Private schools for kids, or invest the cash for the kids?

Think I have seen that one. Convinced me that co-ed is important, whether private or public.

 

Harry Potter and Hogwarts.

 

Yeah thats the one.

 

I am giving my two cents as a high school teacher that has taught in several high ranked public schools in one of our major cities for the past 4 years (short term as it is quite hard to be permanent if you have never gone rural to accrue points to spend later on).

Over the course of my schooling at university (as John Taylor Gatto calls it in his "Weapon of Mass Instruction" and "Dumbing us Down"), never I have been taught anything apart working in a public school system. No mention about Private System, Montessori, Steiner, home-schooling and unschooling. For the latter two it is understandable, but to completely observe and discuss the best features of each system would have given incredible tools to me and my fellow educators-to-be. The course I have attended was/is ranked in the top 10 Australia-wide, to just show how rankings mean very little.

Nevertheless, I loved the idea of teaching and helping kids, and I am extremely driven by a thirst to learn, and schools provide a great environment for anybody in love with books and knowledge.

After teaching for a decent amount of time I have learned this things about the public system:

- Given the choice, my colleagues with kids would send their son/daughter to private schools, no question asked. After talking to many (even though free speech does not exist among teachers, as anything remotely conservative-leaning will brand you for the duration of your career), the main reason was because teachers knew exactly what they were getting with their colleagues and preferred to play the lottery with private schools.

- Bullying is pretty high, teachers are powerless to it mostly because classes are capped at 27-30 kids and there is no way you can be ubiquitous and check what is happening everywhere at all times. It also doesn't help that a decent amount of teachers are bullies themselves and use their authority to get back at whatever life has thrown at them. I personally have been bullied in few staffrooms because I apparently was too happy to teach and healthy. That lead me to spend my days just with the students and avoid staffrooms as much as I could.

- Going to competitions, private schools blow public schools out of the water when it comes to top ranking competitors. Which means that at the far top end, the best students will enroll at private schools (in a similar way as Harvard and MIT get the best students, they are intrinsically motivated and they will do exceptionally well anywhere), which doesn't mean that on average top ranked public schools are not in the same league as private ones, just that if you want our kids to spend time with the top 1% students in a given cty/state, the odds will be stacked for private schools. I admit there are several exceptions, and given that this post is to be used for a general Australian discussion, anecdotes do not interest me and hopefully you.

- Socializing as an outcome of schools is an absolute scam, mostly because adults would never see being put in a room full of peers of the same age, to compete for the attention of a teacher, and call it a great way to make friends. The school system in Australia is designed to disrupt any friendship built in class anyway, given that in the public system every year classes are broken down and new classes are made in most of the subjects (senior subjects are less fluid, but that is much later in the schooling path). It broke my heart so many times seeing friends being moved year after year for no other reason than admin choices. So, ideally, I would see private schools a better place to use your money to keep your son/daughter friends around your kid in class, as you have a better say on where he/she will be put in.

- City schools try to employ young teachers for two main reasons (my observations): to get more energy in the school, as a decent number of older teachers get used to the routine and spend less effort in extra-curricular activities / to save money on teachers, as graduate teachers get paid an average of 5-15k dollars less per year. I have a business on the side and after observing few schools' modus operandi, this business model is quite risky, because I have seen amazing teachers being sent away because they were costing 3-5k dollars more each year and as in every public establishment, productivity and efficiency are not at the top of the totem pole in terms of goals. It doesn't help also that like in every workplace, the people staying the longest have the most political power, and they tend to have a big say about who stays and who goes. Private schools are a little bit more long-term thinkers in this regard.

I wrote this massive post just to give an insider view (still a personal opinion) of on average happens in some of the "best ranked" schools in the independent and public system.

Take it with a grain of salt, as for me, I got into property to build a good portfolio and homeschool my kids very soon. My girlfriend is 100% aboard with my point of view, and it really helps being financially independent to be able to pull something like this off.

I have been studying homeschooling for few years and I noticed the odds increase greatly if you have the following factors: a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of curiosity/knowledge and a teaching degree.

It is not for everybody, but would you trust a stranger with the most important thing/person in your life?

 

Cracking post - I appreciate your insights.

 

Interesting points you make @richestmaninbabylon.

A post-grad from some other unit may see you into a private school as all unis aren't equal in the doors that they open.

Totally agree with the aspect of where many teachers send their kids and why as I have noticed the calibre, willingness and devotion of teachers to participate in school life not just in the classroom but on extracurricular activities.

Being non-selective means that no one school gets the brightest kids or those most adapted to regurgitate HSC notes but it also means that there is more room to lift students to the next level without the rigid gotta get 100% or you'll get dropped.

 

For me personally, yes, I would choose private over a non-selective public school with a questionable/no-name rep BUT @ $30/40K per annum, I don't see 'value'.

