Activity: Visit and observe in one or more of your local competitor private schools.

Description: Chattanooga is saturated with many private schools. I visited three of the
private schools to see how they compared with our public schools. Surprisingly, some of
the schools were not that drastically different from the public schools.
hat went well!
"he one advantage that all three of the private schools had was that they all had much
stronger arts programs. In our public schools the arts programs are the first programs to
go which is an utter shame# "he other advantage of all three is that they all had
e$tremely small class si%es and they all had great e$tra curricular activities such as
gardening.
&rivate School '( ) "hey used Singapore *ath ) this *ath approach re+uires higher
order math thin,ing and more hands on s,ills, they had a wood-wor,ing class, they used
the .ucy Cal,ins writing program
&rivate School '/ ) "hey used 0euro0et ) great for active ,ids, had a *ontessori feel to
it 1not a full-fledged *ontessori program2, traditional report cards aren3t used,
parent4teacher conferences are held every 5 wee,s where are written report is given to the
parents 1much li,e an I6&2, nondenominational chapel held daily that is student4teacher
led. Very student centered and developmental.
&rivate School '7 ) 0euro0et is used, 8uided 9eading, riter3s or,shop, Chapel
hat did not!
"uition at all three schools is rather high. "hey do not have to abide by the state
standards. "eachers do not have to be certified. :our child can be as,ed to leave. At
school '( they e$pected students to be very much ;inside the bo$< 1e.g., we observed
because we were loo,ing for my son =ohn to go to school there. =ohn was as,ed to draw
a boy as part of the admissions process. =ohn did not want to draw a boy, he wanted to
draw a girl. >e drew the head and li,e any other 5 year old that was told he could not
draw girl because the directions said he had to draw a boy he scribbled in the rest. hen
I was called to go over the assessment results I was told he only got ( out of the 7 points
because he only drew ( body part. As a former ,indergarten teacher I was shoc,ed
because in my mind he could have drawn a girl and they could have assessed if he could
have drawn 7 body parts ?ust as easy as if he could have drawn a boy2.
If a parent as,ed you if that school would be a better school for their child than your
school, how would you answer honestly and ob?ectively!
I would say that you have to loo, at your child and thin, about your child3s needs. Some
children truly benefit from a small class si%e and they also benefit from a creative
environment. Some children wor, well in the traditional setting li,e private school '(. I
would be honest and tell them that my child would not have been successful there
because he thin,s outside of the bo$ too much and his creativity would not have been
supported there. It is a great school that has been there for (@@ years, but it ?ust wouldn3t
mesh with his personality. I would also tell the parent that private schools oftentimes
move at a faster pace and they don3t necessarily have to slow down and provide
accommodations for children because it is a choice to be there. If a child is already
stressed about school and an$iety is an issue then a private school may ma,e the child
more an$ious. I would encourage the parent to ma,e informed decisions and to visit the
campus while school was in session so that he or she could see the teachers and students
in action.