Public or Private?

[Pooperman]

So we've established that mustachians tend to be Left Libertarians, both male and female about equally, and heavily INTJ/INFJ/ENTJ/ENFJ kinda people. How about how you were raised? I went to private school from Preschool through 7th, then public from 8th through graduation. I went to a Waldorf school (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education). The price was about 10k/yr give or take for the duration of my stay. I don't regret going there at all. If you went to private, what kind of school did you go to?

[Pigeon]

I went to a horrid catholic elementary school through 8th grade, complete with ruler-wielding nuns.  It provided an inferior education to the local excellent public elementary school.  Since there were still nuns, the tuition wasn't much though.  The day I started public high school was the happiest day of my life.  I also attended public universities for college and grad school.

[johnny847]

Public schools through high school, private school for undergrad, public school for grad school.

[seattlecyclone]

19 years of public school, kindergarten through master's.

[Iron Mike Sharpe]

Went to public schools most of my life.  Though once, in grade school, my parents sent me to our Catholic Church's school for an open-house one day.  They were so far behind where I was at it wasn't even funny.  Plus, they had no honors program and I don;t think their band program was any good.

I did go to a private Jesuit school for first two years of high school.  But it was a lot farther away so I had to leave real early and got home late.  Rarely saw my friends.  Most of the kids were entitled snobs because their parents had money.  No girls.  And on and on.

Transferred to my public HS for the last two years.  My happiness and grades went way up.  Managed to get a full ride to a public college.

[OutBy40]

Public school all the way through the first year of college.  Then, transferred to a private school because it happened to be the first one that accepted me.

[AllieVaulter]

I went to public school K-12.  I thought I got a great education.  I learned a lot, took AP classes (graduated with college credit) and I thoroughly enjoyed school.  My parents definitely scoped out the local schools before enrolling us though.  I didn't realize how dire some public school situations were because I always had great teachers (with one exception - but it still provided me with an excellent life experience:  how to teach myself). 

I did go to a private university, but then I went back to a public school for my masters degree (yay for TA funding!). 

[gt7152b]

19 years of public school, kindergarten through master's.

+1. I grew up in rural AL as well so not exactly the highest quality in public education. I did fine in a highly competitive engineering college so it would be hard to convince me to pay for private school for my kids. I think a much more critical component than public vs private is encouragement of reading at a young age. I loved reading when I was a kid and I think it had the biggest influence on my academic success. I'm happy to see that both my kids are the same way. We also talk about academic topics all the time which is a great way to show your kids what is important to you and guide them in that direction.

[rocksinmyhead]

Public schools through high school, private school for undergrad, public school for grad school.

me too!

[GetItRight]

I went to public schools and am a libertarian/anarcho-capitalist. K-4 in a pretty good rated district and 5-11 in an excellent top rated district. There was no 12 as I graduated a year early. It would have been earlier but of course public schools are nothing more than babysitters and indoctrination camps, so it was illegal for me to do anything during the day to get ahead or better myself. Punished and threatened for asking questions, particularly questions about why most classes were at the dumbest common denominator, why the few offerings of classes that were relevant to real world jobs were canceled, etc. I resigned to the government institution, sleeping through many classes and doing my real learning after school. Public schools would be a pathetic joke, if they weren't expensive indoctrination camps.

Now Obama and his liberal cronies want to steal more money from us for "free" 2 year colleges because they say high school graduates don't have the skills they need to succeed? Currently 2 year colleges, while typically State run, require the student to pay as a customer in at least some capacity. "Free" would change the customer entirely to the government. Government run schools funded by the government (with money stolen from third parties). That sounds a lot like the last 12 years the government had these kids and failed to teach them any marketable skills. So Obama essentially proclaims that government run schools are failures, 12 years stolen from children to spit out unemployable young adults at an average cost well over $10k/yr per student with more liberal/socialist states being closer to $20k/yr with the highest cost per students often being the lowest performing inner city schools. The punchline is the proposed solution to this government created problem: Two more years of government school!

[Spork]

Private kindergarten (because I am so old that they were not in public schools then).
Public elementary, middle, high school and state run college.

[caliq]

Public K-12 and currently at a public university.  Though I was in a good district, I wasn't challenged enough in public school, starting about halfway through middle school.  I should have been skipped ahead at least a grade but wasn't because my birthday is so late in the year that I was already a year younger than the majority of my classmates.  Gave up on school and got B+'s and A's by sitting in class trying not to fall asleep and acing tests.  I don't think I did much homework past freshman year of HS and skipped nearly the entire second half of my senior year.  I got a superlative in the yearbook related to most absences or something like that.  But, did well enough on standardized tests to get accepted to an honor's program at a state school despite my obvious not-giving-a-shit academic record. 

I don't regret being in public school, but I do regret that my parents didn't push the administration harder for me to be skipped ahead while I was still in elementary school.  I think private school might have benefited me if only for the increased flexibility it might have offered.  I'm keeping all avenues open for my future kids, especially because DH wants to move to a small town in the midwest that doesn't have a great public school system. 

