Why so some people consider private schools and charter schools notches above public schools? I have personally known teachers who moved from one setting to the other, so I don't think it's the teachers.
When parents support a school and its teachers, the sky is the limit. I watched over the weekend as my grandson received encouragement on a name poster he had to complete for Monday. We all joined in with adjectives that described him. Some of our suggestions were humorous, and he loved it. He did the project by himself, but not without the adults around him letting him know that the poster was important and brainstorming ideas with him. My grandson attends public school and works very hard to do quality work. I am very pleased with his school and his teachers.
Does family attitude play the biggest part in the success of a school? Two stories recently in the news make me think that it does. The first article is about a group of parents who chose to support a public high school instead of sending their kids to private school.
East Dallas parents living in sprawling estates around Lakewood Country Club have options to send their teenagers to the best private schools in Dallas while hardly noticing a dent in their pocketbooks. Instead, their children are attending Woodrow Wilson High School – not because of political correctness or financial pressure, but because parents are convinced that it's the best educational choice they can make for their kids.
"We all had alternatives," PTA president Emily L. Martin reminded prospective students and parents at a school open house Tuesday. "We chose Woodrow."
This is a statement of confidence in public schools by people who would expect their children to qualify for Ivy League universities. And some have – with their Woodrow diplomas in hand. In recent years, it has outranked other North Texas schools in National Merit Scholarships and ranked among the top public schools in the nation in a 2006 Newsweek academic-performance survey.
The second story is about parents waiting in line to gain a space for their children in a charter school.
BEN FREDMAN/DMN
Neither rain nor snow nor dark of night could deter Kim Molder of Cedar Hill, waiting outside of Life School in Red Oak on Monday in the hopes of registering her children this morning. 'It's worth it, absolutely,' she said.
"Parents are required to get involved [at Life School], and I think that makes the difference."
Others said friends with children already attending the Life School Red Oak campus won them over with proselytizing.
"Our friends who have kids here rave about how wonderful it is," Ms. Richey said. "They apply character values in the education, and that's important to us. I haven't heard one bad thing about this school."
"There's just a level of expectation, of positive expectation, that makes them want to do better" at the charter school, Ms. Whiteman said. "There's an attitude of excellence, and there's more encouragement that they get here."
The articles could be the basis for a meaningful compare and contrast paper. There is one big common denominator: Parents supporting their kids and expecting quality work and respectable behavior. Accepting less and blaming the school just doesn't make sense.