When American children reach the age of primary school, parents need to make a choice between public schools and private schools: public schools are cheap, but the quality of teaching varies according to the school district; while private schools can almost be labeled as 'expensive tuition, high quality of education.
Whether it's a private school or a public school with good education quality, parents choose to provide the best education for their children. Therefore, public schools with low tuition and no bad teaching quality have become the first choice for American parents.
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But do public schools and private schools really have the same teaching conditions? What kind of school should parents choose for their children? What’s the difference between public schools and private schools? There is no doubt that there must be a difference between them.
1. Tuition
Public schools are funded by grants from the federal government and local governments of the United States. Children's tuition is free. Parents only need to pay part of the tuition fees and occasional school organization activities. It can be said that they don't need to spend much money.
Private schools are mainly funded by students' tuition fees and donations from alumni, faculty, and parents. Students' tuition fees are very expensive in the United States; it is not affordable for ordinary families. However, it is generally the choice of bourgeois families. Moreover, the tuition fees of many private schools do not include books, materials, spring outings, and after-school tutoring classes.
There is no doubt that our own family's economic conditions are the primary consideration when we choose schools for our children.
2. School Facilities and Resources
Public schools are funded by the government, so the circulation of school facilities is relatively limited, and the dilapidated infrastructure cannot be maintained and handled in time, so they cannot provide students with perfect infrastructure services sometimes. In addition, students' learning and activity resources in and out of class will also be limited. Of course, all of these are relatively speaking, and do not exclude the public schools with rich resources.
However, the capital flow of private schools is very convenient, and the capital is sufficient, not limited to the government. So the schools can invest sufficient funds in infrastructure construction and can invite various outsiders to undertake various activities to enrich student's learning and life.
Of course, most parents want their children to have the best resources. Between money and resources, maybe it's the parents' entanglement.
3. Teaching Concept and Curriculum Design
There is basically no entry threshold in public schools, and children who reach the age of the school district can enter the school. Public schools aim to cultivate children's basic learning abilities based on society and let children complete compulsory education, with relatively low requirements. The courses in public schools are usually set up according to the national syllabus. In addition to the regular courses such as Chinese, mathematics, history, and science, some public schools with sufficient government funding usually have some classes of interest for children to choose from;
In private schools, the entry threshold is relatively high. Most children usually need to pass the school's examination or interview, and sometimes there will be IQ and EQ tests. The teaching requirements of private schools are also higher than that of public schools. In addition to basic learning ability, private schools will also focus on cultivating children's more diversified abilities, such as leadership, social ability, etc. In terms of curriculum design, the courses of private schools are more colorful. In addition to the basic courses, there are more courses to cultivate children's interests and expertise in various aspects, such as music, reading, performance, etc. Some private schools also require students to master two musical instruments, be good at two sports, and so on.
4. Children's Circle of Friends
Relatively speaking, the types of students in public schools will be more mixed, because they are divided by school district, so there may be various families living in this district. The type of private school students is relatively single, because most of the children are selected to enter the school, and most of them come from wealthy families.
So as parents, in order to choose a good school for children, in addition to focusing on the quality of teaching in the school, what kind of classmates children are with every day is also the concern of parents.
Although the above statements always seem to favor how well private schools are. It doesn’t mean that public schools or private schools are necessarily better. After all, these are two completely different types of schools. Private schools are student and parents centered. All resource construction and ultimate goal are student and parents oriented. Students can get more attention and care. In public schools, when resources are relatively scarce, they can cultivate students' hard-working spirit, and train students' response-ability to seize resources. Children can also meet more peers from different backgrounds and promote their communication ability.
What should parents consider when they choose a school for their kids?
First of all, for the 'compulsory education provided by public schools, the education provided by private schools can be regarded as a 'commodity'. What level of education parents want their children to get in private schools depends on how much value parents are willing to pay for this 'commodity'.
Secondly, although the level of teaching quality in public schools is not uniform, good public schools are very worthy of learning. The quality of teaching is not necessarily worse than good private schools, and children in public schools can contact more diverse students. On the whole, the teaching quality of private schools may be better than that of public schools, but on the one hand, the price is relatively expensive. The annual tuition fee is a big expense for ordinary families. On the other hand, the class is relatively fixed, and children may not be able to reach groups of different levels and meet more people from different cultures
So parents should choose their children better based on their family situation and education concept. If the family economy is relatively good, it is natural to go to public or private schools. You can let your children go to high-quality public schools in a good school district, or you can let your children go to the private schools that you recognize. If you want to send your child to a private school, you can go as early as possible if you have the conditions, because the foundation of early education is very important for your child's future and life-long learning.
If the family's economic conditions are not particularly good for parents, in fact, there is no need to let children go to private or even turn themselves into 'Moonlight family' because there are also good public schools for you to choose from, and good public schools are not necessarily worse than private ones.
In fact, in America with high social welfare, as long as children are healthy, happy, and safe, it may be the greatest wish of parents.
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