In the 80's I sent my kids to a public school. I was living on the widow's pension. I had no choice.

They took spelling out of the curriculum. They took out grammar. They took out tables. My protestations fell on deaf ears. My precious, smart little kids grew up feeling ignorant and stupid.

In the noughties, my circumstances have changed. I now have a choice. I can shop around for the education most suitable for my individual children.

I have a disabled daughter who attends the most wonderful special school in the public system.

I have another child who attends a small, single-stream private school where every staff member knows the name of every child in the school community: from 3-year-old Pre-school to Year 10.

This child had attended both a private and a public school previously, and was miserably bullied at both, but particularly the latter.

Her new school is far more dilapidated than the public schools in our area, with far less resources across the board. We don't have any of the facilities mentioned in the article.

What matters to me is her personal happiness, and placing her in an atmosphere that is smaller and more intimate and safe like a family.

Every child is unique, and choice is important.

When the Catholics closed down their schools and dumped their students into the public system, it was massively unprepared to deal with the crisis.

Parents who bear a large part of the cost of educating their children should not be ostracised, but encouraged.

Similarly, those who cannot afford to choose should receive the benefit of a quality education for their children.

As has been pointed out, this is not necessarily achieved by throwing money at a school. However, one school, whether public or private, should not have to suffer leaky roofs while others are purchasing their 40th Apple Mac.

What I resent in this article is the divisive wedge tactics employed by the author, which only serve to polarise the community not to unite. Her "break out the guillotine" attitude is not at all helpful.

I can understand the guilt. When my children started in the public school we believed that the school would provide for their needs. Our children were very highly intellectually gifted and extremely advanced and we believed the school when they said that every child worked to his or her own ability. What they didn't say that it was within the constraints of the worksheets, grade and classroom.

The children suffered a lot not wanting to attend school, having migraines, stomachaches, and anxiety related issues that impacted on their health. The school didn’t want to know about it they blamed resources and funding. By Year 3 our daughter suffered a severe depression and we made some public complaints about the neglect of the education of gifted children and the treatment of our children. Since that date our children have been targeted, bullied and victimized as the public system tries to discredit them and me so as to justify not addressing our complaints and so as to present the children as not as smart as I say that they are and me as a pushy mother.

For over 7 years our 4 children have been marked down, put down, humiliated and our complaints covered up and ignored. Our children have been denied access into the schools that they desperately needed to meet their identified intellectual needs by actions of bias and gross misconduct by the Selective Schools Unit. All this was payback for having dared to speak out against the public school system.

When you speak out against the Public School system be prepared to hang on to your hat.

Education - Keeping them Honest
http://jolandachallita.typepad.com/education/
Our children deserve better

The fact remains that the taxpayer contributes more dollars for each individual private school student than for each public school student.

Therefore within limited budget constraints, public schools are actually subsidising private schools at their own expense.

If the selection of schools is a matter of choice then, like everything else in a free-market society, it should be on a user-pays basis.

Jolanda, why do you not take your children out of the school system altogether and teach them at home? If they are as smart as you perceive them to be, this should not be a problem to them. There are probably plenty of people out there who can give you good advice for this option.

Good luck.

David

This can be an excellent solution. I home-schooled one of my children for a year.

The down side for me was that I found myself working full-time as a teacher without pay. Not everybody can afford to do this. Also, there can be behavioural issues, if the child is strong-willed, in the absence of a traditional teacher-student separation.

I agree, the very best of luck Jolanda.

: )

David, at the moment two are in the Catholic high school system and one is moving to the Catholic primary school next year. Two have been accelerated. One is stuck in the public school.

As the kids got older I was able to return to part time work so we could move our kids out of the Public School system when necessary, it was just really difficult when they were younger as we didnt' have the money.

We tried homeschooling but the kids were not the type of gifted children who have passions in any particular academic area they were across the board gifted, they just wanted to be presented with work suitable to their ability and need as otherwise they thought they were wasting their time and that the days were long and draining year after year. They are also very competive in the sport department and very social and I am not academic at all and I found their questions frustrating and they didn't want to spend their whole day at home alone with me stressed out when I just couldn't be involved with their studies as I found it hard to understand. They chose to be at school and changed schools many times looking for a better learning environment. They wanted to mix with society and they actually enjoyed the social aspect of school for the most part. They had good friends it was the adults that were the problem.

A parent shouldn't have to teach their children at home, not when there are schools that should be capable of catering for their needs, or at least treating them with respect and without bias and discrimination.