Interviewing Schools
You are an adult. And when adults make big decisions in life, they have good reasons. And deciding whether to send your child to a private school and which private school to pick is a big decision. So the logical and organized way to go about finding out whether the move is a good one and what private school to pick, the adult thing to do is make a list of things you require of a private school and turn that list into your "interview questions" that you will use when you go from school to school looking for the perfect place for your child.
One way to get your list of questions developed is to list what is making you turn away from public school. After all, public school is, at least in theory, free so to turn from a free educational resource to one you have to pay for, you need good reasons. Some of the most common reasons people consider private over public schools include...
§ Quality of education. § College preparation. § Accommodation for children with special needs. § Accommodation for children with exceptional talents. § School violence or drugs. § Public school overemphasis on moral and ethical teaching. § Public school sex education programs. § School security to prevent mass shootings like happened at Columbine.
There are other reasons to consider private school in addition to our short list. The problem is that public school does not have the leverage nor are they interested in making any changes if you do have issues with the school. Parents and students are expected to pretty much just put up with the way it is. And that drives lots of parents to look elsewhere for educational options.
The next level of focus after the areas of improvement you want from public school pertain to any specific needs you need for your child or your family that would narrow down your search for a good private school. If one of the big goals is to find a private school where your child can continue to grow in your faith, then you will only look at schools that focus on that niche.
You may have a child who is developmentally or physically challenged. There are some outstanding schools that can help with that need far better than public school. Or you may have a child who is exceptional in some particular area such as the performing arts, academics or science. Magnet schools or schools designed to give your child the additional help to move ahead more quickly in their field of specialization are an outstanding choice for you.
In all cases, you will want to interview the school as to how the school day takes place, what makes the lifestyle your child will experience at their school superior to public school and how they handle basics like nutrition, medical needs and security. These interview questions go beyond just asking the administration questions and will call for you to take a tour and interview different support departments in the school.
Finally, don't overlook letting your child add some questions to the check list. After all, this school will be your child's home away from home. She may want to know how often the school has dances or field trips to break up the classroom setting. She may need to understand lunch hour or how the library works. Include in your interview a complete tour of the school which might include sitting in on some classes that your child would become a part of to watch the teachers in action.
You can tell a lot about the level of affection between teachers and students watching them teach and then observing them in the halls as they interact with the kids. And if the teachers like the kids, you know they are happy teaching there and they are doing a good job. Moreover, a warm relationship between the staff and the student body reflects that the administration of the school has designed everything from the school layout to the curriculum to how discipline is handled to work with the students and to work for their ultimate good rather than treating them like enemies as happens too often in public school. So use all of your senses when evaluating a new school so you come home with a good idea if this is the perfect next step in your child's academic career.
PPPPP
Word Count 744
|
A Place for Your Gifted Child When you recognize that your child is gifted in some particular area of talent ... read more
A Place Where You Cannot Protect Your Child There are a lot of reasons that parents consider pulling their kids ... read more
Becoming a Snob When you talk to a lot of parents, its amazing how many consider the public school system ... read more
Big Schools Big Programs Comparing the good things that can be offered between school programs can get difficult. Picking a ... read more
Changing Schools from Your Child's Perspective There is one thing that is a bit strange about the process we, go ... read more
God and School It has not always been a problem to have a religious faith and still attend public school. ... read more
Greatness and Public School Depending on the size of your community the number of kids who might be in public ... read more
Hype Versus Reality in Private Schools Private schools function from an entirely different economic base than public schools. Because private ... read more
Interviewing Schools You are an adult. And when adults make big decisions in life, they have good reasons. And deciding ... read more
Money and Education We like to think of public education of our children as a pure science that is populated ... read more
On Not Letting School Administrators Push You Around If you have found yourself outraged, frustrated and feeling a little paranoid ... read more
Protecting Your Child's Love of Learning Sometimes for parents who see their children come home from public school angry and ... read more
Public School and Society In our social system, we often just take for granted that the way our educational system ... read more
Reading, Writing and Arithmetic There seem to be a lot of reasons for sending your child to public school depending ... read more
Special Schools for Special Kids If you are a parent of a special needs child, you know something that the ... read more
Taking Control of Moral Education People remove their children from public school and move to private schools for a lot ... read more
Teaching Subjects or Teaching Students Teaching school is as much a calling as it is a job. And in fact ... read more
The Dilemma of Finding a Good Christian School Christian people often feel a bit isolated in society. And for a ... read more
The Government Wants Private Schools to go Away When you are trying to make an objective decision about whether to ... read more
The Legalized Abduction of Children It's almost inconceivable but it happens to every single family in the country every day. ... read more
The Rights of Parents Sometimes it seems that once you drop your children off at the door of the school ... read more
They Want to Drug Your Child! Anyone who has an interest in what is going on in the world of ... read more
When Fear is a Part of Life at School You can probably think back on some of your favorite classes ... read more
When Schools Turn into Spys What do you pay the school to do for your child? You pay the school ... read more
Who Holds the Schools Accountable? Perhaps the biggest difference between public and private school is the system of accountability. Children ... read more
Why Private School for Your Child? There are notable differences in what private schools offer from the public school environment. ... read more
|
|
|
Disclaimer:
The Publisher has strived to be as accurate and complete as possible in
the creation of this website, notwithstanding the fact that he does not
warrant or represent at any time that the contents within are accurate
due to the rapidly changing nature of the Internet.
This site
is a common sense guide to Interviewing Schools. In practical advice websites,
like anything else in life, there are no guarantees of income made.
Readers are cautioned to reply on their own judgment about their
individual circumstances to act accordingly.
This site
is not intended for use as a source of legal, business, accounting or
financial advice. All readers are advised to seek services of competent
professionals in legal, business, accounting, and finance field.
Any
perceived slights of specific people or organizations are unintentional.
|