Hi Carl, On 7/02/2014 7:05 AM, Carl Turney wrote:
(Background: I've got > 17 years experience in teaching/training in the military sector, private sector, TAFE sector, and university sector. I've taught/trained in 3 different countries. And I've got a Graduate Diploma in education, a Cert IV in vocational training, and a Master's in public policy where my research was on efficiency in the public sector.)
During my teaching studies, I distinctly remember hearing of studies that were very large, very well controlled, and very thorough about co-factoring the issues raised in this thread (and more).
These studies pointed to many things, including the fact that private schools are no more effective at teaching students than public ones, ceteris paribus (all other things being equal).
Parents who want their children to be smarter, score better on tests, be more successful in adult life, make the "right" sort of social connections, =and= others, would best spend their money =this= way...
(a) Chuck the little darlings into public schools, plus (b) Personally enrol them in extra-curricular activities (music, rocketry, dressage, hang gliding, holidays in the grand-parents' old home countries, repertory theatre, amateur radio, or whatever else they like.)
Of course, many of the members of this list will have already made their minds up on this issue, so I've just wasted my time writing this.
Your entire email is gold, thank very much for contributing, I couldn't agree more on almost every point and your experience is a great asset and quite impressive. Russell, my old high school (public), was a /music/ school, they had a great hall for this. Everyone learnt basics in music and everyone had an opportunity to take it further IF they had the money for their own instruments and the inclination -- even those that didn't have the money (or their own instruments), they still had violins provided for those classes. The only thing we had to buy, music wise, was a recorder, but those are very cheap. These days, parents are expected to pay excessive /voluntary/ fees or the kids miss out on the basics. Cheers A.