Public vs Private (school)
 

Trying to decide for my 1st and 6th grade boys?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

The 6th grader is struggling right now... I think it's something to do with peers but I can't say for sure?

He won't tell me a Fn thing! I coach both of my boys in baseball & football I can't get what's up at the moment??

Sorry for the rant!

Personal opinion, peer pressure will be worse in a private school.

EVO

All depends on what parish you live in. I have one "older son" in a
small private catholic school....other son has special needs and goes to the public school in ascension parish.....i am lucky the schools in my area "prairievile" are good. If it were up to me, my oldest would go to public school to...not worth fighting with my wife....lol

Where do they go? I send my daughter to Cathedral Carmel. She is only in Kindergarden but it seems like a real good school. I see the middle school kids when i pick her up. They seem pretty innocent. My fiancé teaches 6th and 7th at St. Genevieve. Good school as well.

I went to a private school when I was younger, there were a bunch of rich kids who got kicked out of public schools. and I use to get wuppins after chapel for sleeping!

Personally private school helped me. I think it all depends on the kid or kids though.

The oldest just started Youngsville Middle and he's having a hard time!!
Earnest Gallet is a great place!

The 6th grader is getting his butt in some trouble me and mom ain't gonna put up with!

I was given a choice when I was his age St Stanislaus or pick it up.
I picked it up asap!!!

But my ole man kicked my a** when I messed up! Different times I have a hard time slapping the butt with my hand guess I'm an easy dad??
Don't want to repeat what my dad did at all!!! Maybe I'm to soft on him?

I'll pay for the therapy my SaltyCajun brohs have...
Thanks guys!

Let me give ya the run down for a person who's in high school right now... Private schools your kids will see their fair share of drugs come through that school. Deny it all you want, but its true. Public school your going to have every different type of "groups" of kids and your son/daughter will find one to hang out with. Even the by far straight up scary wierd people have a group of friends.

Just my opinion. And if he plays football he will Definately have a group of guys.

P.S.
Westminster wants a small fortune!

Thinking of St. Pius or Fatima.
I went to Fatima when all they had was a basketball team and no STM.
1st through 12 it was a small school back the.
St. Pius looks like the same. Except the high school part...

Yeh I went to private school all my life, Opelousas Catholic. There are bad eggs in every school. When I was thinking about doing something bad, first thing that came to mind was how bad off an azz whipping I was gonna get when my dad found out. Grant it, I did some foolish things in my day but I wasn't a terrible kid. I wouldn't hesitate to give my son a good azz whipping. Girls are a different story. All I have to do is raise my voice to my little girl and that's all it takes. I can't complain. She is very well behaved, and very honest. She tells me everything, always telling on herself. I just hope she stays like that!

Yeh I visited Fatima, St. Pius, and Cathedral Carmel. All great schools. Just personal preference.

My daughter is in a small private school even though we have good public schools in our area. The main reason wew choose private is because the small class sizes(more one on one interaction) and the curriculum is by far better. Public schools focus too much on standardize testing. They wind up teaching kids how to take a test more than they teach what's on the test. It all boils down to what suits your needs better in your particular area.

Fool,
I know all schools have some sort of drugs. I don't believe that's the problem ( I could be completely wrong).
And surprised!!!!
He is just Fn off in 2 classes the rest of his classes are great???
Last week he was doing great this week he's 200 pts down?

My problem is he refuses to talk to me now.?.?

Maybe this is why??? He told me he was involved in a fight last weekend @ the UL game I told my wife and he's been an A$$ since

Did u decide on one?

Another option to consider is schools that are not co ed. From personal experience boys kinda calm down if theres no girls around to "impress". The youngest one is way to young for that though and proably the sixth grader too. It might be something to consider for high school though, or it can be used as a threat if he likes going to school with girls. Im just rambling just try different things and see.

I have 3 in private school, well actually 2 one just graduated. I have no regrets over the decision. St Edmunds in Eunice. If I had a decent public school option maybe it would have been different, but I am happy I made this choice.

Thanks I know I did a better job at school when I was threatened with St Stanislaus not only the fact of NO girls but a shaved head! ( that wasn't Kool in the early 80's)

I went to a privare christian school k-12. I wouldn't change it. I graduated with a small class, but felt lile I got a great education...definitely helped develop my work ethic

Was that school in L/C??

Definetely private over public. While there may be problems at private schools as some have mentioned, it is worse at public schools. In addition, the private schools tend to be smaller so there is more interaction between teachers and students. After high school, if your sons decide to go to college, an education from a private school will serve them well. Before making a final decision, check the ratio of college grads from private schools versus public. And to the posters saying private school is full of "rich kids", yes there are some children from wealthy familys but the majority of the student body is from hard working families that have made the decision to make sacrifices to send their children to a school where they will get the best education possible.

