One (of the many) reasons you will be going to public school

Dear James, Daniel and Emily

This article highlights many of the personal arguments I have over the issue of your education. To be honest, economically we didn't have much choice, we cannot now, and probably will not ever be able to afford Private School. But this article really speaks to me as far as the many issues that spring to mind.

The biggest issue here is to explain that I personally attended private school for 9 of the 13 years (K-12) of my primary education. And as a result I got an excellent education, and access to some really amazing learning opportunities. And all of that was great. So yes, I am personally a little biased to think very positively about Private schools, and to be honest, if we won the lottery you would be attending my alma mater in a heart beat.

But, that isn't the case, we are not winning the lottery. So we have to make do like everyone else. Now is where the genuine philosophical issues begin. I am a strong believer in the Neighborhood. And I want you to get the same feeling I had from attending school with the neighbor kids, having the opportunity to walk home with your friends etc. And I also want you to have an amazing education. You are genuinely fortunate that we lucked into having such an excellent neighborhood school. But I think a big part of that is the parents, for a public school to be great the parents have to step up and play an active role, both in their own child's education but also as volunteers when necessary. Which is one of the reason's it's termed a public school, it is really oneof the main reasons our republic has held so strong, because the public schools have maintained themselves as melting pots and symbols of Democracy.

Unfortunately 2 trends threaten that, especially in our community: The anti-tax crowd and the people who view their children's education as a status symbol. I really dislike the anti-tax crusaders whose stance and policies have made it almost impossible to keep the public school system running. These people seem to feel that they should not pay for the upkeep of their community, and as a result services fail. This is a failure of the Social contract in my opinion, I feel it is our duty to pay a certain amount of taxes in order to maintain a certain level of services in areas that the private sector simply cannot provide effectively for everyone. And the anti-tax folk like Doug Bruce simply refuse to accept that duty.

The other more insidious threat is kind of an extension of the cliche of the Dad who pushes his son to excel in sports, like he never did, so he can live vicariously through him. This article has a great point in it where the interviewee talks about interviewing people about their greatest educational moment and these 'soccer mom' types all talk about Graduate school, and act like that is what they want for their Kindergarten kids. The threat comes from people who want to make a child's education a status symbol just like clothes or what car you drive or how many toys you have. And it is not only crazy, but it really threatens the kids. Instead of asking 'what can I do to improve my child's education' people are saying that that improvement can come from throwing money at some private school. What makes this so ludicrous is that if the people who are throwing all of this money at Private schools instead took that money and invested in ways to improve their public schools, voila, they would get the same effect, and help other people who can't afford to make that choice.

So, you will not be attending private school. Primarily because we can't afford it. But also because killing ourselves to send you there just so we can apply that Private School label to you isn't justifiable. And there is a certain moral imperative to sending you to public school, keeping you a part of the community..