Since there is no single set of abilities running throughout human nature, there is no single curriculum which all should undergo. Rather, the schools should teach everything that anyone is interested in learning.” – John Dewey
Education is the trump card that helped first-generation Indian-Americans bag their American dreams, and in so doing, propelled the community to the upper echelons of earnings and assets. Education was the only potent weapon these pioneers possessed when they landed on these foreign shores. Is it any wonder then, that South Asian parents are notoriously obsessed with their children’s education? They understandably want the same pot of gold that was their deliverance for their children as well.
The eternal question that has lingered in the minds of these parents is where to send their children if they had an option. Should they send their children to a private school, which may come with an exorbitant price tag but is stereotyped as giving their kids an education that could catapult them ahead in the race to acing the SAT and furthering their chances of getting into an Ivy League college, or look into their wallets and keep their children in the public school system, which again is stereotyped as pandering to mediocrity, leaving the poor brilliant and gifted children languishing at the finishing line for success?
Kavita Chhibber caught up with educators, parents, and former students with experiences both in the private and the public school systems. The picture that emerged was far from being one-sided.
A lot of parents enroll their children in public schools from the elementary to the middle school level. When the child reaches high school, parents make the switch to a private school. They believe that the private school will put their children through a grind because of its smaller classes. They also believe that private schools give more personalized attention and have a curriculum that will be custom-made for their child’s needs. While most people agree that this formula is a winner, there are others who, after having sent their children to private schools up to the middle school level, switched their children to public high schools. Still, there are children who have attended private schools throughout, and there are those who have attended only public schools. So, in all this juggling, what really works and what does not?
Khalil Jetha went to a private school until the sixth grade. He then switched to a public school. He felt that although his public high school was among the best, it could have had a stronger English department. “I felt that many of the students had poor reading skills. The math and sciences were more stressed upon, and I found that I was more challenged there.” He said most kids did well and believes that it is incorrect to assume that just going to a private high school will improve one’s academic performance. “The average SAT scores in my high school’s graduating class was 1290, while the national average was about 1000.”
Ami Kadaba, a former public elementary school teacher who current teaches at Westminster, Georgia’s finest private school, says that the public high school she attended was not among the top schools. “I was in all the honors classes and AP (Advanced Placement) classes, and socially and academically I excelled. However, when I attended Emory, which is a private institution, I found that my study skills were not strong. I struggled during my early years because everyone was as smart as I was, if not smarter. Had I a better high school experience where I had been forced to work harder and put in 110 percent everyday, my study skills would have been much better. On the other hand, my husband went to a private school, and my brother attended a private high school. Looking at the three of us, one would agree that we are all intelligent in different areas of expertise. Nevertheless, they had far superior study skills and did not have to struggle as much in college as I did.”
Suvrat Bhargave, a pediatric psychiatrist, attended a public school up to the sixth grade, after which he switched to Woodward Academy, a private school. The decision to switch was based on the recommendation of his elementary school teacher, who felt that the middle school that he would have attended would not have fulfilled his needs. “I was one of the few kids whose parents were not really affluent. Transition was tough because at the public elementary school, I didn’t have to work hard even though I did have a very good fourth and fifth grade teacher who got me extra material. When I entered Woodward in the sixth grade, I received my very first D in my first test in reading class. I had not bothered to study. It was a rude awakening. The other kids around me seemed very motivated, and that helped a lot.”
Clearly, people have had different experiences in the two types of school systems. What makes each system unique is a question frequently asked by most parents trying to make the right decision?
Kalpana Raju, Principal of Roswell Elementary School, says that public schools accept all children regardless of their needs. Students are divided into groups and advance at their own level. “I strongly believe that a child needs to learn to get along with all kinds of people, and our classes are very diverse with regard to ethnicity and social status. The middle school and high school provides different kinds of challenges in curriculum. Established private schools are able to achieve a lot with their students because they have a homogeneous group, and the children work hard and want to achieve more. The public schools have children of diverse caliber, but this diversity does not mean that an advanced child cannot move ahead. Public schools offer different kinds of services from TAG (Talented and Gifted) to AP classes. For example, my daughter took her eleventh and twelfth grade classes at the University of West Georgia. Parents must learn more about how to tap the public school system.”
Ms. Raju also feels that the pressure is high in private schools. “Attending a private school is a symbol of status, and with that comes the pressure to maintain a reputation and maintain high grades. I have seen a lot of students enroll in private schools only to return to public schools. The situation is worse for a child who has special needs because they are not dealt with very well in private schools.”
