Why Private School

A comprehensive look at private schools and why they might be right for your child. Explore the history of private school education, weigh the pros and cons of public vs. private school, and get valuable advice on making the best choice for your child. Learn more about the various types of private schools from military to progressive and review directories from a variety of resources including private school associations and offline publications.
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Books for Educators and Parents
These titles have been recommended by other educators. Add these to your vacation reading. Enjoy.
These titles are books which private school teachers and administrators have shared with each other on various lists and groups. One or two are quick reads. Most are pretty meaty. They all deserve a place in your collection. Parents need to read many of these books in order to understand what really goes on in the classroom.

Adios, Barbie: Young Women Write About Body Image and Identity (Live Girls)
By Ophira Edut (Editor), Rebecca Walker ISBN: 1580050166 "In more than 20 candid and humorous essays, a diverse group of women explore how they have chosen to ignore, subvert, or redefine the standard of beauty. These women break down modern culture's feminine ideal and reinvent it for themselves."

After Long Silence
By Helen Fremont. ISBN: 0385333706 "In her mid-30s Helen Fremont discovered that, although she had been raised in the Midwest as a Catholic, she was, in fact, the daughter of Polish Jews whose families had been exterminated in the Holocaust."

The Age of American Unreason
By Susan Jacoby ISBN: 9780375423741 "A scathing, witty indictment of American modern-day culture examines the current disdain for logic and evidence fostered by the mass media, religious fundamentalism, poor public education, a lack of fair-minded intellectuals, and a lazy, credulous public, condemning our addiction to infotainment, from TV to the Web, and assessing its repercussions for the country as a whole."

A Separate Peace
by John Knowles ISBN: 0743253973 
"At a New England boarding school during World War II, a group of boys discovers the depths of human

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Semester Schools
A semester school allows you to experience new surroundings, new environments, different ways of life and much more.
How about living on a working farm for a semester? Or investigating marine life  in The Bahamas? Perhaps you grew up on a farm and are hankering to explore a major city like New York? A semester school offers those experiences and more.
 
Semester schools offer enrichment to your high school experience. The semester school, like its big cousin, the year abroad, offers you a chance to experience different worlds, different environments and different cultures or gives you time to do some substantive research.  And you can, in most cases, enjoy this incredible experience without leaving the country. The Island School located in Eleuthera, Bahamas and Swiss Semester located in Switzerland are the two exceptions on the list of programs below.
 
The cost? From no cost to several thousands of dollars not including extras. Is there financial aid? Yes. Ask the individual program providers for complete details.
 
When do you go? Typically students like to spend part of their junior year away from their home school. It's practical and doesn't interfere much with the academic sequence, testing, college applications and all the other features of your senior year.
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Progressive Schools
Progressive schools have been around since the early 1900's. Some educators think that progressives are rebels against traditional rote learning. The progressive educators like to think of themselves as reformers. The truth is somewhere in the middle.
Progressive schools have been around since the early 1900's. Some educators think that progressives are rebels against traditional rote learning. The progressive educators like to think of themselves as reformers. The truth is somewhere in between the two points of view.
 
The movement has an interesting history. Read about John Dewey (1859-1952), the modern founder of the movement in the U.S. You can only wonder what might have happened to public education had some of his ideas taken root. As it is, progressive educators and schools which employ their philosophies are pretty much confined to the private sector. A list of private schools which embrace the progressive ideals, teachings and curricula is given below.
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Roman Catholic Boarding Schools
These Roman Catholic boarding schools offer good value, great educations and a faith-based community experience.

Educating the young has been a mission of the Roman Catholic Church for as long as anybody can remember. While curricula and teaching methods have changed dramatically over the years, one thing is immutable: these schools do a great job educating their students as evidenced by the very high percentage of their graduates who go on to colleges and universities all over the country, indeed, around the world.  With many other boarding schools charging $55,000-65,000 for their services, these boarding schools offer good value as such things go. A couple of schools are single sex schools. The rest are co-educational institutions.
 
Roman Catholic orders such as the Jesuits or Salesians which specialize in teaching run many of these schools. The standards are high. Most schools have uniform or dress codes. Core values are also taught together with plenty of instruction in the Catholic faith. These Catholic schools produce graduates whose solid spiritual and academic foundations anchor them for advancement in later life.
 
Check out the profiles of these schools. Many of them also take day students, so if you live in the area, you can have the best of both worlds.

Canterbury School, New Milford, CT
Grades 9-12
350 students
Coed

"The Canterbury experience is a rich one for both boarding and day students, and the community is made more diverse by students from around the globe. Through an active community service program our students and faculty are constantly involved in serving others outside the Canterbury community." 

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5 Things Not To Like About Private School
What are the five things critics like the least about private schools? Start with the fact that everybody who goes to private school is rich. Or are they?
When critics inveigh against private schools, they tend to pick on issues such as the following.
 
Everybody's Rich
 
 Actually if you look at the beginnings of most private schools, you will discover that their original clientele were not children from wealthy families. Many of the founders of schools back in colonial times - the Phillips family, for example - saw education as the way forward for the infant democracy which was the United States. In order for the nation to survive it needed a literate, educated, proficient population. European crusaders like Dr. Maria Montessori and Rudolf Steiner - the founder of the Waldorf Schools movement - began their work among the poor and working classes. Their teachings captured the imagination of American middle and upper classes when their movements spread to the United States.
 
Over time as the schools expanded, they became highly prized for what they accomplished so very well, namely providing an excellent academic education, combined with sports and solid core values. Market forces conspired to drive the cost of education up. Social forces conspired to make private schools the place where the elite sent their children. In the 21st century egalitarian ideas once more have the upper hand. Private schools seek out and encourage applicants from every social and economic strata. Diversity rules. Not everybody who attends private school is rich.
 
Compulsory Sports
 
What's not to like about sports? Schooling throughout the centuries has always had a physical education component. Think Olympics. The ancient Romans had their ludi or games. You
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Why Private School

About Private Schools

An in depth look at private schools, including history, a comparison to public education, and a glimpse of what's being taught. Learn about the benefits of attending private school, to both students and parents. Explore private schools options when living abroad, and debunk many of the myths regarding private school education.

Kinds of Schools

Private schools are just as varied as public schools. From Catholic to progressive, military to special needs, private schools offer a lot of options. Take a comprehensive look into the many types of private schools, weigh the pros and cons of each, and get helpful tips on choosing one that works best for your child.

School Life

Get a glimpse of private school life. Here you'll find a survival guide for parents, brush up on terms and jargon, and learn why extracurricular activities are so important.

Directories

We offer several directories to aid in your choice of a private school. Included are quick links to national, regional and state associations, a list of offline resources to aid in our decision, and local school directories for several metropolitan areas.

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