now required to provide that cost money too.

I went to a poorer high school in one of the best public school systems in the country, in Montgomery County, MD. My school was incredibly diverse in both race and economic status. At sporting events and such we were ridiculed by schools from more lavish areas like Potomac and Bethesda. Even so, i've emerged from my public school with an apparent first-class education. My academic experiences and expectations seem to have far exceeded those of my private school peers at my college. 

I agree that school funding needs to be separated from property tax. I also believe that it's access to educational programs like the International Baccalaureate program (from which I graduated) and the AP program that allow schools and counties to work above their median tax bracket.

I'm so glad to see so much active discussion about the options for education. I've heard from most folks anecdotally that parent interaction seems to be the biggest factor in a school being great or ho-hum, and I hope my daughter's school friends' parents are just like all of you -- engaged and opinionated.

Rita Arens writes at Surrender Dorothy ( http://surrenderdorothy.typepad.com ) and BlogHer and is the editor of Sleep is for the Weak ( http://tinyurl.com/9pg62e ).

When I got married we chose a home in a far suburb of Chicago we knew had a great school system. We weren't pregnant, didn't know if I was fertile, but that was still the main consideration when deciding where to live.

Our local park district has a program called "Homeschool Days" so that the homeschoolers in-district and out-of-district can get together and learn in a group setting while meeting other homeschooling parents. I think it's a fabulous way to get the best of both worlds. (Of course with two full-time working parents this still isn't an option, but might be worth looking into for parents considering homeschooling but worried about the socialization aspect.) 

While I would love to homeschool my children, I don't have the patience to go over 2+2 for any length of time. (It's not a math thing, it's a me/patience thing and I want my children to LOVE learning like I do, not dread it.) So if I homeschooled it would be through K12.com which is the same price as a private school. Yikes!

Plus, I have to admit, I'd like to know more local parents - and being part of the public school system seems like a pretty kickin' way to get some local social love!

jennydecki

Beyond Mom Blog ( http://beyondmom.com )

We started homeschooling because we lived in a huge city with horrible public schools...if you had school-age kids there, they went to private school if you could manage it. We couldn't afford private school prices because my husband was a poor law student, so I began homeschooling. My oldest two children were so easy to teach, we just continued on for the next several years. During this time, we also had three more children, bringing our kid count up to five.

We've moved several times, always to good school districts, not because we ever intended on sending our kids to school, but because the best school districts have the best neighborhoods, and we wanted to be somewhere safe and quiet. Two years ago we moved to the country...on the outskirts of a small town outside of a small city, with one of the best schools in the state. Homeschooling four children was becoming overwhelming to me, and I've been feeling burned out for over a year, so we've decided to put them in public school this fall. I will be at home with our last, the two-year-old. 

I plan to volunteer a lot at the children's schools, as well as supplement their education with extra reading, science projects/experiments, music education, and lots of other things. I've joked that now the school gets to do the 'not-fun stuff' like slogging through math drills and grammar diagrams, while I get to fill in the 'fun stuff', like Latin, Logic, and loads of great books. 

I also respectfully disagree with the thought that an only child who is homeschooled is socially excluded. All of our children participated in sports and community activities such as Boy Scouts, library and community events, etc. They've all maintained friends outside of our family and homeschooling lives, and it would be just that easy for an only child as well. 

No matter whether my children attend public, private, or homeschool for the rest of their school years, I will always be their first and best teacher, and I intend to maintain that position forever. 

The Place of H ( http://www.theplaceofh.blogspot.com )

We are foster parents so we don't have a choice.  Kids go to the local public school, period.  When it came to buying a home, we chose this neighborhood because it had the best school.  We've had many kids come in, middle school aged, who can't read or write. 

Public school is nice, because it gives me a break, but I know that it is my responsibility to educate them as well.  In our home we do science fair projects, math games, geography and spelling contests, although we don't call them that, they are just fun things we do as a family.  Throw in a couple of extra curricular activities and you've got the bases covered.  

The joke around here is that the only difference between the public and private high school is that the private school has better drugs.  