[rocksinmyhead]

I went to public schools and am a libertarian/anarcho-capitalist. K-4 in a pretty good rated district and 5-11 in an excellent top rated district. There was no 12 as I graduated a year early. It would have been earlier but of course public schools are nothing more than babysitters and indoctrination camps, so it was illegal for me to do anything during the day to get ahead or better myself. Punished and threatened for asking questions, particularly questions about why most classes were at the dumbest common denominator, why the few offerings of classes that were relevant to real world jobs were canceled, etc. I resigned to the government institution, sleeping through many classes and doing my real learning after school. Public schools would be a pathetic joke, if they weren't expensive indoctrination camps.

you sound like maybe you could have used some better social skills.

[sheepstache]

I put public but I did go to a montessori school for the last year of elementary. Plus pre-school.

My public school was high-ranked and pretty good, but I'm really glad I got the montessori experience too.

[Annamal]

Public, although I think New Zealand public schools might be a little different to US ones.

I had a mix of really good teachers and bad ones but overall the schooling itself was pretty good (Shakespeare club, classics, good relationship with the local university so enrichment activities).

Could have done without the PE teachers making us run back from the university pool in dripping PE gear though =)

[Nudelkopf]

Public for all of primary, secondary, and tertiary study (so, 17 years).

[alsoknownasDean]

Public for primary, secondary, and all of my tertiary education (TAFE once and uni twice).

[Rural]

Public, grade 1 through PhD. There were no public kindergartens when I was small, either, so I didn't go.

[Astatine]

I've never got my head around the US school or college system - seems a bit different to Oz.

I did local public (government) schools all the way from preschool to post grad (started a PhD on scholarship but didn't finish).

[pbkmaine]

Terrible private Catholic school K-8; wonderful life-changing girls' prep school 9-12; Ivy League AB and MBA.

[RetiredAt63]

Public K-12.  We don't differentiate re Universities, so public for under grad and grad school.

ExDH public all the way.

DD K-6 public.  HS private (French "Collège") so fluently bilingual, that was the reason for that choice.  College and University public.

[aspiringnomad]

Public all the way until graduate school, at which point the university paid me to attend.

[rocketpj]

Public schools all the way from K- Masters.  Masters was on a scholarship.

Here in Canada university (college) is a bit less insanely priced, perhaps because they are mostly publicly owned. 

[MustacheExplorer]

I went to big city public schools through high school and to a private university.  I have to admit I was not as prepared for the college level work as my classmates were that went to better suburban public or private schools.

[2lazy2retire]

Terrible private Catholic school K-8; wonderful life-changing girls' prep school 9-12; Ivy League AB and MBA.

Not a quote to to read to quickly

[gaja]

~20 years (including some part time studies while working) of free public school/university, pluss ~4 years of state funded kindergarten. There were no private schools in my town, and if there were, nobody in my socialist family would have even considered the option.

I have worked 6 weeks in a private high school. It was a joke, compared to the public schools I've worked in. I quit when the principal told me I had to accept that students cheated by copying articles from wikipedia. If the students quit, the school would loose money. We were told to grade the students "nicely". Usually their grades during the year were 1-2 points higher than the ones they got on national tests and independently graded exams (going from A to C).

[Bateaux]

I went to a really rural K-12 school.  Not much to offer but life was so cheap it would make most Mustacians look spendy.

[Guesl982374]

Public high school, public undergrad, private evening mba (no public choice).

[Bob W]

All private except for a 2 year stint at public in middle school to try it out.  High School -- all boys Catholic.   

I didn't realize to late in life what my parents had spent on my grade school and high school educations for me.    They never complained.   I miss them. 

[I'm a red panda]

Public schools K-12, public state university.

I think my grad school was private. I don't actually know.

[wtjbatman]

So we've established that mustachians tend to be Left Libertarians, both male and female about equally, and heavily INTJ/INFJ/ENTJ/ENFJ kinda people.

I'm not comfortable with all of these labels. Can't we all just be... people?

[Better Change]

Public all the way through my PhD! 

So many years of school.

[James]

Private school for 1st grade then home school through HS. Some community college courses which were meh.  Private college which I hated for BSN. Public university for some odd courses which were good. Mayo for anesthesia which I loved. Pretty big variety, and at the end of the day whether it is "public" or "private" matters very little. Depends on the quality of the school, quality of the classmates you are around, and quality of the teacher. Hate the whole public vs private debate, as if they are all the same in each category...

[Zikoris]

Well, kind of public I guess? I did distance education for most of my schooling due to working, moving frequently, and living in remote areas. It was done through the public schooling system, just not a normal school. I mailed assignments to my teachers and had online discussions about current events with other students.

[AllezAllezAllez]

My Mom, a public school teacher for 35 years, insisted on private/Catholic school for the five of us. She had an insider's view, and she wanted something better for her own kids. IMHO, it made a great deal of difference. Thanks, Mom!

[imustachemystash]

I went to a public school until I was a senior in high school.  My parents are teachers and decided to move to the Virgin Islands to teach when I was a senior in high school.   It was an interesting experience.

[pancakes]

I went public all the way from primary school to university. Our public schools in Australia are excellent. The facilities at private schools are better (especially for kids who excel at sport or music) for sure but the opportunities to succeed academically are certainly there in our public schools too. The most 'successful' (by popular standards) people I know all went to public schools.

