Re: public/guvment schools

[Bob Hoffmann <escape@alt-escape.com>]

I'd like to make a few comments about the school issue.

I think the term "public school" has served me and our society reasonably 
well, so I'll use that term below.

My education:
Kindergarten: Public
Grades 1-7: Private
Grades 8-12: Public
Undergraduate degree: Private
Master's degree: Public

I'd say I have a good deal of experience in both public and private 
schools, so I can speak from this experience.

I never found the quality of my education to be determined by the funding 
of the school, i.e. whether the school was public or private.  I found that 
the quality of the education was dependent on the commitment of the 
educators and the desire of the community (municipality, state government, 
foundation, community of graduates...) to support and fund the 
institutions.  Specialization is also an issue.  In Northeast Ohio, 
Cleveland State University (public) had the best graduate program in 
English, ahead of Case Western Reserve (private) and Kent State University 
(public).  Case is certainly known for technical and medical 
specialization, so I might have gone there if I had chosen another course 
of study.

I have had excellent instructors in both public and private schools.
I have had terrible instructors in both public and private schools.

I have a friend who teaches in a private middle school.  He says that the 
majority of the parents don't send their kids to private school for a good 
education; rather they send their kids to private school so they can tell 
their neighbors that they send their kids to private schools.  Then the 
parents expect Johnny and Jane to get good grades because they've been paid 
for.  This refers to his experience, and I am not extrapolating to all 
private schools.  Just giving one perspective.

There seems to be an increase in private and home schooling in our country 
today.  This trend does not forecast the doom of the public school system, 
any more than a 20% increase in the market for organic food in recent years 
forecasts the doom of conventional agriculture.

Public and private schools both operate with the goal of education.  There 
is more than one way to educate a child--or an adult.  It is good that we 
have different systems in this country to do so.  I knew a Jewish woman who 
chose to send her daughter to not a public school, and not a Jewish school 
(this was an option in Cleveland), but to a Catholic school, because that 
school best met the needs of her daughter.

Yup....

Bob Hoffmann
846 Mabelle St.
Moscow, ID  83843

Tel: 208 883-0642