And, since she's our only, there aren't other kids in the house, and we wanted her to be with other kids for several hours a day. So there's also that. So I suppose that might offend homeschooling parents of only children, but to that point I think I'd have to agree to disagree. 

Thoughts?

Rita Arens writes at Surrender Dorothy ( http://surrenderdorothy.typepad.com ) and BlogHer and is the editor of Sleep is for the Weak ( http://tinyurl.com/9pg62e ).

A commenter on Surrender, Dorothy said that I was offensive in suggesting that all homeschoolers were giving thought to Six Feet Under and political issues instead of focusing on their kids' educations. What I said was:

Of course, there's another option: homeschooling. That's not one we
were able to consider, since we both work full-time. I'm not sure it
would've been a viable option for my daughter, anyway. She's an only
child, and we feel she needs the opportunity to interact with people
who aren't obsessed with Six Feet Under and the state of healthcare and
other adult concerns for at least five hours a day.

When I said "interact with people," I meant me and my husband. We haven't taken on the role of primary educator in her life because we're not trained as educators. However, if you've taken on that role as a homeschooling parent, I'm not insinuating you're not appropriately focused on your child's education. Upon rereading what I wrote, i can see how she could have construed my sentence that way, and I apologize for any misunderstanding. It's this sort of dialogue that makes me a better and more articulate writer, and I'm annoyed with myself for not choosing personal pronouns instead of the word "people." Lesson leanred!

Rita Arens writes at Surrender Dorothy ( http://surrenderdorothy.typepad.com ) and BlogHer and is the editor of Sleep is for the Weak ( http://tinyurl.com/9pg62e ).

I have 2 driving beliefs around education: 1) I am pro-public schools, and 2) My child's needs come first.

When I was growing up, Milwaukee was doing some incredibly innovative experiments with magent schools, and I got a fabulous education in an urban public school system.

The city continues to support experimental projects in the form of charter schools, which I think offers parents great opportunities to find the right fit for their children. My son is in a public charter Montessori program beginning next month.

I haven't decided yet whether we'll keep him there after he completes the 3-4-5K Montessori foundation. We'll consider it, but we'll also be looking at some of the "regular" public school language immersion schools, and the other public charter schools that come highly recommended from our friends. 

I know that my kids are little, but I truly think -- as suggested by previous poster Mr. Lady -- that parental involvement in the school is the most important thing we can provide to create a successful school for both our kids and our communities. Our school requires 20 hours of parent volunteer time per parent, and I love how powerful that has been in building a sense of community.

Liza 

LizaWasHere ( http://www.lizawashere.com/ )

I believe in the power of public schools. I believe in the sense of community that walking to school, walking home together, parents on the PTA, all of that brings. I watched my tiny, underfunded, struggling school become one of the top schools in Denver just because the parents DIDN'T yank their kids out and send them to private schools, or to the school that shares a border with us that is 95% white with top test scores. We stayed, we fought, and we fought for all of the kids there, and we changed a community. It was arguably the most important and fulfilling experience of my life. Sure, I griped spending two hours a day running photocopies for teachers, and sure I whined that I spent more time in the gymnasium of our school than in my front yard, but the payoff?  Beyond worth it. I believe in local public schools. I believe that everyone can change their community, from the ground floor up. Mr Lady: whiskeyinmysippycup.com

>We have made huge sacrifces to live in a higher cost area so we can send the kids to good public schools. 

Yes. This.

We were STUNNED to realize the lack of services available for our son, who has autism, once he entered kindergarten. He had been in a 2-year preschool program for special needs children, at the elementary school, and his team of teachers gently took us aside near the end of the school year and strongly recommended that we move on, and not place our son at that school. That's telling, when the STAFF urges you to find a better fit!

Thankfully, we've been able to move to another district and even though we're broke as a joke and don't really "fit in" here, our son is absolutely thriving. The difference between the schools is like night and day. It's sad!  

Mommy to a tween and two sets of toddler-age twins - eeek! Blogging at LaLaGirl - Twinfinite Chaos ( http://lalagirl.org ).

