Us Fataheads in Cougar Ridge have no choice but to bus kids to Wildwood, etc. The school boundaries mean that my kid can't won't be able to go to the new West Springs school that is 6 blocks away in Wentworth. They instead have to bus the kids past 3 other schools on the way to Wildwood. I would imagine most of us less fortunate schlubs in the burbs would rather not have the brutal bus ride to Wildwood.
You'd be doing fotze a favour by taking up a space in Wildwood.
How do you find out which schools are the best ones? Is there a public ranking or statistic of some sort? Curious to see how my schools are doing....I always thought they were pretty great, but then again maybe I was too stupid to know the difference.
I have an issue with breaking this down to simply an economic decision by using the term "fortunate". Implying that economics is the only reason that someone would choose any other method of raising your child. Like if you have two working parents it is because you choose money over your kids well being, etc, etc.
If it was simply an economic decision, you or anyone else could make many other choices and sacrifices for one person to stay home. The point is that many people do not make that choice, as it is not just an economic decision.
Wow, way to get your knickers in a twist about, basically, nothing.
Let me rephrase - I'm fortunate enough that we had the choice for my wife to stay home with the kids. Single parents often (mostly) do not have that choice, ergo they are not "fortunate" enough to be in a position to make it. Couples who need both parents to work to afford basic necessities similarly are not "fortunate" enough to be in that position. Some folks, while fortunate enough to be in that position choose to have both parents work full time.
I'm of the belief that education of MY children is not just the governments problem but it is also very much my and my wife's problem. It takes an investment in time to give our children the best chance to succeed. If you can still make that time for your children while both working full time, great. If though, you are like many dual income parents who are more concerned with the boat, the cabin and the new big screen TV and yet at the same time bitch and moan that little Johnny isn't doing so well in math or reading so it must be the school's fault well... I don't have much time for that.
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I went to the Waldorf school in Calgary from grades 4 to 6 back when it used to be in the area near Marda Loop. It was a great experience. I loved that school and remember a lot of positive things about my experience there. The arts enrichment was awesome. I went back into the public system for grades 7-12, though in a special program. Had I been on a standard track I think I would have gone crazy with boredom (such was my experience when I had regular classes). I'm certainly glad I went to the Waldorf school for those three years though.
Still, not every private school is worth it. The school I work in has yearly tuition as high as about $20,000+ per year, but I don't think the proportional increase in cost is necessarily matched by a proportional increase in quality.
__________________
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Wow, way to get your knickers in a twist about, basically, nothing.
Let me rephrase - I'm fortunate enough that we had the choice for my wife to stay home with the kids. Single parents often (mostly) do not have that choice, ergo they are not "fortunate" enough to be in a position to make it. Couples who need both parents to work to afford basic necessities similarly are not "fortunate" enough to be in that position. Some folks, while fortunate enough to be in that position choose to have both parents work full time.
I'm of the belief that education of MY children is not just the governments problem but it is also very much my and my wife's problem. It takes an investment in time to give our children the best chance to succeed. If you can still make that time for your children while both working full time, great. If though, you are like many dual income parents who are more concerned with the boat, the cabin and the new big screen TV and yet at the same time bitch and moan that little Johnny isn't doing so well in math or reading so it must be the school's fault well... I don't have much time for that.
I have no patience for helicopter parents like you. We have a different philosophy for our children. We have an arrangement with our bus driver to drop our children off in a random location outside the city every day and they must fight there way home each night using there own wits. Sure, there was one time that was a little worrying when my son was missing for 3 days, but he had made good use of that time, figuring out on his own how to snare, skin, and cook a rabbit. You just can't place a value on a life lesson like that.
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Wow, way to get your knickers in a twist about, basically, nothing.
Let me rephrase - I'm fortunate enough that we had the choice for my wife to stay home with the kids. Single parents often (mostly) do not have that choice, ergo they are not "fortunate" enough to be in a position to make it. Couples who need both parents to work to afford basic necessities similarly are not "fortunate" enough to be in that position. Some folks, while fortunate enough to be in that position choose to have both parents work full time.
I'm of the belief that education of MY children is not just the governments problem but it is also very much my and my wife's problem. It takes an investment in time to give our children the best chance to succeed. If you can still make that time for your children while both working full time, great. If though, you are like many dual income parents who are more concerned with the boat, the cabin and the new big screen TV and yet at the same time bitch and moan that little Johnny isn't doing so well in math or reading so it must be the school's fault well... I don't have much time for that.
Again, you just go back to the economic reasons for this decision.
I am saying there are many ways to raise a child, and many reasons for making this decision.
We won't agree otherwise, and this has gone way off the OP.
Last edited by Lanny's Stache; 04-05-2011 at 07:28 PM.
I know a guy who went to the Waldorf for elementary. All he learned there was how to make candles out of beeswax, and some German song about three-pointed hats.
I think people do it for the odds. Kid will have a 30% better chance. If I have a dumb kid, he will be much less dumb with better schooling.
In my personal experience I went to a private school for jr. high and every single kid from that class(30-35 kids) made it into post secondary(95% into university, the rest to MRU and such). Out of the same kids I would have been in jr. high with if I wasn't switched to a private school(about 100-125 people), about 25-35% of them moved onto post-secondary.
Granted the sample size is quite small, but I'd be willing to bank on those results would be similar to other people's experiences.
If you're sending your kid to private school, the chances are you're upper class and your kid will end up in post-secondary anyways, or you value education and you'll make sure your kid ends up in post-secondary. Either way, it's an entirely different parental mindset than the "set it and forget it" mentality of majority of parents who send their kids to the public/separate system, and your kid will probably be better off for it
Edit: to keep this post semi on topic, I heard Waldorf doesn't allow clocks in the classroom or something like that? When was I going to school their sports teams would always have the wierdest warm-up rituals. Bunch of kooks
My kids would be going to post-secondary school anyways, whether they went to public or private school. My wife and I decided to financially commit and send them to private school if we can afford to.
Kids went to Montessori from pre-K to kindergarten, public school for next 4 years as my wife went back to school to upgrade her education=more income, and sent them back to private school once wife graduated. We could have stuck with public schooling route, but considering quality of teachers and low ratio of student:teacher at private school, etc., private is worth the investment in my view. BTW, wife and I went through public school system and we did fine. Our parents instilled hard work ethic at early stages of our lives.
