John,
As a parent of an 8th-grade student currently attending public 
school,  I have to respectfully disagree.
Our town has just one elementary school, with about 350 students in 
grades K through 8.  I have been in frequent contact (phone, email, 
personal visits) with my son's teachers and the administration over 
the past 9 years.  Some years ago, my husband was part of a 3-month 
focus group with administrators, teachers and parents who met to 
discuss ways to improve curriculum and student performance.  Many 
great ideas were put on the table, but few have actually been 
implemented.  We monitor our son's performance, and check his 
homework.  Although our school has a website, with links for each 
class, a mere handful of teachers actually use it consistently to 
post homework and long-term assignments.

Mike consistently tests at the 98%+ in standardized tests.  However, 
his grades (other than in Math classes) leave something to be 
desired.  Why?  He is bored.  There is a strong emphasis in this 
school on helping the 'classified' child, but little on challenging 
the gifted students.  Two years ago, just prior to 6th grade, our son 
was accepted into Johns Hopkins 'Center-for-Talented Youth' program, 
and had the opportunity to attend a 3-week camp (at our expense) for 
academically accomplished children.  The following semester, we 
approached our elementary school with a request that Mike be allowed 
to take an advanced math class online (at our expense) during his 
regularly-scheduled math time.  All we required was a quiet place for 
him to use a computer, and a person to supervise.  I even offered to 
leave my job during the class time, and oversee his online class. 
But the administrator decided it would be 'better' (read 'easier for 
the school') to just put Mike into the 8th grade Algebra class 
instead, to 'challenge' him.  As a result, he has never had 6th grade 
Math, and ended up retaking Algebra this year, since that's all the 
school has to offer.

Parental involvement?  Short of camping out on the school grounds, I 
don't see what more we could have done.  It appears to me, that most 
public schools suffer from a) a lack of funds for 'gifted' programs, 
and b) the mindset that provides plenty of extra help for students 
who may have some learning difficulty, but no additional challenge 
for gifted students.  All that is offered, is extra work - not 
harder, not advanced, just more.

As parents, we have never taken the position that our children's 
education is simply the school's responsibility.  We believe that a 
partnership between parents, teachers and the child him/herself are 
necessary for success.  As far as private vs public school, I believe 
another factor is class size.  However, as James points out, 
accountability is most likely the primary reason for higher scores 
and rates of graduation.