Very interesting thread - I have to say, I've always wanted to move to Oregon because it is so forward-thinking on green issues. But after reading this, I think I'll stay put in Maryland!  I'm so sorry to hear about the educational situation in Oregon. What a tragedy.

Hi Lucinda, 

I appreciate the tutorial on Oregon and I'm going to respond to your thought "People can cry but you can't get blood from a turnip. When there is no money, there is no money." 

There is money. Just not for teaching. Education is big business. The Big Textbook/Test Publishing industry has all the money that's not going to the facilities, teacher pay, teacher preparation and mentoring, etc. Somebody is sucking blood from the turnip. The Big Textbook/Test Publishing industry is in the education field but their goal is corporate profit, not learning.  It's a $1 Trillion industry, representing 10% of the GNP and second only to the health care industry, is the 7th biggest lobby of Congress. The Big Textbook/Test Publishing industry includes textbook publishers and testing publishers (i.e. McGraw-Hill does both), tutoring providers (i.e. Sylvan Learning). This industry doesn't just respond to public education policy, they influence Congress to make public education policy, like "evidence-based learning" and "common core standards", that require the government to allocate funds for their services through elected school boards. A key web site is The Association of Educational Publishers ("connect.learn.publish.prosper") www.aepweb.org ( http://www.aepweb.org ). Big Education CEO's have lobbied to shape public education policy debate just as right now Big Insurance and Big  Pharma are lobbying to shape the health care debate. 

Just as doctors and patients ought to be supported by gov in creating a health-full health system, teachers, parents and university schools of education ought to be supported by gov to create a learning-full education system. Public education would thrive if it partnered with schools of education instead of CEO's. But the available money is not going to teacher preparation but to lobbyists and corporate CEO's of the K-12 education industry.  It's not homeschoolers and independent schools that are sucking the money away from public education. Public education itself is siphoning its own money off to for-profit corporations that need large numbers of students to continually fail tests so that more scripted texts, more tests and more tutoring will need to be purchased from them. 

And, I am hopeful.  Because the more we know, the more we will think and then we will act.  It's our choices, not lack of money, that keep public education in the poor house. The more a teacher effectively educates a child the less the school needs to buy outside services from Big Testbook/Test Publishing. Like, the more people practice preventative health, the less they need Big Pharma.    

 Raising a child is raising yourself.

www.whole.org ( http://www.whole.org )

I live about 20 miles from the Waldorf school in Corvallis, OR.  I have friends who send their children there but it's too expensive for us.  However, good concept.

As for Oregon schools, honestly, you can blame the voters for this problem as much as the legislature.  As I read through the comments, everyone talks about schools during the 90's.  That's when we left local funding through property taxes and moved to funding from the general fund.

Essentially what happened is that voters passed legislation through our referral process that capped property taxes.  It stated that  where there was a gap from property tax funding caps, the state general fund would make the difference.  The statedetermined that all districts would be funded equally if the money was coming from the general fund. As I stated before, the first measure passed in 1990 and the second measure passed in 1997 I believe.  It took a full 10 years before people really saw the full impact and by then all local control had been lost.

Oregon's government is funded primarily by income tax because there is no sales tax and property taxes have been capped for close to 20 year now.  Economic slump, high unemployment all leads to shortages.  Including funding for schools.  People can cry but you can't get blood from a turnip.  When there is no money, there is no money.

Oregonians in general do not put their money where their mouth is when it comes to education.  It has been in crisis pretty much my entire life.  Buildings are in terrible condition.  Teacher pay is pathetic.  I think last figure I saw, Oregon was about 47th for funding.  Add charter schools (truly a whole other debate), an increase in homeschooling and private schooling, and the public school system simply has no support.

So property taxes really aren't the problem when it comes to funding schools.  We were in much better shape 20 years ago.