Nope, suburb of dfw area. Colleyville, Texas.

Thanks for the input!! But if I have a choice where they attend college it will be UL !!!!!!!

We had our share of rich kids. The ones that caused trouble got expelled too. The bad kids will get slowly weeded out for doing stupid things and some good kids messing up too.

I am by no means rich!!!

Can I get a stimulus for this???? ):):$;);

Privatge school (Cathedral Carmel High School) served me well and so has USL (ULL). As indicated, I am a product of a private school education and I can tell you that dicipline was always maintained.

Good luck on your decision and your hunt. I will be tail gating tomorrow then watching the Cajun's win #6.

My son is in private school because I don't want a bunch of left wing school board idealogues directing my childs education, I also want him to be able to pray in school and the class size (so far) is small.
Oh and I am by no means wealthy, I could have a very nice boat for what it cost us to send him to school.

Went to Catholic School for 14 years...Worst 14 years of my short 19 year life.

I am going through a similar thought process right now myself. I have a 3rd grader and another that will be in kindergarten next year.

My hats off to those of you that have mentioned the sacrifice that you are making for your children.

My parents gave up alot to send me and my brother to private school. I am now at ul and ill proably be at the game tommorow too, but that is not the point. The point is now that i am slightly older (since around 9th grade when i got my first summer job and realized that money wasnt easy to earn) I do realize how much my parrents gave up to send two children through a private school education. It was a lot of money and i am very thankful for it. It also made me want to do beter and work harder in school since i knew what they gave up to put me in those schools. I think that so far my education background has helped me and it also makes me respect and be thankful to my parrents just a little bit more.

There are a bunch of people that went to Westminster on this site. I went there for a good while and ended up graduating from Opelousas Catholic. Good groups of kids at both schools but than you always have your "Armand's" and "Brauns" that are always trying to stray the good sheep from the flock ;)

I've attended both.. just saying public he will have more of an option of friends.. as far as the fight, boys will be boys. Give him a lil talk and lay it down flat with how it is. Now... They do have some fine women at private schools..

Public schools can't be that bad.. I mean I'm working on my full paid tuition to Lsu right now.
Good luck man!

Also, think about the small class thing.. they may come out with no social skills being they've been around 12 kids all their life. The private school in moss bluff sends the kids to a public high school once of age unless they continue the private school route, and 90% of them have zero social skills

All the schooling in the world won't change who your kids want to be. That's my opinion. My wife and I have wrestled with this. One thing we have had to consider, at least in our area, is how often a teacher has to recertify.

Yes. I send my daughter to Cathedral.

Make sure its a credited school if its private and that the teachers are real teachers, some private schools use just people off street kinda like subs that can't help and just do what some book tells them. They have some real good schools that are private and some public but your son may just be goin through that stage of finding him self and if like most of us at that stage just needs the crap beat out of him, I got that a few times from my dad and seemed to get me on a strait and narrow.

Last year we had my 3yr old in public school for prek3 and it was a nice school. Then he starts coming home talking different and it gets worse and worse. He says things like orange= ernge He would say I be's ok and so on. It drove me nuts as I wanted to know where he was picking it up at. I thought a friend in class or something. Boy was I wrong. We went to a school function and the "new" teachers helper walks up and I introduce myself and she yells to a friend that I be over here! I flipped. How do you hire someone that does not know the proper English language and then talk like that infront of 3 yr old children? They are a sponge at that age.
Now he is in a Catholic school and his attitude, manners, etc has changed. He loves it and his mother and I could not be happier.

We researched the public school ahead of time but they hires this wonderful helper after the year started.

Research and visit wherever you want to bring yor children.

usually depends on your area you live in. LC has good public schools up until around middle school. Great private schools too.

I'm a product of public schools. Had friends at private. Drugs are at every school regarless.

We sent my son to private at OLQH for pre-k and he's now in Prien Lake for K. He seems to be enjoying Prien better.

I will say that the "family" atmosphere at OLQH was much better, and any school that can teach religion is a plus in my book. And your kids are just around better class of kids. FWIW. Don't have a problem with either school. He will be going back to OLQH for middle school since the schools here are bad.

private, my kids go to SPES

Both of my kids (2nd grade boy and Kindergarten girl) are enrolled in private school. My wife is the PTC sec. and I do as much I can to help around school. . It a small school only about 250 students pre-k 3 to 8th and I bet my kids can tell you 70% of the students name and who there brother/sister is. They pray every morning before before class and go to church every Fri.

2 step sons are in public. My son will be starting St. Gen next year.

Going private is important to me. Mainly because of the discipline and the wholesomeness.

