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In this poll, I'd like you to select the #1 reason you'd be opposed to sending your child to public school. If you cannot answer from experience, please answer by what you hear/ see in your fellowship:

Please elaborate on your answer, if you wish

"social aspect/peers"
Once Again began a prayer request thread for her son on this, recently, i shared a worry i have.
http://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=292

she might see this and add to it, it seems, her concern is more about what is formally taught (?)
so far, i am wondering at least as much, if not more, about what children are teaching each other .. based on what they pick up at home and over airways. children quickly learn from each other.

most recently, my granddaughter was reciting criticisms+name calling Trump.
a couple of years ago, she asked about men marrying men .. 1st grade, faith based school.
turned out, one child had attended such a "wedding" with his parents, so, he was the classroom expert at snack time.

my grdaughter said, "he won't stop talking about it."

when my daughter asked the 1st grade teacher, her response was immediate: "this is first grade! not a topic of discussion!" presumably, snack time was then more closely watched.

my granddaughter will attend public school this year. 4th grade.
we will see.

The #1 reason might vary somewhat due to the age and personality of the child. For the younger grades, teachers have an enormous influence. Older children may be better able to discern and reject or ignore wrong teaching, but often are more susceptible to peer pressure (although as temp1 notes, peers can be a negative influence even in nonpublic schools and at young ages).

The "quality of the education recieved" is an important factor (but probably not #1), especially in sceince and math. Oh, and orthography.

ohio jones wrote:The #1 reason might vary somewhat due to the age and personality of the child. For the younger grades, teachers have an enormous influence. Older children may be better able to discern and reject or ignore wrong teaching, but often are more susceptible to peer pressure (although as temp1 notes, peers can be a negative influence even in nonpublic schools and at young ages).

The "quality of the education recieved" is an important factor (but probably not #1), especially in sceince and math. Oh, and orthography.

I voted #3. Maybe because my children in school finished 3rd and 1st grade last year. I can see how my concerns might change to #4 as they get older.

ohio jones wrote:The #1 reason might vary somewhat due to the age and personality of the child.
For the younger grades, teachers have an enormous influence.

Older children may be better able to discern and reject or ignore wrong teaching, but often are more susceptible to peer pressure (although as temp1 notes, peers can be a negative influence even in nonpublic schools and at young ages).

The "quality of the education recieved" is an important factor (but probably not #1), especially in sceince and math. Oh, and orthography.

i have been pleased with overall lessons from teachers on faith, and, how to respond to social problems, esp the emphasis of pleasing God first, even when others are disobeying. to me, it's important for children to be ok with being different - certainly when being different means choosing God.

(i get the idea) that old lessons we used to get in the home and at school about, "sticks+stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me," and other lessons about how the world is not always going to be a comfortable place, but, it's important to be grateful, to endure and overcome, are no longer common (?)

the faith based school was not perfect, but, i have lots of gratitude for the experience.
we all agree, these teachers have had a great positive influence on the child, she seems to have been able to glean all the good possible, while minimizing the not-good.

unfortunately, many families think of faith based schools or private schools as great places to place their problem children. so, there's that. the schools are aware of it. they have different responses.

my daughter and her husband decided the cost, combined with the problem children, were too much, they decided to try public school for this year. we've talked about the pros+cons, the decision is theirs.

i'm feeling lost about how not to lose continuation of the Christian foundation.
we will work on that.
honestly, it seems like it could be lost quite easily. i pray not.

When we started our parochial school it was because the Department of Education was closing all the rural schools and bussing the children to new central schools. There were a number of concerns so I selected "lack of control". In the consolidated schools, girls were required to take part in gym class - wearing gym clothes - this was a huge barrier. The whole environment changed with more pupils in the school as well as many more teachers. There was a concern about the revised curriculum which was introduced at the same time with an introduction to sex education. Again a huge concern. Instead of every school having its local board with control of teacher hiring among other things, there was now one central board, looking after more than one school in the county. Parents were not enthused about having the children on the bus for hours instead of walking to school. In short, curriculum, bussing, societal impact, dress requirements, and governance were issues.

We didn't realize it at the time, but the quality of education is a good reason today to select the parochial schools. Another good part of the parochial school system is the mostly dedicated teachers - they have a holistic interest in the students, not just in teaching one or two subjects and they are part of the community, attending the same church as the students.

Odd that this comes up now, because for some reason I was just thinking today about the negativity that a teacher can cast on a child. I only remember a couple of my teachers who were 'nasty' to me, but reading through my grade school report cards some while back, I was impressed with the rather unkind remarks written in them. For some reason I was thinking about it today, and thought about how the main difference between home schooling & public school is that the 'teachers' (presumably) care about the students (their own children). (I went through all 12 grades in public school.) Our children were in the mission school, and their teachers were not always nice, either. Anyone can have a bad day and be impatient at times (even parents!). I also had a college professor (Bible college) who had it out for me. So I couldn't choose any of the options in the survey, but just thought I'd make these comments.

Interesting. Material taught is in second.
Anyone care to elaborate? Is it something being taught or is it what's not being taught???

KingdomBuilder wrote:Interesting. Material taught is in second.
Anyone care to elaborate? Is it something being taught or is it what's not being taught???

hoping you will get some response.

i'm kinda surprised about "social aspect/peers." guess i shouldn't be.
i believe this is a reflection on parents/churches not providing the foundation children need.
lots of parents seem to lack direction. with direction or without, children grow up.

something important was lost after prayer in school, and all that went with that, ended.

it's as though parents, and churches, did not realize it was now encumbant on them to pick up this loss.
it's as though many presumed their children would "just know" all those things without guidance, or being taught. in addition to prayer, things like morality lessons. which used to be abundant throughout the school day, woven naturally through all subjects.

well, these are things i have wondered about, as i see parents of all description struggle with parenting. they struggle with marriage, too. no one is teaching how to be a good spouse or parent. these things are not valued as they should be.

the attitude seems to be, "anybody can do that!" / not important.
evidence is, not everyone can do that.

Public schools are a reflection of the overall morals of parents and society, not the other way around.