Rita, Not in Oregon and hopefully helpful. More and more, parents can have their cake and eat it too. The container of public "charter" schools is public education, but the content (curriculum and teaching methods) is becoming more and more like independent education  Very often, charter school developers (often parents and teachers) fill the free public school container with educational philosophies, human values and practices that were formerly only available at tuition-based independent/private schools.  (Yes, many charter schools are run by for-profit companies and yes, the whole topic of charters is controversial, that's a whole topic.)  Ocean  Charter School in LA, for example, is a public charter school where children can get a Waldorf education.  (www.oceancharterschool.org ( http://www.oceancharterschool.org )) I sent my three kids to private Waldorf at $16,000 per year.  Now I help start public schools with Waldorf in 'em in LA so others don't have to make these wrenching choices.  Since the kids are getting a left-brain (academic) and right-brain (arts) education they do really well on the tests without the teachers having to teach to the test.

In case it's of interest, there are three public schools inspired by Waldorf education in Oregon: 

Canemah School, Eugene, OR
Lighthouse School, North Bend, OR
Portland Village School, Portland, OR

 Enjoyed reading your post!

Raising a child is raising yourself.

www.whole.org ( http://www.whole.org )

I would REALLY like to hear from somene in Oregon state legislature. Where are you, Oregon?

Rita Arens writes at Surrender Dorothy ( http://surrenderdorothy.typepad.com ) and BlogHer and is the editor of Sleep is for the Weak ( http://tinyurl.com/9pg62e ).

I only attended high school in Oregon but it was awful in the mid to late ninties. With my child going there the last 3 years, I feel confident saying they always suck on General Fund. As long as they've been pulling from general fund, they've been shutting down schools, pushing kids out(as a freshman the vice principal of my high school took my mom aside and said 'not all kids were cut out for high school, perhaps she should get her GED' I got a D in english, the rest were a's and b's) and losing staff.

BigMama--I tried to comment on your post, but I couldn't get my credos to work. I'm a name/URL commenter, because I can never get my Typepad Open ID to work on comment sites and I hate my Google username.

I'm sad to hear the state of Oregon's public schools. Do you think it would be different if we weren't in a recession? The general funds for just about everything are being cut at the moment, so I'm not sure if it's fair to assume funding would always be that way -- kind of like judging retail right now. Although, I don't know -- I'm not there -- you guys tell me.

I just think property tax funding ensures inequality. There's got to be a better way.

Rita Arens writes at Surrender Dorothy ( http://surrenderdorothy.typepad.com ) and BlogHer and is the editor of Sleep is for the Weak ( http://tinyurl.com/9pg62e ).

We tried moving, but we're in Oregon, all of them suck. Last year my daughter was in 2nd grade and struggling..like she has previous years. All schools refuse to test her, say she doesn't need help because 'she's making progress'. By end of the year, she wasn't meeting mid-year goals. She got almost all 'does not meet state standards' on her report card..they passed her to 3rd grade. Where we knew, she'd just fall further behind. This year will be our first year homeschooling. I'm fortunate enough to be a stay at home  mom so I can do this. I know we can do better than the schools.

 And because school money now comes out of the general fund, they've cut it down to nothing because of the recession. Losing staff, closing schools, and they can because there's no money ensured to go to them. Oregon is producing people who graduate high school without learning to read. Literally. I graduated in 2000 and a girl that walked with me couldn't read. It's only gotten worse.

Aside from the current crap going on with our school district, I miss the routine that comes with the school year.  It marks an end to the whole sleep all day, eat all day, "we're bored" all day summertime. Once you get through the whole teen age mortgage the house for my clothes shopping, it's all good.  If they could actually get an education, that would just be dandy! 

www.insanemombrain.blogspot.com ( http://www.insanemombrain.blogspot.com/ ) 

It started in 1990 and was finished with a second measure in 1996.  The majority of funding comes from the state's general fund.  Now all schools are poorly funded.  I wish I could say it worked, but really, it just made all the schools struggle.  Small districts (some in rural areas) that had stable funding are now closing schools.  It sucks.