Regards,
Connie

>I think James is right on, but you have to go a step further.  The 
>reason private schools succeed is parent involvement, and the 
>primary problem with public schools is lack of parent involvement. 
>Public schools are forced to deal with issues that uninvolved 
>parents ignore, instead thrusting them upon society.  It is becoming 
>a HUGE problem.  It is my wife's field of study (20 years worth). 
>It's going to take incredible courage and leadership to go into some 
>communities and get parents to care about their childrens' education.
>
>John Lee
>
>
>At 01:10 PM 1/22/07 -0500, James B. Byrne wrote:
>
>>The primary difference between public and private education lies not in
>>who can be kicked out for lack of performance but rather in whom the
>>private facilities choose to admit on the basis of probability of success.
>>  The secondary difference lies in the difference in goals between the
>>private and public institutions.  The private institution exists to
>>service the demands of the parents of the children, to provide visible
>>improvements in the academic and social performance of individual students
>>to a consumer who can, and will, shop for the best value.
>>
>>The public institution exists to fulfill public social policy, which
>>involves raw academic improvement as only one metric out of many.
>>Further, the consumer of public education is not the student, nor the
>>parents of students, but rather the educational ministries that control
>>budgets who are subject to political whimsy no less than any other public
>>body.
>>
>>There are no ready solutions to the problem of public education because it
>>is not a single problem of having better SAT scores or fewer dropouts or
>>graduating functionally illiterate and innumeric students.  The off-heard
>>clamour for charter schools will benefit only a small number of the upper
>>middle class (who are already fleeing the public systems in vast numbers
>>without this encouragement) at disproportionate expense to the lower
>>economic orders, heightening an already growing perception of the
>>injustice in the distribution of wealth in western societies.  This is not
>>a good thing politically and will probably never be widely implemented in
>>consequence.
>>
>>If you have more than a passing involvement with state run education you
>>quickly come to realize just how little EDUCATION matters to them in their
>>pursuit of public docility.  Program after program is announced and
>>implemented to provide the public with the appearance of much activity but
>>what is seldom revealed is that the new program has no new money and that
>>previous initiatives are left to wither and die as their funding is
>>diverted into the next public splash.  Yet, programs aside, teachers now
>>spend, by some estimates, 65% of their classroom time arbitrating
>>behaviour problems and their consequences. That leaves very little time
>>for instruction and may partially explain the present over-emphasis on
>>homework.
>>
>>Further, the public system, and I include state sponsored religious
>>systems under this rubric, is riddled with special interest groups milking
>>the public purse for all it is worth.  From frequently superseded
>>textbooks that are overpriced,  underdeveloped, and generally poor
>>products; to school uniforms made in East-Asian sweatshops; to
>>over-crowded and poorly ventilated buildings, excessive administrative
>>salaries, excessive administrative and specialist staff, poor fiscal and
>>property management, unreflective technology purchases, and over-ambitious
>>social policy goals; in matters of expenditures the public education
>>system is rife with, if not outright corruption, a degree of coziness
>>between teachers, suppliers, administrators and self-appointed social
>>activists (advocates) that is unsavoury to behold when encountered first
>>hand.
>>
>>To give an example.  I once purchased a complete set of textbooks for my
>>youngest who was in grade V or VI at the time.  On the used market these
>>five or six books set me back just a shade under $900.00 CAD and I do not
>>think that I managed to get them all.  At the same time my child's school
>>was "sharing" textbooks between children because there were not enough to
>>go around, principally because they had just been "upgraded" to a new
>>edition and the new supplies were insufficient because of budget
>>constraints.
>>
>>Now, my school board has a full time "textbook" evaluation and selection
>>committee, whose budget allocation is considerable while textbook
>>acquisition is itself a major annual expense for the board.  I have
>>therefore asked them why, with all of the talent resident in the board's
>>employees, the board does not instead strike a committee to produce its
>>own textbooks and also provide these on-line so that parents and the
>>public can have complete access to them.  I received no sensible answer
>>other than the board was not in the business of producing textbooks.
>>Apparently they are whole-heartedly in the business of purchasing them
>>however.
>>
>>I have my own strong opinions about what is wrong with the "system" but
>>the fact remains that the "system" does not exist for me or my children.
>>It exists because the modern state depends upon a social consensus to
>>exist and the public education system is where that consensus is forged.
>>That this consensus is engendered in the minds of people too ignorant to
>>comprehend what is being done to them, or for what purpose, or at what
>>cost, is a fact that too few citizens even consider, much less reflect
>>upon deeply.  Education, in the sense of reading, counting and thinking
>>with accuracy, precision, and insight is really not much more than an
>>accidental by-product of the entire process and one that relatively few of
>>its subjects experience.
>>
>>Have you ever considered just how much effort it takes to make a child
>>hate to learn? I mean, these are creatures that learn to walk upright
>>simply by watching the example of their parents and who master their first
>>language without much, if anything at all, in the way of formal
>>instruction.  These are individuals who, before we warehouse them in state
>>run detention centres, find joy and mystery in everything that they
>>encounter.  They absorb knowledge like sponges.
>>
>>Yet, by the age of seven most of this native inquisitiveness and curiosity
>>has been killed by the steadfast efforts of those to whom we entrust our
>>children.  Discipline, which usually means silence and sitting still and
>>suppressing every expression of exuberance, takes the place of virtually
>>all else.  There are only certain state approved forms of learning and
>>those are largely geared to mob control rather than the discovery of
>>knowledge. When a child consequentially exhibits that they do not want to
>>learn then the first question in the mind of a responsible adult should
>>be: who killed the desire and how did I contribute to this disaster?
>>
>>--
>>James B. Byrne                mailto:[log in to unmask]
>>Harte & Lyne Limited          http://www.harte-lyne.ca
>>9 Brockley Drive              vox: +1 905 561 1241
>>Hamilton, Ontario             fax: +1 905 561 0757
>>Canada  L8E 3C3
>>

-- 
Connie Sellitto
Programmer/Analyst
732-528-9797 ext 18

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