Public vs. private schools

I have never attended an American public school. I went to a small, private Quaker school from kindergarten through 11th grade. Then I spent 12th grade studying abroad in France, where I did attend a public school. The school was reasonable, though not fantastic, and it was also a small country school, which eased the transition for me.

I'm glad I went to the school I did, though I had some issues with it, both at the time and in retrospect. I think the single biggest issue I had with the school was its tiny size. My graduating class had 39 people in it. Half of them, at least, I had known since we were little. And that's tough. People remember what you were like when you were eight. It doesn't give you much room to grow and change and have people understand that.

And, with a school of that size, there end up only being a few groups. There's one popular group and then a few fringe groups, and if you don't fit into any of those groups, you're pretty much just screwed, socially speaking. Even if you like the individual people in a certain group, you may not fit with their group dynamic, and then you're stuck.

The first time I ever had a real, strong group of friends was when I attended Governor's School the summer after junior year, before I went to France. I still look back at that time as one of the best experiences of my life, and the time that started an intense, multi-year period of change and maturing for me. I had spent so long at my school not having a group that I had started to believe that I wasn't capable of fitting into a group, ever, of finding a group of people I really clicked with.

But my school also had a lot of great things about it. The secularized Quaker values were great, and very well applied. The classes were small and the teachers were dedicated. There was a great understanding of different types of learning styles, and we were all taught to value all sorts of people. Plus, the school focused not just on teaching us information, but also on teaching us how to learn, think, and analyze--all skills that have served me incredibly well since.

And, one big thing--we didn't have standardized tests. Yes, we took the SAT, but that was for college, not high school. We didn't have AP classes or tests. We didn't have end-of-year, state-mandated exams. We didn't even get grades--we got narrative evaluations.

And I really don't like standardized tests. Personally, I tend to do well on them, but I don't believe that they are a good or accurate reflection of a person, or even of a person's academic or intellectual abilities. And I absolutely hate that state-mandated standardized tests create such limitations for teachers in the classroom, and prevent creativity and tailoring of lessons to the needs of the particular students.

But, you know, I know a lot of people who went to public school and they are just as likely to be smart, analytical, thoughtful people as anyone I went to school with. I don't have anything against public school, per se. It's just not something I have personal experience with.

Of course, we don't have kids yet and this debate, for us, is not yet really an issue. But we did look into the Denver school system when we bought our house. Apparently, the elementary school in our district is the best in the Denver Public Schools system. It has a student-teacher ratio of 19 to 1, which isn't bad. I haven't visited it, obviously, but I imagine we'd feel relatively comfortable sending our kids there.

Plus, private school is freaking expensive. We did some research into secular private schools in the area, and the tuition seems to range from $14,000 to $20,000 annually. That's bad enough, but if you have two kids? How can anyone afford that?

Obviously we won't make a choice about this until we have kids, but my concerns about public schools aren't for the most mainstream students. If we have a kid who thrives in any learning environment, who is motivated and interested, then yes, public school would probably be fine for them, although I still have concerns about standardized testing.

But if we have a kid with special learning needs? How accommodating would a public school be for that? And especially if the child falls somewhere in the gray area, not requiring special education classes or an aide or assistive device, but just some individualized attention and creative teaching methods? Even the best public schools seem to fall short in this area.

What about you? Did you attend public or private school? What did you or would you choose for your own school?