Education & Reference Public and Private schooling

[PP34]

Anyone here go to a top K-12 private school?

I can't fathom spending $10-15k on pre-primary and primary education.

Not me but I've always wondered how those kids end up socially.

Spending 12 years of your childhood growing up at the one place seems completely ridiculous.

 

[Scotland]

I just don't understand what you get for your money.

Even in the Western suburbs over here where private schools outnumber public 4:1 or so there is still a heap of public primary schools.

 

[PP34]

I just don't understand what you get for your money.

Even in the Western suburbs over here where private schools outnumber public 4:1 or so there is still a heap of public primary schools.

The parents sending their kids to these schools would be fairly cashed up though. Probably just one giant pissing contest amongst them and their friends.

 

[Rod Stroker]

Home schooling easily the best for a child's development IMO.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How does it help them develop social skills, learn how to collaborate, how to share, take turns, team work, etc?

 

[Rod Stroker]

Private for both. Both catholic, although the high school was all boys. Had its pros and cons, but ultimately it laid the foundation that got me into a good uni course, which then got me into a career that has had me living around the world over the last 20 years.
I often wonder how life would have worked out had I just went to the local high school...

 

[Jcpdragonx]

I guess it depends on the location

I went to public primary and it was alright, teachers would yell at students everyday and a few feral students to put up with but nothing serious. I'm in the western suberbs of Adelaide which is average in terms of household incomes, whereas up North it'd image it would be much more feral.

Private high school was soft and we were too well looked after. Teachers were quite nice besides the fat arses in IT. Students were generally good and plenty of high achievers. Drugs in year 12 was a problem.

The public school next to my high school had fights just about every day whereas we had about 4 fights in 5 years in my year level and it involved the same most times.

 

[JG22]

I guess it depends on the location

I went to public primary and it was alright, teachers would yell at students everyday and a few feral students to put up with but nothing serious. I'm in the western suberbs of Adelaide which is average in terms of household incomes, whereas up North it'd image it would be much more feral.

Private high school was soft and we were too well looked after. Teachers were quite nice besides the fat arses in IT. Students were generally good and plenty of high achievers. Drugs in year 12 was a problem.

The public school next to my high school had fights just about every day whereas we had about 4 fights in 5 years in my year level and it involved the same most times.

What was the drug problem in year 12 like?

That was inexistent at my school

 

[the_interloper]

What was the drug problem in year 12 like?

That was inexistent at my school

I reckon all schools would have a drug problem, private or public. I'm sure at private schools, particularly the elite ones would have a fair bit of coke but they would all have weed no doubt. I went to one of the non-elite private schools and plenty would smoke at recess and lunch, probably a group of about 10% of the year level I reckon. A few were having harder drugs on weekends from what I know but not many, reckon there'd be a lot more now (this was 20 years ago).

 

[MWPP]

Re: drugs - It depends a lot on your year group too
There was certainly no drug issue in my year of my elite private school ^
Then again , we were an especially disciplined/hard working /yes, boring year , as shown by how we topped the year 12 TEE *how your school rates* tables
There's no way anyone could've gotten away with doing drugs on our campus

 

[JG22]

I reckon all schools would have a drug problem, private or public. I'm sure at private schools, particularly the elite ones would have a fair bit of coke but they would all have weed no doubt. I went to one of the non-elite private schools and plenty would smoke at recess and lunch, probably a group of about 10% of the year level I reckon. A few were having harder drugs on weekends from what I know but not many, reckon there'd be a lot more now (this was 20 years ago).

More of a recent view but your always going to have a few stoners but it wasn't a big issue.

Cigarettes were probably more of a problem at our school since year 8 lol. Certainly wasn't any coke going around at my public school too.

 

[Jcpdragonx]

What was the drug problem in year 12 like?

That was inexistent at my school

Wasnt that bad, just among students.