Asha Sethi, Dean of Faculty at Holy Innocents, a private school, states that although many private schools have their own philosophy, most of them are dedicated to the all-around development of the child. For example, at Holy Innocents, students are not selected only on the basis of their academic achievement or their athletic prowess. “Our classrooms reflect every ability level, with the result that children get an opportunity to learn how to exist in the real world and how to accommodate each other’s strengths and weaknesses. To get to know the children individually may not be as possible as it is in public schools.” The program at Holy Innocents provides children with the opportunity to try different levels of academic courses, visual and performing arts, music, Science Olympiad, different athletic events, and so on.
As regards children with special needs, Ms. Sethi says that unlike public schools, who are funded by the state, Holy Innocents has limited resources but does its best by staffing learning specialists who anchor such children by helping them with strategy, study skills, and simply coping day-to-day. “We can try different approaches because of the small class size; we know all of the children – their personalities and their idiosyncrasies.”
Ms. Asha adds that the latest approach in education is the collaboration between public and private schools in various activities. “We partner with Riverwood Public School, for instance. This is the other nice new thing where public and private schools are getting together to share activities. We decided to pool resources and make those facilities mutually available. This collaboration helps to bridge the gap between private and public schools and saves us from waiting for resources and money to fall into place.
Ms. Kadaba taught fourth grade at a public elementary school in Cobb County for two years. She says that the classes were huge and that some kids were reading below the kindergarten level while others were reading at the sixth grade level. “So you are trying to teach six different grades in one classroom, and that is very difficult. I spent a majority of the time disciplining and very little time teaching.” She believes switching to Westminster was the best move she made. “It’s a different environment. We have nineteen students and two teachers. Each person focuses on one subject area. When you have only nineteen children, and if she is teaching math, and some of the kids don’t understand, I can take that group aside and work with them while she continues moving along. Students at Westminster have so many opportunities and have done things that a lot of other school children have not done. For example, they can use laptop computers, take swimming classes, go to the symphony, and start learning a foreign language at an early age. Looking at them, I think the majority of them will benefit and have benefited from being at Westminster.”
Anuj Manocha, who attended a private school and whose daughter is starting kindergarten at Westminster, recalls that in talking to graduating seniors, he learned that a majority of them attended public schools and had taken the same advanced courses that he had taken in private school. Furthermore, all of their standardized test scores were extremely high, and all of them were going to very good colleges. “In looking at that, I can’t say there is much of a difference.”
Mr. Manocha, however, feels that he benefited tremendously from his private school education. “I know my personality is such that I have a certain amount of intelligence, but I am not that motivated. Attending a private school helped because of the smaller class size and because I had a lot more peer pressure. Consequently, I worked harder, and the pressure motivated me. I had to do well. I have talked to people in public schools, and while I recognize that their curriculum is excellent, I find it hard to believe that any private school has what Westminster can offer. That doesn’t mean everyone will get an excellent education; you may end up getting a very average education at Westminster. There are classes of all degrees. We had the athletic people, who didn’t take any advance courses. Their education was average. Still, the potential to excel was very high. We have certain faculty members who have PhDs. My parents pressured me to excel in academics, and they would have done so whether I attended a public school or a private school. Every child is different. My daughter loves being challenged, but my middle son cracks if you push him. I hear a lot of American kids complaining what a pressure it is to be in a private school. They have no concept of what pressure is unless they have been exposed to an Indian family. Westminster is a mere sheep compared to my dad, and I also want my children to be the best they can possibly be. I will push them, but I think the kids will let you know how far you can push them.”
Dr. Ravi Sarma’s daughter and son attended Woodward Academy from the eighth grade through graduation – but only because of an unusual reason. Explains, Dr. Sarma, “During that time, DeKalb County did not have a middle school, which meant that in the eighth grade, Indira would have ended up being with high school children. That’s where my wife was concerned. So we put them in a private school.” Dr. Sarma says that 90 percent of the people who send their kids to public school do so because the high tuition of private schools makes attending them an unrealistic option. He adds that 10 percent are sent to a private school, where they receive a religious type of education since most private schools are parochial and several get subsidies from their churches. “So, an Indian community looking for a good education does sometimes make that trade-off, and then of course, it depends on how strongly people feel about the religion angle. Private school is an option only if you can afford the cost. When you cannot afford it but want to send your child to a private school you are essentially prized out of a private school education unless you belong to a group where financial assistance is feasible.”
