Take off the myth about private schools

I am a Chinese immigrant living in Texas. My first born is going to Kindergarten next year. All of sudden, my husband and I started looking for information about schools everywhere. We also think about whether we should send our kids to private schools because we keep on hearing people talking that private schools are better than public schools. Even though private schools are way beyond what we can afford, we still spend time to collect information on private schools. What's so great about private schools? Is it worthy to send kids to private schools? Like any other parents, we are just trying and thinking hard about how to give our kids the best education they can get or put them into the best environment we can provide so that they can learn and grow into well educated people.

By looking into information about private schools, I found this interesting book by Richard Rothstein and co-authors: "Can Public Schools Learn From Private Schools?". The authors did extensive case studies to try to find out what are the factors that contribute to private elementary schools students providing better outcomes than those in public schools. If it is due to certain practices from private schools, then public schools can learn from private schools and improve. However, the result of the research turned out to be not as those commonly held generalizations.

"Private elementary school personnel are not necessarily more accountable to parents than are public elementary school personnel."

The key factor that lead to private schools' better outcomes is because they enroll students from more advantaged backgrounds and disadvantaged students' outcomes also improve by association with more advantaged classmates.

These are very valuable researches and give me insight into private schools and comfort that public schools can provide as good education as private schools. As conclusion of this book, the answer to the question "what can public schools learn from private schools?" is "not much". But to the question "what can schools, public and private, learn from other schools, public and private?", the answer is "quite a bit".

There are very good public schools and very good private schools. Not all private schools are good or better than public schools in the same neighborhood. I know there are advantages in private schools, such as we can freely pick any private school, but public schools are decided by which school district we belong to.

For affluent families, this would not be a too hard decision. But for a working family like us with two kids, sending our kids to private schools is not an option. And now I am so glad that we did research on this and I am not feeling sorry for my kids for not being able to go to private schools, because public schools can be good as well.

All I remember about Education in China

Chinese sayings:

Live and Learn.  活到老，学到老。

Knowledge is power.  知识就是力量。
Knowledge is wealth.  知识就是财富。

Reading is the key to knowledge.  读书是打开知识宝库的钥匙。



After you master math, physics and chemistry, you can go all around the world without a problem.  学好数理化，走遍全天下。

Confucius: Three people walking together, there must be at least one that I can learn from.
孔子云，三人行，则必有我师。

It takes 10 years to grow a tree, and it takes 100 years to educate a person.
十年种树，百年育人。

In books, there are beauty and house of gold.
书中自有颜如玉，书中自有黄金屋。

Travel 10,000 miles and read 10,000 books.
行万里路，读万卷书。

When I grow up - by Minglun

At around four years old, Minglun likes to say, "When I grow up, I am going to put on my belt, take my backpack, drive papa's truck, and I am going far away." Every time I heard this, I would ask him, "Minglun, where would you be going?" Minglun thought a while, and then said, "I am going to Grandpa's house." Then I felt that my heart go back to its place because his grandpa's house is very close to us.

At around five years old, Minglun likes to say, "When I grow up" or "When I turn 17, I am going to drive papa's truck and pick up Arthur from his school. I am going to put Arthur to his car seat and help him to put seat belt on, then I am going to take him home." Sometimes I have to remind him that when he turns 17, Arthur will be 15 already will not be needing a car seat. My heart just turns very soft when he says that and I will always give him a lot of hugs and kisses.

Mama says, Papa says and Grandma says

Minglun and Arthur's Mama is from China and speaks Chinese. Their Grandma from father's side is from Peru and speaks Spanish. Grandma lives close by and plays with them often.

When Minglun was little, Mama liked to play Flash cards with him in Chinese. Sometimes, Papa joined in and said some words in English. Like when Minglun lifted the card with a picture of an elephant on it, Papa would say "Elephant". Minglun frowned at Papa and lifted the card to Mama and Mama would say "Da Xiang". Minglun nodded his head satisfactorily and gave Papa a disapproval look.

From Minglun and Arthur's house to Grandma's house, there is a ranch. Many times on their way to Grandma's house, they see some cows in the field eating grass. Mama will point to the cows and say to Minglun, "Minglun, look... Niu. Hao duo Niu." However, Minglun seems to pick up Spanish first. One time, when Mama was saying, "Wow, Niu, Hao Duo Niu.", Minglun started saying, "Vaca, muchos vacas." And then sometimes he will repeat after Mama, "Niu, Hao duo Niu."

One time, Minglun asked, "Mama, why you say Niu and Grandma says Banca?" Mama said, "Because Mama speaks Chinese and Grandma speaks Spanish." Minglun asked again, "What does Papa speak?" "Papa speaks both Spanish and English."

Later when Arthur was learning how to talk, he also discovered the language differences. When he tried to count, he would say, "Grandma says, 'Uno, dos, tres.' Mama says, 'Yi, Er, San'". Everytime after he counted in English, he would say, "Mama, now count in Spanish." What he meant was in another language since he was not using the word Chinese well yet. Then he started counting "Yi, Er, San...".

What time is it outside?

In Minglun's house, there is a garden themometer in the backyard hung on a shelf. Every morning, Mama likes to look through the window toward the backyard to take a look at the themometer outside and decides what clothes to put on for Minglun and Arthur. Minglun has been observing Mama and he didn't know what is that for.

After Minglun learned how to read a clock and read the clock correctly several times in the kitchen, one day he finally asked when Mama was trying to read the thermometer in the backyard. "Mama, what time is it outside?" Mama laughed and said, "That is not a clock. It is a thermometer." Minglun asked, "What is a thermometer?" "Thermometer is to tell you what temperature it is. Not the time. From the temperature, you can know if it is hot or cold."

"Okay, then I can read a thermometer!" Minglun was so excited and started reading the number. "It is 60 o'clock." Mama laughed again, "It is 60 degree, not o'clock. But you are doing very good Minglun. Sixty degree means that it is nice outside, but just a little bit chilly. You can wear your jacket and go outside with Arthur."

So from then on, Minglun started reading the thermometer every time they need to go outside. He will say, "Mama, it is 50 o'clock outside, me and Arthur need our jackets." Or "Mama, it is 65. We can go to the backyard to play."

It took him a while to say "degree" instead of "o'clock" and Mama was having so much fun hearing him saying that.

Minglun, Mama's sweet boy, just one step at a time.