 

[La Dispute]

My parents used to jokingly suggest if they hadn't sent me to a private school we'd be able to go to Disneyland every year, and is myopic as that sounds, it's not entirely untrue. Basically if I was a parent, I couldn't fathom investing 80k on a kids education. You don't get 80k worth of advantages, and some of the apparent advantages actually manifest as hinderances later on.

I think you need to have some level of chaos in your adolescence. The kind that gives you some perspective and makes you realise how different people can be and how comparably well you've got it. You don't get the same level of madness in a private school as any divergent behaviour gets extinguished pronto. Anybody who was going to drag the ATAR aggregate down was asked to leave or recommended for a VET or VCAL course.

On another level, it just instils constant fear in you. Things that are pretty trivial like sloppy uniforms or a bit of backchat get escalated far beyond their due. Plus, 1 year on you're on the same footing as the public school kids. All my best mates went to public schools, while my private school friends have stayed in the same social circle for over a decade. It seems to be a pretty consistent pattern across the year level actually.

And all the dumb co-curricular stuff you do. Rafting, doing horticulture, going on excursions to examine rocks... Truly some mundane s**t.

 

[PP34]

I reckon all schools would have a drug problem, private or public. I'm sure at private schools, particularly the elite ones would have a fair bit of coke but they would all have weed no doubt. I went to one of the non-elite private schools and plenty would smoke at recess and lunch, probably a group of about 10% of the year level I reckon. A few were having harder drugs on weekends from what I know but not many, reckon there'd be a lot more now (this was 20 years ago).

From my experience I knew there were drugs going around and being pretty commonplace amongst the public school kids I knew from year 9 onwards. Seemed like it was mostly one large group in that year level though.


As we got older though they became more of a thing at my school and these days I know plenty of blokes from my year smashing gear. It's even worse amongst the elite schools and I believe if you could put a number towards drug use and dealing amongst those students compared to public school kids the elite private schools would be worse. They're cashed up with parents that don't give a s**t about them so they tend to run wild.

 

[Stratton_Gun]

Private just seems like a waste of money. Capable kids will do well in most places. I also think that kids who go to a private school think they're better than public school kid's just on that basis.
If you're going to invest in education make it University
I went to a public school went to uni now working in a graduate job so I can't say it's disadvantaged me that much. However I grew up in a good area and if I grow up in the s**t area I would definitely consider sending my kid to a private school

 

[JG22]

Private just seems like a waste of money. Capable kids will do well in most places. I also think that kids who go to a private school think they're better than public school kid's just on that basis.
If you're going to invest in education make it University
I went to a public school went to uni now working in a graduate job so I can't say it's disadvantaged me that much. However I grew up in a good area and if I grow up in the s**t area I would definitely consider sending my kid to a private school

It's not the capable students though. It's the average students who will score averagely at public which will excel in private.

You also say spend the money on university, you can't if you don't get the score in the first place.

 

[RedmanWasHere]

Mooroolbark high school. Not a great reputation, in fact all the public high schools in that area have poor reputations.

Join the club Goldie.

It changed its name a couple of times to the more concise Mooroolbark College which assumed that name in 2004 which was my Year 7.

There are/have been some good staff from my end and some shockers.

My year had plenty of bad seeds to counter the good ones.

 

[Fletched]

Went to a country public school at monash uni now

It was okay, kids that wanted to succeed did

Would send kids to public school, biggest impact on kids is their family and how they are raised

I'm strongly against education being privatized

 

[RedmanWasHere]

Mt Evelyn, I'm pretty sure.

There's one in Lilydale somewhere off Hull Rd though I'm not sure it's a 7DA or just an Adventist. (Edinburgh Rd.)

There's also one really weird and hidden school just after Hull Rd and just before Lillydale Lake.

 

[RedmanWasHere]

Sent my dog to a top K9 school

Underrated post.

 

[Scotland]

It's not just about good kids doing well. If you have an IQ of 150 that isn't going to change whether you go to Scotch College or Balga SHS.

It comes down to resourcing and demographics.