 

Thanks for your time to give us your perspective. Much appreciated.

 

Great honest post, you sound like the minority of teachers which there needs to be more like you!

THIS!!
teachers are very quick to shoot down these types of schooling yet do not have any understanding or knowledge of them!! their way out the highway

I went to a talk lead by a child psychologist and it was about parenting advice for raising kids held at a local school. I spoke with her one on one afterwards and she went in to more detail about the "alternative " schooling when away from the crowd, the rates of depression and other issue are almost 0 versus the high rates found at conventional schools.

She sent her son to "normal" school and struggled lots, after school he went on to learn his own ways and put himself through uni in what he wanted to study and went on to excel in his field - she didn't give much away but he's working in eurpoe and is kind of a big deal in his field! She regrets not sending him to steiner as that would have alleeviated so much stress and pressure on him growing up. All kids are different of course but the school system needs a kick up the bum to improve

Good luck with home schooling! Great choice, there are lots of resources out there to help

 

I share similar view but my wife also ask what value I place on their education and well being...

 

The assumption that they'll go off the rails if they don't go to the 'right' school is a flawed one IMHO. And if they got 10 points less in their ATAR if they went to a public school, so what?

Despite me being a uni grad with extra qualifications with a cushy white collar job, I think a uni degree in the future economy holds less importance than it used to. I would rather my kids have street smarts, an entrepreneurial streak and gift of the gab.

 

Not disagreeing with you there. The future traditional jobs will become limited.

 

Great thread. Our oldest (entering Kindergarten next year) just got accepted today for the school (very multicultural Private girls school) we had hoped she would get in to. So I've just signed up for at least $0.5mm+ between her and her baby sister over the next decade and a half!

The cost-benefit is extremely difficult for something like this as there is no guaranteed outcome - but after visiting the school and comparing it to other options, the teachers (as an aside, both we met had put their own daughters through the school, one of which we met at open day was in 3rd year teaching at uni and hoping to come back and teach there), caring environment, facilities and extra-curriculars really made the decision pretty easy. They only get one go, and i'll do anything to give them the best chance, so bugger it. I can, so I will. Worst case, If it doesn't work for them, we can always change.

They will get that from home / genetics

 

My daughter came home from TAFE today excited that her teacher said she had neat writing. In YR 12 English she was told her writing was ineligible and she should consider paying someone to type her exams. Not good for ones self-esteem and after meeting the teacher I think she had some issues! She was sucking up to me big time and discussing her private matters. I think in Perth the top public schools are a bit average.

 

I went to an average public school. My ATAR results (whatever they were called at the time) were scaled down quite a bit because of the overall crappy grades of the school. I have no doubt that if I went to a top private school, I would have scored significantly higher, and got into uni courses I thought was out of my league, such as medicine.

 

The wife always wins! :/

 

There are a couple of more points that I think I should have added on my previous post:

- The Trivium Method: this is the learning method that is mostly used in the highest quality high school in the USA, where the absolute elite (1%) send their kids. The Trivium stands for the learning method used in the past to actually have a structured way of learning (Trivium stands for Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric), it is the most effective way of understanding any topic. It segways into the Quadrivium (which is the actual application in space, music, geometry, etc.)
I tried to talk about it with every single teacher and university professor in my career, not a single one of them knows about it. It won't be found in any public school, but I heard that it is implemented in few private schools (it requires some due diligence, just like a property). The reason why this incredible method is rare is because it is HARD to teach and learn at first, but if you spend 30k dollars a year you might pretend the highest education available.

- A big taboo at school is to talk about money, with colleagues and with the students. Unless the subject is business (in class), which gives a situational reason to look at money.
On my anecdotal evidence, 5% to 10% of teachers have investments other than their PPOR, which puts the other 90-95% in the financially illiterate end of the spectrum. Even who has investments does not talk about it as he/she will be shot down for being shallow or not pertinent (happened few times), the most welcomed topics in staffrooms are generally weather and if there will be an increase in salary at the beginning of the Financial Year (0 political correctness in this post, there is NO WAY you will ever hear this from any teacher in person, ever).
Given that, as Jim Rohn and Zig Ziglar said, we are the results of the 5 people we spend the most time with and the books we read, the odds are low that students will find their financial mentor at school. This is just a heads up in terms of the expectations anybody might have about financial success, which are not considered at all in any school curriculum.

 

The dilemma I faced when my daughter won a private school scholarship

Another reasonable point of view from (of all places) SMH.

 

Thanks for posting - great article!

 

Was that a selfish or selfless decision?

In reality, they had made up her mind in the 10 years prior. How? By the decision not to put aside money each week/month to pay for school fees if the need or opportunity arose instead it has been directed elsewhere so when the funds are needed the choice is non-deductible debt.