Not all kids yeah, though kids can be pretty cruel, even sometimes without fully realising what they are doing. I'm trying to provide some balance, but we had an argument against public schools re: drugs, teachers who don't care, kids bringing knives and/or threatening other kids. So some of us are just pointing out that private schools can be unhealthy places too (in some respects).
I concede that I haven't read all 196 pages in this thread, so far, but I can't recall seeing anything like an attack on State Schools. Here's mine, ideology at the expense of literacy and analysis. If you'll identify the posts that contain these "arguments against public schools", I'll happily join in the defence.
Really not the case from my experience and others, plus friends who sent their kids to private. Definite demarcation even amongst good friends. Families can't do things together as the rich families do stuff like a weekend in Vanuatu for the kids birthday... with most of the class/friends coming along.
The bolded part might say more about you than you intend. Schools are schools, State or Private. Parents are charged with doing the best they can for their children. If a parent ranks diversity and 1st year uni performance, then he/she might choose a State School. Another parent who rates other values and getting into University will choose Private. Our society contemplates both. Isn't your last sentence just ideological posturing ?
The rich already pay tax and private school fees. Get rid of private schools and they pay slightly more proportionally, same as everyone else, while freeing up 15-30k each year to fund another holiday home and lexus.
Goulburn School Strike - Wikipedia
Pretty strongly disagree that most private school kids are having a quick weekend trip to Vanuatu for their birthdays. I think you are really thinking about the elite of the elite at inner city grammar schools and picturing every private school to be like that. Most private schools are filled with kids who still live in the same suburbs as the public school kids.
An adjunct. Private education isn't necessarily only about academic results, there are other factors, religious affiliation, perceived values within religious orientations (Jesuit, Christian Brothers, Dominican, Mercy, Charity, Carmalite etc within the Catholic tradition), family traditions, boarding capacity for rural and outback dwellers. Parkes' Free, Secular and Compulsory is a default base, not the ultimate.
Fair enough. I think private schools are for the most part a load of bullshit purely because of the money involved. But if my kid was offered a full paid scholarship I wouldn't turn it down because of entitled rich kid culture or anything like that. I do think they are better, but not significantly by the amount more they cost.
All the articles and research I had a look at said pretty much exactly this. Private school is only worth it to get a higher university entrance score.
So the majority of reasons you've suggested are not positives of private education. And then there's the question of whether taxpayer funds should be going to prop up religious values systems (given that public schools also value helping others, charity, kindness etc).
I'd also argue that private schooling in lower SES areas is worth the money for the cultural difference.
I was at work, and having attended a private school and had placement at a private and public school, I agree with Chief.
I wanted inherently to disagree with this, but that presumed I knew what you meant by cultural difference.
The difference is primarily in parents who value education vs those who don't, which has an flow on effect to how the children respond in school. I don't believe teachers are any better at private schools, so the difference is with students.
Can't do. Kurt is the king of rock.
Your "positives of private education" are precisely what private education was established for. Taxpayer funds going to private schools State Aid, ensure that the children of those who have already paid for education, through their taxes, share the benefits of those payments with the rest of society. Basic fairness. Your "prop up of religious values" is cost to the parents, not the community, otherwise there would be no school fees. The reality is that the grossly underappreciated Catholic education system, particularly through its unpaid religious order teachers, massively subsidised Colonial and State governments' Education obligations before 1963.