He told me he was involved in a fight last weekend @ the UL game I told my wife and he's been an A$$ since.
That could be part of the problem? He told you something in confidence and you told Mama. You have to make him understand that man and wife don't keep things from each other .more so when it involves a child. There's more to it than just trust issues. something has changed to make him not care about the 2 classes.

Man, I havent heard the "Stanislaus" threat in a long time :eek:

That kept my brother and I on the straight and level for sure... He went to Catholic school and I went to Public, each fit our different personalities...

My daughter is a senior @ Comeaux and loves it there, great grades and good friends so I can't complain... She has been in public schools since pre K and we have been very fortunate to not have had any negative issues...

Good luck !!!

Hydro

Man it seems this is a tough one.
I can tell you that I only have one left and he is in public school.
If your son is having some sort of identity issue, then changing schools will only make it worse in my opinion.
You may only get him to talk in a duck blind or a one on one deal.

This is a tough time for boys that age, some are maturing quickly physically and their brains are not capable of handling the attention their hormones are getting.

and the one that are not physically maturing and intimidated by those that are.

You HAVE TO MAKE HIM TALK or at least talk to him about becoming a young man and what it means.

just the fact that you are willing to seek advice here, shows you are a dad with the stones to care enough.

Family dynamics are tough but if it was easy we would likely pay at lot less welfare and have less crack heads.

Don't give up dude, hunting season is here.......get them boys out with some quality other young guys with strong dads and watch them grow......

My daughter went to private schools in Baton Rouge and graduated from St Joseph's (all girls). She did great in school. Once she got to LSU, those auditorium classes w/500 people intimidated her, no to mention the professors not caring if you pass or fail. Lost her TOPS, had to go to BR community college, then SLCC in lafayette to get her grades up. UL wouldn't accept her with her low average, hence SLCC, which was a welcome to reality moment for her. She's gonna graduate from ULL this semester and has maintained great grades since. I cost a boat load of money to send her to the private schools, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Ronnie

Saint,

I think it will depend on how good the public schools are in your area. Some are awesome and some not so good. Check out www.greatschools.com (or it may be greatschools.net, not sure) and you can look up the respective schools in your area and see how they have faired in national testing. The schools here in Deridder are actually pretty darn good and they are good in Kinder as well. I have been very satisfied with the teachers my kids have been involved with in the public schools. Just because a school is private doesn't make it a good school. Many private schools don't require any type of certification to teach. On the other hand, I think there are certainly a limited number of private schools that are a cut above strong public schools. These schools will invariably be very expensive.

I am a lawyer, my older brother is a physcian and my younger brother is a civil engineer and we are products of an average public school. Several of my friends went to private school and they thought their s****t didn't stink. Many of them were from wealthy families and they had no clue how to how to interact with blacks or rednecks when they graduated. Many of them had just about everything given to them growing up and they ended up being worthless as adults.

If your son in the sixth grade is having trouble where he is, maybe he is hanging with the wrong crowd. I would seriously consider a move for him, whether that be public or private, just to give him a change. Most times I think solid parenting can overcome a bad crowd, but there are times when a kid just gets wrapped up with the bad apples and there is nothing a parent can do except move him.

Best of luck.

Hey the inventor of yahoo! Went to public school..(my high school to be exact.) Look how great he turned out to be!

Everyone knows you can put anyone in a tin box and they can learn if motivated enough. I think all of the rules of engagement have of course changed since I went to school (I'm 57 now). Most public schools were decent then.
Once we had kids, we tried public schools for our kids in Lafayette and we were frequently sent "corrected" answers on spelling and math quizzes that were totally wrong. This happened on time too many and we went the private school route and have not regretted one penny spent. In private school there are a bunch of motivated, involved patents that have a vested interest in making their kids have the best education possible. That lends itself to a bunch of motivated kids that want to do well for themselves also. Peer group pressure is such an influence upon kids and I feel if your kids can be afforded the opportunity to be alongside a majority of parents and kids that are motivated to succeed then your much more ahead of the game.

just saying..
 

yeah, im just saying that not all kids who go to private school are rich. i went to a private high school and my family has always struggled with money. i remember having a rich kid sterotype on me and i worked after school doing concrete work just so i could stay there. private schools are great and so are public, i think public prepares you more for the real world though.

Does anyone have children that go to St Pius in Lafayette? My wife teaches 7th and 8th grade there

Kids with involved parents will do well no matter where they go. I see kids all the time that switch fro public to private and vice versa. Most of the time, they have the same problems they had before. On the other hand, i feel that a kid will be more successful in a place that they feel most comfortable. Good luck with your decision.

Man this thread is really stressing me out! my oldest is 3 and i am not ready for all these big decisions.