I enjoyed reading why you dread back to school.  I am a homeschooling mom, and ended up writing a blog in reaction to what I read here today.  It is just my point of view, why I love homeschooling.  I'm not trying to talk you into anything, I completely understand feeling conflicted about how to best educate your children!  I just thought you might enjoy reading my little rant :)  If you do, it's at www.bigmamahyberger.blogspot.com ( http://www.bigmamahyberger.blogspot.com )

Every year it is a struggle to decide between public school and home school for me.

The elementary school where my boys attend has a non-thinking twins are separated policy, so every year I have to insist, based on the current peer reviewed education literature that there is not a good reason to separate twins and that my twins do better academically and socially when they are in the same classroom.

And then there is the constant concern that the public school education, even in this district considered one of the best in the state, will fall behind. This was just an uncomfortable feeling a year ago, but last summer we did mini home school for math because the boys' class did not finish the requirements for the state standards. Based on the school's standardized testing the boys improved their math knowledge over the summer. The same test 3 months later showed a decline in math scores. They learned more math at home with me than they did at school.

But their friends are at school. And so, with the school year upon us, we purchased school supplies and I am updating my literature review to share with principal. I am still not sure.

I am a home schooling mama of 5, and we follow a Labor Day to Memorial Day school year.  I love it when the school year starts back up, yes for the uber cheap school supplies, but more than that, for the rythm and flow it brings back to our home.  When school is in session, our days seem to have a direction, a purpose, a built in goal.  We  all seem to function better.

 It's been 20 years since I had to grapple with public vs. private. I live in Minneapolis. Both of my kids went to Minneapolis public schools. I was a nervous wreck making the decision to stayin the public schools vs. private. 20-20- I'm thrilled they went to city schools.

What made the decision easier for me is at the time Minneapolis had magnet schools - my son was on a wait list for a school I really wanted him to attend and at the last minute he was accepted which meant five years later my daughter was automatically eligible or the same school that ranked in the top 3 in test scores.

They stayed at that little school for 8 years  and then went to a high school that offered an international baccalaureate program. Their high school did not have all the computers that the suburban schools had. My son once said that the 94 Jeep he drove in 2001 was the fanciest car in the school parking lot. 

When he was in college I asked him if he felt he was disadvantaged because he went to an inner city school instead of the suburban one. His answer surprised me, he felt he got a better education because the school taught him to think.

Both of my kids say they liked that they went to school with kids from so many different ethnic backgrounds. After Columbine I asked my son if he thought something like that could happen in his school. He said, "No way because we don't have an In-Group. We just have lots of groups and  there isn't the same social pressure that the suburban kids experience."

What I have also come to believe is that if your kid wants to learn and the school has good teachers, your kid with thrive. And if you want your kid's education to be more than academic lessons, going to school in the city provides a fabulous life education.

elana
Blogher Contributing Editor,Business&CareersFunnyBusiness ( http://funnybusiness.typepad.com/funnybusiness )

And we are lucky we live in an area with an excellent school district. I do agree with you about schools funded by property taxes...it does not provide an equal education opportunity for all students and we need to change that. We have made huge sacrifces to live in a higher cost area so we can send the kids to good public schools. 

And, of course, the Kansas City School District would be crippled even with more money because the Board is so self-serving and gets in the way of education...but that's a whole other subject, I suppose. 

*Laurie*

http://kidsinthesuburbs.blogspot.com/

We're struggling with this topic. We want to believe our kids can get a fine education at our local public school but... it's not looking like it. As of right now, we're considering local enrollment at the school district in the next county over (which involves lots of driving on my part) or the local Catholic school (which we are not). We still have two years to figure it out... moving is not an option due to my husband's residency requirement with the fire department.

And so... we wait.

@FireMom ( http://twitter.com ) from Stop, Drop and Blog ( http://stopdropandblog.com ) and
The Chronicles of Munchkin Land ( http://thechroniclesofmunchkinland.com )

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Competent schools!  I want competent schools.  I want my kids to go to competent schools.  I want my tax dollars to support competent schools.  I want the kids inthe inner city to have competent schools.  i don't care if they're public or private; I just want them to do their job.