If you send your kid to Scotch, you're sending them to a school where every parent is paying $25k a year for their child's education. There are expectations of the school and students that go with that. You expect your child to be in an environment where teachers and students are collectively focused on the achievement of students. You expect small class sizes, good teachers, extra-curricular programs etc. If you have a kid that is bright but lazy/not focused or a good student but not academically bright or a promising athlete you expect your kid to be set on a good pathway. If your kid is a *stick then the expectation is that the school will sort them out or turf them out.

If you send your kid to Balga, it's because you live in the school catchment area. Doesn't make you a lesser person than someone who can afford to send their kid to a top private school, but your expectations are lessened. Balga's graduation rate hovers in the 50-60% range. Your kid will be mixing with kids who don't want to be there, and kids whose parents don't GAF what they do while they are there. If your kid is bright but easily distracted or middle of the road etc. there is every chance they will fall through the cracks. With a class size of 30+ and a big chunk of time dedicated to managing dickheads teachers only have so much time to actually teach.

A big difference between good parents and bad is the teacher-student-parent dynamic. When I was a kid, it was essentially kid vs teacher/parent. It wasn't really, but that's how kids perceive things. If you ****ed up in class the teacher would tell the parent you ****ed up in class and the parent would tell you not to * up in class. These days with every child being a unique special snowflake with hopes and dreams a lot of parents side with the kid. That doesn't foster a healthy dynamic.

 

[pekay-norwest]

Private Catholic school from K - 8.

High school 9 - 11.

Definitely higher standards in teaching at private schools. If a child wanted to disrupt a class at public school, he'd have free reign to do so without fear of consequence. Private school - you just get removed from the class, given a warning, your parents are paying top dollar for you to be there. One more chance and you mess that up, on yer bike.

Although, I reckon more kids I knew at public school have gone on to better careers than those at private school - but the kids I knew at private school were the bad eggs I suppose. Wonder what the nerds are up to?

 

[Dazb86]

Went to a shitty public school. Would not recommend.

Went from the top 1% in Victoria for Maths and Science to a bong smoking dropkick within one year.

 

[Meow]

Small public schools (<150 students) offer the best environment. Hard to come by in the 'burbs though unless you live in a mixed rural/urban area (e.g. somewhere like Warrandyte). Taught at a country school in Gippsland with 70-odd students for 10 years and the class sizes allowed for individualised learning + scaffolding that you wouldn't otherwise see in larger settings. Fantastic environment where everyone took an active interest in learning and genuinely cared about their peers/surroundings. Not the most ardent fan of measuring learning outcomes on a quantitative basis, but these schools often produce strong results in satisfaction surveys, VCE, further study/work pathways, etc.

Most large public schools, however, have a fairly diverse enrolment. None have the staff, resources and funding to provide that sort of individualised learning. Many teachers who have exclusively worked in the public system are less able to identify and assist students who are susceptible to falling though the cracks. Staff training and support simply isn't at the level of that provided by private schools.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

Went to a shitty public school. Would not recommend.

Went from the top 1% in Victoria for Maths and Science to a bong smoking dropkick within one year.

Biggest crock of s**t I hear about public schools, the bad public schools, is "If the kid's bright, isn't easily distracted and wants to learn they'll be fine". You know who's usually easily distracted and not super interested about learning? The typical kid. When Shane Bogan and another five attention seekers get in arguments with teachers each day all the focus in the world won't stop the distraction.

It's condescending advice. If you go to work and Mr Wick is arguing with Drew every day the job isn't going well and you'll stop putting effort in.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

Most large public schools, however, have a fairly diverse enrolment. None have the staff, resources and funding to provide that sort of individualised learning. Many teachers who have exclusively worked in the public system are less able to identify and assist students who are susceptible to falling though the cracks. Staff training and support simply isn't at the level of that provided by private schools.

Suspect most teachers can identify them quite easily but because they're not disrupting lessons they don't to focus on them like the dickhead students who ruin lessons and get the attention of the higher ups.