I did go to private kindergarten and preschool. Public places back when I was that age were very limited but I believe that has all changed a lot now.

[Sibley]

Public K-12 in a really good school system. Private women's college for undergrad. Worked out very well for me.

[tarheeldan]

Mostly private but lots of the ex-pat life. Private K-8, public 9, private 11-12, private for 2yrs of college and public for last 2yrs undergrad and 2 years grad.

[NearlyThere]

Public school my whole life. I was very fortunate to live in an area with great schools and both primary and grammar schools I went to are consistently in the top 5 in our region. If we stay here, our child will go there too. Other than that it will be private tuition.

[Debtless in Texas]

I did public for elementary, private for middle, Catholic for HS and College...I must say that the private/Catholic option was much better than public in CA.

Though there were no ruler-wielding nuns, there were priests who turned out to be pretty cool.

[sweetproserpina]

Public for me from kindergarten to uni, which was pretty good. Middle and high school were saved because there were great drama programs to keep me busy, academic programs depended on the skill and interest of the teacher.. I did fine.

We've got our kiddos in montessori preschool through kindergarten, and will start public school in grade one. Their philosophy mirrors our family's so much that we really wanted to get them started on the right path.... We also supplement with cool "fun" educational things at home, lots of experiments, measuring, and other practical knowledge... and as they get older more outings to interesting places!

[HazelStone]

Public high school, private college, if I do grad school it will almost certainly be a state school.

My public school experience was miserable in some ways. My parents could have moved into a better district but for various reasons did not. I was in a tiny high school that didn't give a crap about things like AP courses. They didn't really give a crap about brighter students either, using them as free babysitting for the rest of the class. Most of the teachers were just marking time until retirement.They were just happy if you didn't get pregnant. I could've graduated early, but then the school loses that bit of enrollment-based funding so no. I did some research and found a couple of loopholes for them to pay toward me dual-enrolling at a local college. That made my senior year much nicer.

I basically view my public school time as a 12 year prison sentence. That time could have been spent so much more productively, and there's only so much one can study on their own without further assistance. When I got to college, they put me in the honors program, and I got glimpses of what kids in GOOD schools got to do and I was resentful as hell.

When/if Sweetie and I have kids, we're moving to an area with top-flight schools. End of story. My children will not be superannuated daycare inmates. There is also a well-regarded Catholic school nearby, but Sweetie is leery of parochial schools. Cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess.

[Rural]

You know, everyone always talks about moving to a better school district. That's not always necessary. I went to high school in a different county from where we lived. It was still a public school, and my parents had to pay some tuition because they were out of district – $1600 a year. Much, much better school, and much cheaper than private.


My father worked in the county with the good schools, so transportation wasn't a major issue for us. My parents did have to provide transportation – no busing for out of district students.



Still, I'd say that's an option that might be worth investigating for a lot of people here.

[GuitarStv]

So we've established that mustachians tend to be Left Libertarians, both male and female about equally, and heavily INTJ/INFJ/ENTJ/ENFJ kinda people.

I'm not comfortable with all of these labels. Can't we all just be... people?

Shut up and get in your box!

[mskyle]

Private church-based preschool, public from K-8, private prep school 9-12, public undergrad, private graduate school, then I did a program at an unlicensed for-profit school! I also spent ~10 years working for private universities.

[EllieStan]

Private pre-school
Public elementary school
Private high school
Public college
University (I don't think there is a public/private distinction in Canada, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

Why alternating between private and public schools ? Simply because my parents sent me to whatever school was closer to our house at the time. I never had to walk over 7 minutes or commute by bus more than 15 minutes to get to school, until I started to attend university. I had a car by then, and it was a 30 minute drive.

[Sid Hoffman]

I went to a horrid catholic elementary school through 8th grade, complete with ruler-wielding nuns.  It provided an inferior education to the local excellent public elementary school.  Since there were still nuns, the tuition wasn't much though.  The day I started public high school was the happiest day of my life.  I also attended public universities for college and grad school.

I guess I had the opposite in every way.  Public school through 8th grade, then Catholic school from 9th through 12th on account of the fact I was failing out of public school since the public schools were terrible in my area and my personality is not suited to traditional schooling at all.  The Catholic school I went to was much more accommodating and helped me to actually graduate (on time even!) in spite of the fact my brain is really not able to succeed in a school setting, even though I've done extremely well professionally in IT, even with no college of any kind.

The education I got was the right one for me.  I had a great time 1st through 4th grade, OK at a different school for 5th and 6th, and was basically a bucket full of fail in 7th & 8th grade as it became all rigidly standardized and nothing but a government cookie-cutter system, and I am not a ball of dough.  I'm glad and thankful for what my parents were able to do for me though.

[gimp]

Public K-8. Fairly useless, except in teaching me what kind of people to be aware of (and beware of).

Private 9-12, incredibly useful. Very good school.

Private university, with a coop program. Total debt on graduation was about $35k.

[Davids]

I am Public all the way. Public School from K-12 and a State University for college.