Hype Versus Reality in Independent Schools
Private schools operate from a totally different financial base than public schools. Numerous of the laws of marketing and retailing use because personal schools prosper or stop working based on the number of households who are paying tuition. That is why you may even see commercials on television for an independent school which you would never see for their counterparts in the general public school arena.
So the independent school approach to education and the worth they hope you will see in them consists not just in how they provide a better experience than the general public school system however how they transcend to every other private school in the neighborhood. If you are looking carefully at specific private schools, you may suspect that some of the big promises and grand “vision” that they present to make their school appearance excellent to you may be as much buzz as it is truth.
Hype is that type of salesmanship that attract the grand and the noble in all of us. So if a private school presentation builds on your love for your kids, on how children are the future of our society and on the poetic charm and splendor of all that is youth, someplace in there is some amount of buzz.
We need to include a step of common sense and down to earth thinking to all the hype before we choose to really put our own kids into an independent school as an alternative to having them in public school. A question needs to be asked and addressed before we sign documents to enlist in the school and that concern is, “Can the school measure up to all those grand guarantees and to all that buzz?’
To get to the bottom of how to evaluate an independent school, you need to utilize the exact same approach you did when assessing public schools in your area. You need to assess the school based on it’s efficiency. And efficiency is measured in longevity, quality of existing trainees and quality of finished students, e.g. alumni. If you decide yes or no about whether a particular school is all that they say they are simply based on their commercials, their well prepped discussion when you go for an interview and the trip of the grounds, you are not getting to the heart of what makes a school great.
Purchase one of these moms and dads lunch and discover out what really goes on at that school. Moms and dads who are paying the tuition to have their kids in the school are often rather candid about whether the school lives up to its buzz.
Schools that take children from Kindergarten to High School graduation are obviously doing something. Schools who see a lot of departures after a year or two have some kind of problem that is driving people away, whether they admit it or not. This is one in Pennsylvania that is wonderful:
Provide yourself time to dig deep into the existing population of the school and to talk with alumni households too. By being thorough, you can discover if the school is able to perform in keeping with the promises they make and whether the school is a valid alternative to public school. Which is the type of real life info you require prior to putting your child because school to further her academic career.
By being thorough, you can discover out if the school is able to perform in keeping with the promises they make and whether the school is a legitimate alternative to public school.