Teaching at a public school vs teaching at a private school?

You still get summers off, right? What about holidays like Christmas? Some students must stay at the school, right? How does that work?

Warf Dorf wrote:

I hear private schools typically pay a lot less but also give teachers more independence, and students are less likely to be a problem in class. Anyone with experience care to chime in on this? I would like some testimonials. What about dealing with parents? Are they better or worse at private schools?

Also, has anyone worked and LIVED at a private school? I have looked at a few job postings that state faculty members live at the school (it's a boarding school), which made me wonder what that's like. Are teachers expected to be somewhat "on the job" around the clock then? Just wondering.

___________________________

Private schools do have a set up of students who are less trouble. Many of these students, however, come from a priveleged background and don't take kindly to being told rules.

The difference is, that public schools you need the school board to back you for anything. Typically they throw the teacher under the bus.

My 2 cents......I went to public school, my kids are in private.

My education was really hit and miss. We either had complacent mid/late career teachers coasting and getting away with as little as possible, and just regurgitating the same old guff they'd taught for years, or young enthusiastic teachers, straight out of teacher training college. They connected well with the kids and some of them were truly inspirational. My school (a huge inner city school of 3000 kids) had precisely one PhD on the faculty, who was mocked mercilessly by the kids for being a "doctor". He was utterly utterly unsuited to teaching and probably lasted two years before his doctor must've told him it was either die of a stress related MI or quit.

My kids private school teachers are uniformly excellent - I've been attending parent/teacher conferences for 10 years now, so I've interacted with probably 100 different teachers - not one of them seemed to be an idiot. I don't care what their credentials are, though there are a lot PhD's around. If you're a poor teacher, you're out - you simply don't get to stick around. Many of them truly inspire my kids and work like dogs on a huge amount of extracurricular stuff. I have a great deal of respect for every last one of my kids teachers. My son's principal is a truly inspirational man. My daughters principal (she's at a all-girls school) is a bit douchey, but clearly an excellent educator (Harvard and Cambridge (UK) - no teachers qualification of any kind).

Frightened Inmate # 5 wrote:

... an excellent educator (Harvard and Cambridge (UK) - no teachers qualification of any kind).

Huh? WTF does that mean? Do you realize that Harvard has a School of Education and puts out many fine teachers every year? And that many of them teach in public schools?

Say wha? wrote:

Frightened Inmate # 5 wrote:

... an excellent educator (Harvard and Cambridge (UK) - no teachers qualification of any kind).

Huh? WTF does that mean? Do you realize that Harvard has a School of Education and puts out many fine teachers every year? And that many of them teach in public schools?

He meant the principal doesn't have and traditional teaching qualification of any kind. Any nitwit would have recognized that. You must have had public education?

a regular dude here wrote:

Say wha? wrote:

Huh? WTF does that mean? Do you realize that Harvard has a School of Education and puts out many fine teachers every year? And that many of them teach in public schools?

He meant the principal doesn't have and traditional teaching qualification of any kind. Any nitwit would have recognized that. You must have had public education?

I did have a public school education prior to attending Harvard. The public schools were where I learned to properly construct a sentence and to proofread my work.

No pension at private.

The information so far in this thread is bogus.

You can not simply compare private schools vs. public schools.

Here in Ohio, there are some GREAT public schools, and there are some horrible private schools filled with the children of Fundamentalist Christians, many of whom are dumber than dirt.

So, it just depends where you're talking.

Cleveland public schools? Pretty bad.

Upper Arlington (Public) School District? Pretty damn good.

If I had the choice of sending my kid to a Cleveland Public school or one of the few decent private schools up that way, I'd choose private school.

If I had the choice of one of the many (and I DO have this choice) great public school districts in Central Ohio vs. MOST of the private schools in Central Ohio, I would pick (and did) the great public school district. This goes for sending my kid there or working there.

If all things are equal, then it comes down to cost (if sending a kid there) or salary and working environment (if working there).

In SOME parts of the country (mainly East Coast) you can ALMOST blanket say that private schools are better than public schools, but that's because the public schools there suck hard. That is NOT the case in all parts of the country.

Flagpole wrote:

The information so far in this thread is bogus.

You can not simply compare private schools vs. public schools.

Didn't stop you from doing so.

What do you make per year?

genuine random a hole wrote:

Flagpole wrote:

The information so far in this thread is bogus.

You can not simply compare private schools vs. public schools.

Didn't stop you from doing so.

Not true; that's not what I did at all. People in this thread were comparing ALL private schools to ALL Public schools, and that can't be done.

All schools need to be judged on their own merits which is the point of my first post. SOME public schools are better than SOME private schools, and SOME public schools are better than SOME private ones.

Just yanking the chain.

I assumed all along that there are some crap private schools and great publics. (From both a teaching and student perspective.) I think most other readers also made that assumption.

If you had actually taken the time to read the thread, you would see that A LOT of people compared their personal experiences as teacher, student, parent at private and public schools. They didn't do what you did and just base your opinion on places you've never had firsthand experience with.Carry on.

Flagpole wrote:

genuine random a hole wrote:

Didn't stop you from doing so.

Not true; that's not what I did at all. People in this thread were comparing ALL private schools to ALL Public schools, and that can't be done.

All schools need to be judged on their own merits which is the point of my first post. SOME public schools are better than SOME private schools, and SOME public schools are better than SOME private ones.

One perk from truly wealthy private schools is that the parents willingly spend $80-100/hr on tutoring. My experience is from a school with actual High Net Worth families (not your laywer, doctor, dentist, salaried types).

That money is just the cost of doing business in their minds. They want their kids to get into big-name boarding school then onto Ivies or the Colby/Bowdoin type rich people schools.

A good portion of the teachers from this school are involved in tutoring (not their own students; other grades). Great supplemental income and a nice gig to do 5-10 hrs/wk during the summer.

The truth is that the talent pool is terribly skewed. I'd argue that MOST kids that attend private school would do fine in public school too.

If you took the entire student body of X private fru fru school and plopped them into your typical public school, those private school kids would be your top performers simply due to parental support and genetics.

It's a lot easier to be an "excellent teacher" when you have excellent students.

If I was looking for a job that's how I'd approach it.

nj dyestater wrote:

One perk from truly wealthy private schools is that the parents willingly spend $80-100/hr on tutoring.

They want their kids to get into big-name boarding school then onto Ivies or the Colby/Bowdoin type rich people schools.

First off, it's $50 an hour or less (admittedly there are 4 students in my offspring's Russian Math class).

Second: I would never allow my children to attend Colby or Bowdoin. Seriously.

What's wrong with Colby and Bowdoin? Your kids going to MIT or Caltech?

Flagpole wrote:

In SOME parts of the country (mainly East Coast) you can ALMOST blanket say that private schools are better than public schools, but that's because the public schools there suck hard. That is NOT the case in all parts of the country.

You should have studied your geography lessons more, Flaggy. The last time I checked, Massachusetts was on the east coast.