Dr. Sarma strongly stresses that in a community like Atlanta, there are excellent public schools in the metropolitan area despite Georgia’s low national ranking. He believes that the non-metropolitan schools bring the state’s total performance down, leading to the low national ranking. “In the City of Atlanta School System, where the government spends more money per student than in any other school system in the state, the absence of a stable community environment pulls the performance of the school system down.” Dr. Sarma feels that parents who want their children to have a good public school education can ensure this by residing in an area with good public schools. According to Dr. Sarma, some of the reasons why private schools have a good record are that these schools select students from a pool of bright kids whose parents are extremely motivated, the classes are smaller, and there is more personal attention. The amount of time a teacher spends worrying about discipline and other nonacademic issues is obviously less in the private school system. “Westminster had nine students with 1600 on the SAT this year not because Westminster teaches the students more or because it makes them brighter. They just select kids who are extremely bright to begin with. So, if you ask me if a good student will be challenged in a private school, the answer is ‘Yes.’ What I have learned in the ten years that I have run the scholarship fund (Dr. Sarma is the founder and chairman of the Indian American Scholarship Fund) and through observing national level competitive organizations like the Coco Cola Foundation go through their selection process is that good students who come out of good public schools actually do very well. In one year, Lakeside High School in DeKalb County had four students who scored a 1600 on the SAT before the test became inflated. That particular public school had a very high proportion of educated, motivated parents who provided the right home environment for their kids to perform well. Statistics reveal that the greater the PTA participation and the better the performance of students, the better the school is in attracting funding from the state or county. So, one factor for selecting a school should be the strength of family involvement in the PTA because that directly reflects how involved the family is in the student’s education.” Dr. Sarma also points out that no matter how you try to select, 50 percent of the students will be at the bottom 50 percent of the class. “Therefore, even when you send the kids to the so-called elite private school, if the student does not find the right mix to suit his personality, he will under-perform.”
Dr. Sarma specifically mentions the successes at Chamblee High School, which is consistently rated the best public high school in the state each year. “For someone who studies there, there is no need to go to a private school. What does matter is that if there is a student who is in the middle of the class, motivated, and can use extra attention, a good private school may help. Again, remember that even in different private schools you end up with different kinds of teachers, and you can go through a private school system and be lost. What the private schools can’t do is make the child perform more than he is capable of performing or compensate for a lack of parental involvement and guidance.”
Dr. Mushtaq Ahmed teaches at Georgia Tech and has a daughter named Tabassum, an extremely gifted student who attends Chamblee High. Even though Chamblee is a fine public school, Dr Ahmed has faced problems within the public school system. “I found that public schools want to do everything for every body and not focus so much on the gifted students. They have watered down TAG as well because parental pressure makes them accept more students into TAG. As a result, this makes these so-called gifted programs not really just for the gifted.”
“I went to request the school to let Tabassum take an extra course next year,” claims Dr. Ahmed. “I was told there was not enough room in that class for everyone. I asked how many people were trying to get into that class, and they said, ‘Only one –your daughter.’ So, I asked them what the problem was. I was told that the rule states that unless the school can do something for everyone, they will not do it for one person. Big public schools everywhere have this problem. The flexibility is a lot less in a public school. Customizing your program is tough in a public school system. I am compulsively obsessive about my children’s education and even went to the school board and called them. The person in charge has not returned my calls so now I am heading to meet the superintendent of the DeKalb County School System.
Dr Ahmed continues, “Private schools have a better track record, and there the students get to take a lot of AP classes. Therefore, their record looks a lot better than that of a student who attended a public school. For example, Westminster offers close to thirty AP classes; Chamblee High, the best public high school, offers only sixteen. Chamblee is a charter school so PTA involvement is strong, but I still don’t see the PTA having much of an impact on the way the school is run. Last year the middle school would not pick the best kids for a team because they were afraid some parents might get upset. I don’t see the PTA being very assertive.”
Ms. Kadaba says that although a lot of Indian parents focus on education, their involvement is limited to going to the teachers’ conference. They don’t volunteer at the school. “They will go to the game but will not spent time getting to know the other parents. Parents have the greatest influence on their children, and when they get to know their child’s friends, they also get to know what is going on in their child’s life.”
Mr. Jetha believes that most people think attending private schools is a big step towards getting accepted into a good college. However, what people do not realize is that students who go to private schools have every intention of going to college, which may not be the goal of a lot of students in public schools. “After spending $10,000 or more each year, you are not likely to stop at high school. I have also noticed that kids from private schools study hard, are very aggressive, and know what they are supposed to do. The public school kids are the ones who will do nothing all year and just cram the night before. Private school kids are more focused a lot of the time, and the work load in a private school is much heavier than that in schools in the public school system.”
