An idea for a Private School?

[Makalakumu]

I think what Tez was saying, Mauna is that despite the clear positives inherent in the educational style you propose, employers nearly always use as a first 'hurdle' the requirement for certain standardised qualifications i.e. she was asking how your students would be able to overcome that hurdle to get to the point where they could show their superior quality and breadth of skills.

There are a lot of other ways to get the pieces of paper that society values. It's something that most people don't realize.

 

[zDom]

As soon as you are ready to begin hiring teachers, let me know.

My degree was almost in secondary education, English, with a coaching minor.

 

[Thesemindz]

Kids don't go to school to learn, they go for other reasons.

By and large, they go because they are forced to, and their parents see it as free daycare and most don't understand the origin of the system.

But I believe that kids would gladly go if they were presented with a product that interested them. I love to read, and would have gladly attended classes aimed at my interests. Instead, I went to classes I didn't care for, and read the whole time anyway.


-Rob

 

[Thesemindz]

I think though that only the wealthy can afford for their children to be educated in such a way? Working class children need to go out and earn a living so apart from the fact their parents won't be able to afford private education, the children will need to get standard school/college qualifications to enable them to get jobs.

But they could still get those qualifications during their education. What says Suzy and Jonny need to both learn the same skills at the same rate? Does it matter if Suzy learns reading at six and multiplication at eight, when Jonny learns multiplication at five and reading at seven? As long as they both end up with the basic skills, why is it important that they learn at the same rate in the same order? Our high schools and colleges already take an elective approach to education, why couldn't our elementary schools do the same with some guidance from advisors and instructors?

Besides, their would still be technical schools for students who wanted technical degrees. Like I said, I think they have an important place in the education field. My wife doesn't want to be a physicist. She wants to be a cosmetologist, so she is attending a trade school. That option should always be available to those who desire it, just as physics programs should be available to those who want to be physicists.


-Rob

 

[Tez3]

I went to a private school and had a great time, the opportunities we were given were fantastic. We weren't just plonked into a classroom and forced to learn, we were taught to think, reason and work things out for ourselves. Our horizons were widened immensely.
At the time I was at school in Scotland though the state schools there were a very close second to private schools.

 

[Thesemindz]

Sorry Mauna I think you have missed my point entirely. I'm not saying children educated this way couldn't get jobs, I'm positive they could and they'd be well educated at that. My point is that poor parents aren't going to be able to afford private education. A private school here charges about £2000 a term and we have four terms a year, the great pulbic schools like Eton, Harrow, Marlborough etc you are looking at £10,000 a term plus.
Children of poor parents are under pressure to get the standard school/college certification to get jobs. To go on to further education here as well as many jobs you need to have good grade GCEs.
My point was merely that you would be teaching a very good system only to an elite, those that can afford it, the poor, the people who would really need a good education are going to be left with the inferior educaton. It's not your students I was talking about having to get standard qualifications.

In a private system this isn't actually an issue. Private schools would arise naturally to fill every niche of prospective customer. We have McDonalds for people who want cheap food fast, and Chez Whitey's for people who want expensive food in a posh setting. Services and quality would vary from school to school, just as it does from restaurant to restaurant, but supply would meet demand.

Look at it this way, not everyone eats at Red Lobster. Not everyone eats at The Four Seasons. Not everyone eats at McDonald's. But everyone eats. Entrepreneurs have filled every market niche in food service, because there is a need. And they have established a menu of prices and services to fit every economic level.

The cost to the average consumer, to attend a good private school now, is less than $5000 per year. In the absence of the state, with valuable currency and no taxation, in a system where schools truly had to compete and parents weren't paying twice for their children's education, $5000 would be easily affordable.

And there would be schools which charged far less than that. All those students who are currently attending the “free” public school system would still need an education. Schools would rise up overnight rushing to fill the need of the consumers. This always happens. Remember when everyone got excited about low carb diets, and suddenly every restaurant was offering burgers wrapped in lettuce and every grocery store had lean chicken and low carb frozen entrees? When the market perceives a need, it fills it. In a variety of ways, at a variety of costs, it finds a way to get every consumer it can to buy every product they can. That's how the market works. It works in food service. It works in transportation. It works in communication. It works in education.

I posted a more complete analysis of this concept, including some of my above quotes, in a new thread in the study called, "Educating the Children."


-Rob

 

[Tez3]

But they could still get those qualifications during their education. What says Suzy and Jonny need to both learn the same skills at the same rate? Does it matter if Suzy learns reading at six and multiplication at eight, when Jonny learns multiplication at five and reading at seven? As long as they both end up with the basic skills, why is it important that they learn at the same rate in the same order? Our high schools and colleges already take an elective approach to education, why couldn't our elementary schools do the same with some guidance from advisors and instructors?

Besides, their would still be technical schools for students who wanted technical degrees. Like I said, I think they have an important place in the education field. My wife doesn't want to be a physicist. She wants to be a cosmetologist, so she is attending a trade school. That option should always be available to those who desire it, just as physics programs should be available to those who want to be physicists.


-Rob

I'm sorry you've lost me!
I wasn't saying people won't get qualifications at the school I was saying that only the rich can afford to have interesting education for their children.

