Strategic School Choices

You have been thinking about private school for your child for some time now. Finally, you have decided to proceed. Naturally, you will have many questions about how to organize your school search process. Here are some answers to your questions about when to tackle the various steps in the school search process. I hope this will help you plan and execute the process efficiently and with a minimum of angst. If you want more detail on any aspect of the search process, start with How To Search For Schools.

When do you send your child to private school?

At what age to send your child to private school depends on several things. The first thing which you need to consider is the quality of the education available in your local public schools. No matter what grade you are thinking about, start with that consideration first. This step requires you to do some serious research and due diligence. Don't skip this research.

Begin with the school's reputation. You may have heard good things about a particular public school in your area. That's a start, but take time to look carefully at the school profiles on sites such as Great Schools. Videos posted on YouTube by private schools will give you a useful point of comparison.

Here is an overview of teaching Spanish at The Rectory School.

Then, the next

Since the year 1913, American citizens have voted to elect state senators, but that has not always been the case. Up until the mid-1850s, senators were appointed by the legislatures of the state they represented in a system that worked quite well. The idea behind this method of selection was that allowing state legislatures to elect their senators would strengthen their ties to the national government and allow them to conduct business without the distraction of pressure from the general population.

Upon the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, however, things changed. Senators are now elected by popular vote with each senator representing a single state, and each state is represented by two senators. Senators play an important role in the U.S. government by writing and voting on bills, and legislation that affects the people in their representative state.

Because U.S. senators have the power to approve or deny legislation that directly affects their constituents, it is important that each senator be a fair representation of the people and the politics of each state. Problems arise when there is a disconnect between politics and the people – when a senator votes based on his own agenda rather than the will of the people. Each senator’s educational background and upbringing bear significant weight in the decisions he makes for his state.

We recently conducted a survey of all U.S. senators to collect some information about their educational background. After collecting this information, we analyzed it and were able

In the nineteenth-century education for several of our presidents was strictly hit or miss for a variety of reasons. On the other hand, a couple of presidents enjoyed what you and I know in the 21st century as Ivy League educations. Fortunately for our young nation, most of these men were leaders who were able to guide our country through so uncharted waters and perilous times.

17 - Andrew Johnson

President from April 15, 1865 to March 4, 1869
Born: December 29, 1808, Raleigh, North Carolina
Died: July 31, 1875, Carter County, Tennessee, Tennessee
Political party: Democratic Party

North Carolina native Andrew Johnson succeeded Abraham Lincoln. He had no formal schooling as his family was very poor. His meager educational background notwithstanding, Johnson apparently was a skilled public speaker.

Book Scrolling has a list of books about our 17th president.

18 - Ulysses S. Grant

President from March 4, 1869 to March 4, 1877
Born: April 27, 1822, Point Pleasant, Ohio
Died: July 23, 1885, Wilton, New York
Political party: Republican Party

Ohio native Hiram Ulysses Grant appears to have had formal schooling from the age of five. He attended a subscription school, i.e., a school which his parents paid for him to attend, as well as two private schools, the Maysville Seminary, and John Rankin's Academy. He matriculated to West Point. Ron Chernow's book about President Grant was #1 on the New York Times

As you begin thinking about private schools, you will add schools from various sources to your initial list of potential schools. That’s fine. Accept all suggestions and advice in the early stages of your search for the right school or schools. Friends will suggest schools which their children attend. Family will mention schools that your uncle or aunt attended. And so on. Finally, you will explore on your own. Private School Review is a great place to start because the site is devoted to private K-12 schools. The following screenshot gives you an idea of the number of schools within a fifty-mile radius of East Longmeadow, Massachusetts. (I selected that area because I am familiar with it as I have family there. Also, it is not a major urban area.)

After exploring schools and including all the other suggestions you will receive, you will most likely end up with a list of 5-10 schools. Now, this is where the private school search process becomes tricky. Why is that? Simply because you have to whittle that long list of potential schools down to a more manageable list of 2-3 schools. Selecting a school is not like buying a watch on Amazon. It’s a lot like buying a house. And just as with buying a house, you have to really like the house. You also have to convince yourself that it meets all your

As I prepared to write this article about searching for private K-12 schools, I had a flashback to the fall of 1986 when we started looking at schools for our eldest daughter. There was no email or internet back then, at least that the general public had access to. We knew friends who had gone to private school. At one point I had interviewed to be the Music teacher at a New England boarding school. But that was it. That was all we knew about private high schools. Reaching further back into my memory bank, I remember enrolling our eldest daughter in the now-defunct St. Peter's by-the-sea Day School when it first opened in 1971. When we moved to Garden City, we enrolled her in the Waldorf School of Garden City. These two decisions were fairly easy because we knew the schools which came highly recommended by family and friends. No email or web searches were possible, nor were they needed.

Back to our 21st-century private school search. We have some very powerful tools available to us. Unfortunately, these tools can produce results that can be misleading, confusing, or, at worst, useless. Search engines require us to filter the data carefully to eliminate information that we don't need. Useful results depend on the manner in which you word the search terms. Happily, this is not the case with the Private School Review search engine. Our programmers have set up the fields you need to search our