I received an acceptance letter today to Seven Hills Academy (http://www.sevenhillsacademy.com), a local Charter School. A charter school is a publicly funded school with freedom of cirriculum choice - not bounded by district policy.

This particular school uses the Core Knowledge principal (http://www.sevenhillsacademy.com/curriculum/core-knowledge/at-a-glance.php), which underscores classical learning, Latin, liberal stuff.

The alternative (and the plan, before this letter arrived) was to send her to Sheridan Hills elementary, full-day kindergarten, typical public school.

7 Hills has a smaller class size.
Sheridan is much closer, and is between work and home.

My daughter currently attends a Montessori preschool...

So - Anyone have any opinions? I have 10 days to decide, and will research as much as I can in that time.

Thanks for any insight.

Sorry, I think this thread will get political real quick, you might want to consider dumping it.



Retro

Seven Hills "Classical Academy" ?

Sounds pretty snobbish to me.

Generally, a smaller class size indicates better learning.

It seems she's currently enrolled in a self-pacing environment and placing her in a public school may slow her down. Likewise, depending on how she avails herself of the opportunities, it could force her to keep up.

I don't think anyone has ever been hurt by learning in the "classical" fashion. It opens up trains of thought and mental discipline that might not be available in a public school environment where there's a lowest common denominator mentality.

Also, a lot of public schools seem to be held to task for stuff that parents should be teaching their kids at home already.

I won't get political, just some opinions on learning. I'm just looking at the curriculum of Seven Hills. Problem is you have nothing to compare it with, unless you know what the public school will offer. My concerns are that too early, too much emphasis is on peripheral subjects, and not enough on the three Rs. Maybe this is the way all schools are today, but it wouldn't be my preference. And there's always homeschooling, where you have more control over the curriculum. Just my two cents.

I received an acceptance letter today to Seven Hills Academy ....................

I think that statement pretty much sums it up..........................

IMO, the diversity of students in a public school setting can be beneficial.

Also, the public school is closer, saving dollars on transportation.

Place the money you can afford into a fund for a good college education.

YMMV.

I received an acceptance letter today to Seven Hills Academy (http://www.sevenhillsacademy.com), a local Charter School. A charter school is a publicly funded school with freedom of cirriculum choice - not bounded by district policy.

This particular school uses the Core Knowledge principal (http://www.sevenhillsacademy.com/curriculum/core-knowledge/at-a-glance.php), which underscores classical learning, Latin, liberal stuff.

The alternative (and the plan, before this letter arrived) was to send her to Sheridan Hills elementary, full-day kindergarten, typical public school.

7 Hills has a smaller class size.
Sheridan is much closer, and is between work and home.

My daughter currently attends a Montessori preschool...

So - Anyone have any opinions? I have 10 days to decide, and will research as much as I can in that time.

Thanks for any insight.Wow, I'm in the exact spot you are right now, although we've already made our decision. My five year old twins will start kindergarten in August. There is a one year old public school six houses down from us. This school has after school daycare which we need. Our kids are currently in a Montessori preschool. My wife likes the Montessori style and applied to enroll our kids into a lottery to attend a charter school called California Montessori Project (http://www.cacmp.org/) which has a few campuses. They also have after school daycare. My kids won a spot into the school and my wife insists that they attend CMP. I'd prefer they go to the new school right down the street from us, mainly for convience. The public school had a meeting for parents of kindergartners and I attended. I was very impressed with the public school and three of the six teachers. I told my wife that if our kids get into one of the three classes she had to go meet with them before we made a decision. They did not get into one of those classes so I let my wife have her way. But we will revisit this issue again next year. Both schools daycare is about the same and there is no cost to attend. The Montessori school is a bit out of the way and 10 miles from our home. Both my wife and I work close enough to the Montessori Campus that it's only a minor consideration.

I have a few issues with my kids attending a Montessori shcool, first they will not be on the same track as kids in public schools and this could be an issue if they move to a public school later on, which they most likely will. Second, while the Montessori style is great for preschoolers I'm not as convinced that it works well for older kids that must assimilate into a different system later on. How will this effect test scores that our society places so much importance on?