 

[Thesemindz]

I'm sorry you've lost me!
I wasn't saying people won't get qualifications at the school I was saying that only the rich can afford to have interesting education for their children.

I understand, in your original post I thought you were saying that students in a less strictly structured system wouldn't get the necessary education, but then I saw your other post and realized you were speaking about the cost of such a system to the consumer, that's why I started the other thread.

No troubles bubbles.


-Rob

 

[Carol]

Here's one idea of a small private school in Canada that started with an idea, and then kept growing:

http://www.headwayschool.net/Who_Are_We_New.htm

 

[Nomad]

As soon as you are ready to begin hiring teachers, let me know.

My degree was almost in secondary education, English, with a coaching minor.

Count me in too. This sounds like a great idea; possibly difficult to pull off without compromising to too great a degree, but I like and support the idea. I'm a scientist who's been considering a rout into education for awhile, but thinks the regular school system would be far too confining.

I spent a very large part of my high school education bored out of my skull, even in a private school setting (curriculum was not much different from public school), and was rarely challenged until I arrived at University (which then turned out to be a big wake-up call).

 

[Makalakumu]

I spent a very large part of my high school education bored out of my skull, even in a private school setting (curriculum was not much different from public school), and was rarely challenged until I arrived at University (which then turned out to be a big wake-up call).

Your experience is very common. For me, its more evidence that points to the fact that one kind of school just cannot fit all.

 

[K-man]

The concept as proposed is really good to produce well prepared, caring individuals for society. In many ways it is similar to the Steiner philosophy.

We shouldn't ask: 'What does a person need to know or be able to do in order to fit into the existing social order?'
Instead we should ask: 'What lives in each human being and what can be developed in him or her?'
Only then will it be possible to direct the new qualities of each emerging generation into society. Society will then become, what young people, as whole human beings, make out of the existing social conditions. The new generation should not just be made to be what present society wants it to become".

Rudolf Steiner
​

​

http://www.steiner-australia.org/other/overview.html

This type of school doesn't suit everyone but for one of my daughters it was just perfect. The other thing this type of school produces is lasting friendships, based on the caring philosophy. :asian:

 

[Carol]

Your experience is very common. For me, its more evidence that points to the fact that one kind of school just cannot fit all.

If you need a music teacher, let me know.

Carol Kaur, B.Mus, Berklee College of Music - Boston, MA

 

[Thesemindz]

Well, I don't have a college degree, but I'm a martial arts instructor, writer, philosopher, and political essayist.

Can I have a job too?


-Rob

 

[Makalakumu]

The thing with private schools is that if someone has a useful skill to teach, they can be taught how to teach according to the schools expectations, and they are willing to work hard, I would have no problem hiring someone without the necessary paper. We get to hung up on this...to our detriment as a society! I want my students to understand that it doesn't matter what the paper says you can do. It matters what you do.

 

[Thesemindz]

Well I'd love to teach in Hawaii.


-Rob

 

[Tez3]

It seems that private schooling in America like the degree system ( which I admit I don't understand lol) is very different to ours, our private schools as I said will cost over $30,000 a year at least for your child to attend. the top is Eton which charges $100,000 a year for it's top fee paying students the Oppidians, Scholars are a bit less but still a hefty sum. We've had private schooling here for hundreds of years and the cost has never gone down. No one has set up schools here at a reasonable cost.
We have some Steiner schools here but they charge nearly $8000 a year for kindergarten classes four days a term. for children 6-16 it's $32,000 a year for three terms.
(American dollars at current exchange rate)

 

[K-man]

It seems that private schooling in America like the degree system ( which I admit I don't understand lol) is very different to ours, our private schools as I said will cost over $30,000 a year at least for your child to attend. the top is Eton which charges $100,000 a year for it's top fee paying students the Oppidians, Scholars are a bit less but still a hefty sum. We've had private schooling here for hundreds of years and the cost has never gone down. No one has set up schools here at a reasonable cost.
We have some Steiner schools here but they charge nearly $8000 a year for kindergarten classes four days a term. for children 6-16 it's $32,000 a year for three terms.
(American dollars at current exchange rate)

Sorry guys, you would do better in sunny Aus. Most expensive one here about $7,000 US pa down to about $2,500. Discounts for 2nd or 3rd child. One school even has 4th or more childen free.

 

[Makalakumu]

Sorry guys, you would do better in sunny Aus. Most expensive one here about $7,000 US pa down to about $2,500. Discounts for 2nd or 3rd child. One school even has 4th or more childen free.

Do the Aussies partially subsidize tuition for private school? I know the Kiwis do.

 

[K-man]

Do the Aussies partially subsidize tuition for private school? I know the Kiwis do.

Yes, the Australian Govt does provide funding to private schools, mainly for amenities. I don't believe this funding changes things a great deal in the comparative sense. Geelong Grammar, one of Australia's top schools is charging up to $29,000 ($20,500 US) for tuition alone, and it is primarily a boarding school. That is nearly 10 times the price of some Steiner schools which are more along the lines you are proposing. Obviously they provide a more varied environment but they don't have the monopoly on caring and individual nurturing.