Hawaii Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Poll for local Nesties
1. Did you attend a public or private school (elementary, middle/intermediate, high)?
2. If/when you have children, will you send them to public or private school?
Re: Poll for local Nesties
1. Attended public elementary school until 6th grade (though my parents sent me to a private kindergarten) and then private school from 7th-12th grade (same as lola808)
2. Want to send my kids to private school, but with the tuition rates so high, who knows if we'll ever be able to afford it... ridiculous!
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1. I attended public school from K-12.
2. I am a public school teacher, so I'm pretty sure that Jaylee will be going to a public school. Tuition for private schools are OUT OF CONTROL and we're not able to make those payments on our salary..
1. Both MH and I are the products of public school (K-12). In fact, we first met at school in 7th grade history class.
I'm sure I don't know half of what I was "missing" by not attending a private school, but I think we turned out just fine.
2. I'm not sure if it's fair for me and MH to compare our public school education with its current state. We graduated from high school in 1998. But, we have discussed this in the past and are leaning toward sending our children to public school, as well. Aside from the tuition (we are possibly looking at 3 kids...yikes!), the politics of even getting your child accepted into some schools sound pretty intense.
1. I went to private pre-school and K in Hawaii, then private school in the mainland until 10th grade. Then back to Hawaii for public school.
2. I would really prefer to send my kids to private school from 7th grade on, especially after being able to compare my mainland education with my public HS education in Hawaii. I thought public school was ridiculously easy.
To the private schoolers...Do you feel you had more/better opportunities available to you because you attended private school? I'm just wondering because I was surprised at how many private school classmates I had at UH and how many of them I work with now. I'm just curious.
It seems like we all kind of ended up in the same place, regardless of whether we went to public or private school.
Again, I never attended private school, but I tend to think that "success" is a combination of school environment, i.e., what type of school you go to, home environment, i.e., how involved the parents are, and innate ambition and self-motivation.
I'll answer my own poll.
1. I went to public school K-12.
2. This is the current debate. My H went to private school so he's very pro private school.
Nicole, that's an interesting observation. I was a student employee at UH and a few of my coworkers went to private school and they enrolled at mainland universities, but for one reason or another ended up transferring to UH before they completed their first year of college. I was amazed that one of my coworkers was considered a junior in his first year at UH because of all of his AP credits from high school.
1. i attended public school for elementary and private for 6-12.
2. i am a private school teacher, so prob. public elementary, then hopefully free private for middle/high school!
1. I went to the same private school for K-12. (DH also went to the same school for grades 3-12)
2. I am open to sending our kids to public elementary, but I feel strongly about trying to go the private school route for 7-12. It IS crazy expensive, but we pinch our pennies elsewhere, and I think it's a worthwhile investment.
We also feel somewhat obligated to try to provide for our kids what our parents provided for us. Both DH's and my parents were very middle-class, without college educations, and they toiled and sacrificed so much to provide us those extra educational opportunities. If they could do it with much less than we have, I think we should try our best to do it for out kids, too.
I think you can be successful nearly anywhere, but some schools afford luxuries that make the journey a bit easier, if you are willing to take advantage of them. I really wish we lived in a state with a stellar public education system, but since we don't, I'm starting to save $$$ right now!
Aside from a more rigorous curriculum, I think my private school advantages came primarily in helping me get into "good" universities and, subsequently, "good" graduate schools. To be honest, the vast majority of those from Hawaii at my mainland university were from private schools, and I don't think that was entirely due to finances, since I was attending on 100% need-based financial aid. Private schools often rigorously prep their kids for the SATs and provide more college-prep and AP opportunities (as well as college counseling services), so that might help explain some of the advantages as these students head off to college.
My niece recently graduated near the top of her class at a public school and (1) couldn't meet UH's minimum SAT scores, despite taking a test prep course and taking the exam twice, (2) didn't have all the required coursework for many mainland colleges (even state schools), even though she took a "college prep" curriculum, and (3) passed only one of the three AP exams she took. She worked so hard and it just made me sad to think how much easier her transition to college might have been if she had had the same type of opportunities that I did.
Like you said, though, I think she will still be successful and can absolutely end up just as well off as many of her private school counterparts. At the end of the day, it's not just about your book knowledge, SAT scores or educational credentials -- it's about willing to work hard and make the most of what you've got. And we can all strive for that!
1. I went to one private school K - 8 and then a different private school for HS (actually, I recently found out, the same one as Lori & Lola808!!). Both were in Hawaii.
2. Although I grew up in HI we likely won't be raising our kids there (unfortunately, I wish we could!). But the general feeling I remember when I was growing up it felt like a lot of kids went to public elementary school and then switched to private around 7th grade. I entirely agree with Lola808 that a big thing for me in going to private school was the edge it gave me when it came to college--I honestly don't think I would ever have gotten into the college I went to (an Ivy) if I had gone to public school in Hawaii, nor would I have been as well-prepared for it. I think another thing that makes a difference, and I hate to say it, is the private school you do choose. For example, I also don't think I would have gotten into the college I did and wouldn't have been as well-prepared if I had stayed at the private school I was at for K-8. I think the 'bigger name' private schools in Hawaii really have those connections with mainland colleges that make a huge difference when the college app process is SO competitive. That said, sure there were people from my HS class that went to UH, including one of my best friends, but it was interesting to me that she actually felt very unmotivated at UH, since she felt it was not as challenging as our HS had been, and she dropped out for a period of time (she eventually went back and finished). If we were to raise our kids in HI I would definitely want to send them to private school for HS at least. Also, interestingly, HI private schools tend to be much cheaper, (and much more common), than on the mainland. DH went to a very prestigious private HS in the Northeast which cost more than twice as much as mine, but I feel like we had very comparable educations, so I figure mine was quite a bargain compared to his.
Really couldn't have said it any better.
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