J.L.
I taught for 12 years before I had my own child. I taught in both private and public schools, and in the NG cluster. From my experience, I feel that it is not private or public school that matters becuase there are pros and cons to both. What matters most is the quality of the individual classroom teacher and the willingness of the administration to work with the parents and their concerns. Based on my experience, I personally feel that paying private school tuition is a waste of money. It would be more worth your time to push for a quality classroom teacher or a different room for your child if there are problems in his current classroom. I have seen just as many problems and sometimes more in the private schools. I also feel that you have to be careful about the curriculum that may be used in private schools. Sometimes you can trade some behavior problems for lower quality eduaction in a private school- and you are paying for it. I am not by any means speaking of any particular school, just what I have learned from my experience in general. So, if you are looking for the best education, I would heavily consider the curriculum in the private schools you research. I have found that as a general rule, they are not as challenging as what you will find in the public school systems. On the other hand, if you can find a school with smaller class sizes and a high-quality curriculum, that might benifit your individual child. You just need to assess where his strengths and weaknesses are and then find what fits him best because every child is different. Having the opportunity to be an insider in both public and private, I can honestly tell you that it is really the same anywhere you go as far as what your child sees and learns from the other students.