For kindergarten it won't make any difference. Our kids are probably ready for first grade but they will need to go to kindergarten regardless. In the end it's the parents that will have the biggest impact on the kids education so as long as you're involved they will be fine either way.

I say try the Montessori school for kindergarten and then reevaluate it again next year. Good luck.

.....I agree with both MarkW and Hakaplan, but I personally would vote to wait until the Jr. High level to go with a Charter Program....virtually all public school elementary students do well in their studies as they learn basics.....

Now that I've already made a wise@$$ comment:

The wife and I were faced with the same dilemma - public, private, or charter school.

We chose the public system and are now glad we did. The problem with the private-charter-selective style of educating is that once it's over, the person gets thrown out in the real world where the "shaping" is no longer done, and you have to be able to perform with the general public, both good and bad. There is no "acceptance" letter in the real world. You need to know how to operate with every sort of influence.

77

We chose the public system and are now glad we did. The problem with the private-charter-selective style of educating is that once it's over, the person gets thrown out in the real world where the "shaping" is no longer done, and you have to be able to perform with the general public, both good and bad. There is no "acceptance" letter in the real world. You need to know how to operate with every sort of influence.

77I've been having similar thoughts. But kindergarten won't hurt any and will give us a chance to see how our kids do in this system.

Public school offers many real-life lessons that charter school will not offer. Getting picked on, bullied, and knowledge about sex, drugs, etc. will be learned at public school. The parent should steer their children in the right direction, but life lessons get instilled in an environment similar to the real world.

In the real world, people will be cut down, mentally abused and what-not, and public school prepares you or that.

Then you can have money saved for a nice college education.

Be sure to encourage the will to learn, and public school will be great.

The reason public schools score low, is because the kids are to lazy to study and pay attention. I can tell you, public schools offer a great educational opportunity, the kid just has to want it.

SCHOOL ANSWERING MACHINE

Outgoing message:

"Hello! You have reached the automated answering
service of your school.

In order to assist you in connecting to the right staff member,
please listen to all the options before making a selection:

* To lie about why your child is absent - Press 1

*To make excuses for why your child did not do
his work- Press 2

* To complain about what we do - Press 3

* To swear at staff members - Press 4

* To ask why you didn't get information that was
already enclosed in your newsletter and several
flyers mailed to you - Press 5

* If you want us to raise your child - Press 6

* If you want to reach out and touch, slap or hit
someone -Press 7

* To request another teacher, for the third time
this year -Press 8

* To complain about bus transportation - Press 9

* To complain about school lunches - Press 0

* If you realize this is the real world and your child
must be accountable and responsible for his/her
own behavior, class work, homework and that it's
not the teachers' fault for your child's lack of
effort: Hang up and have a nice day!

In the real world, people will be cut down, mentally abused and what-not, and public school prepares you or that.


I attended both public and private school. I can assure you that private schools are equal to or excel public schools in the above mentioned education.

For the OP, I think visting both will be the best way to answer the question. I read the Seven Hills curriculum. I'd check to see how much exposure to music and the visual arts will be available. I'm a firm believer in a well rounded curriculum. Studies have shown that stressing the 3 R's to the exclusion of arts does not help increase core proficiency.

We sent our sons to public schools, including an inner city high school. We took the money that we'd pay a private school and invested it towards college and also "vacation schooled" them. One year we camped from Georgia to California and back. They also learned physics, hydraulics and meteorology at the tiller of our sailboat.

Statistics can be deceiving. The year my older son graduated, my private school alma mater had the highest average SAT score. But, their rigorous admission process had already cherry picked the students. If, however, you compared the top 10% of Doug's inner city high school (a more fair comparison), they trounced all public and private schools in the region.

I'm the only private school graduate in my family. I'm the only one who doesn't have at least one graduate degree.

Doug

We visit the Charter on Tuesday...Thanks for the opinions so far.