There is also the perception that a student who graduates from private high schools gets preferential treatment when it comes to admissions at top universities. Ms. Sethi disagrees. “I don’t think there is a difference between public and private schools. The Ivy League colleges are looking for a total profile with all-around achievements, and that may be the difference. A private school knows how to generate a profile. I am not suggesting the public schools don’t. As a school, we start developing these profiles starting at middle school. Our college counselors start working with kids at the end of the eighth grade. They ask the student where he or she plans to go to college, and if the student has any inclination about what he or she wants to do, the counselor focuses on that. Parents chip in. Believe me, these children lead a very busy life: from tutorials to sports to plays to getting high GPAs. I am glad I finished school when I did!”
Dr. Sarma agrees. “There were certain private schools that had a track record with certain Ivy League schools, but that’s not the case anymore. Now it’s need-blind, and these days, the Ivies really seek a diverse student body. In fact, the majority of the students in Ivy League colleges these days are the products of the public school system and not from private schools.” Confirming this trend, Dr. Ahmed points to the steady annual exodus of students from Chamblee High to Harvard and other Ivy League colleges. So, the myth gets shattered.
If the educators and graduates of the two systems were asked to advise parents on their dilemma, what would they say?
Mukund Jain, who attended a public school from kindergarten through high school, says that although private schools have small class sizes, a disadvantage in going to one is the pressure to perform because of the high tuition. “It is well documented that whether the tuition was paid by loans, scholarships, or parents, the tuition provider acted like an overseeing force, and children continuously felt haunted by that. In a public school, students don’t feel that pressure and are more in control. Of course, if you are living in a community where the public schools are not good, it makes sense to go to a private school. As regards the cost of tuition, if the school voucher system is in practice in Georgia, certain families may be able to afford a private school education.”
He continues, “Another factor to consider is the accreditation of teachers. Teachers in public schools are state certified or working towards a certification, which ensures that the teacher has gone through some training required by the state. Private school teachers, on the other hand, are not required to have any kind of certification, although they may have expertise in a certain subject.”
“I think the important thing is to find the school that is best for your child,” says Mr. Jain. “Certain schools cultivate certain strengths. For example, magnet schools focus on math and science. To get a richer sense of the school, parents should consider the school’s focus and its approach to teaching, safety, and discipline. Parents should also learn how the school monitors a student’s progress, the kinds of library resources it has available, and how – if at all – a school uses technology to support teaching or learning.”
He concludes, “Check what your child is capable of and look for a school to suit that personality. If a child is motivated, he or she will do well. Not every private school excels. There are several public schools that regularly defeat private schools in various competitions. Another option for parents to consider is sending their child to a charter school; these schools are public schools but have a lot of flexibility in how they structure the academics and also the hiring of teachers.”
Chand Akkineni, who was recently selected to be on the board of trustees at the private American International School, has enrolled both of his sons at Woodward Academy. He admits that he sends his children to Woodward because his business commitments do not afford him the time to teach them. “I feel that public school students in gifted programs are as smart as the top students at a private school. I think anyone who pays extra attention, works hard, and has a competitive spirit can reach anywhere he or she wants regardless of the school. Even though my sons are at a private school, I really don’t know whether it is worth spending that kind of money. If you have the time to be deeply involved in your child’s education, a good public school works as well.”
Dr. Ahmed believes that another significant factor is the caliber of students in your child’s class. He claims that a highly motivated, over-achieving group is better than any other. His son Aneesh goes to Kitteredge Elementary, and Dr. Ahmed feels that Kitteredge has very highly motivated students who continue on to Chamblee High, where they beat private schools in all kinds of competitions.
Dr. Bhargave recalls how in high school he was pushed to achieve, but by the time he was in the eleventh and twelfth grade, he started to feel the need for a happy balance somewhere, a balance he was not getting. “The other kids in my class were so driven by grades and their GPA that I felt there was constant pressure on me.” Still, when he graduated from Woodward and applied to colleges, the Woodward name and GPA carried weight. So, he felt he got his money’s worth, although he found studying in college easier than studying at Woodward!
Dr. Bhargave thinks that if he were asked many years ago for advice on selecting a type of school, he would have voted for the private school system. Today, however, he sees some excellent public schools, especially for children with special needs. He tells parents to check the school system. “If you can find a public school system for your child that is challenging, supportive, has discipline, and is caring, there is no reason to send your child to a private school. However, if you have a child whose needs are not being met, then private schools can fit that need literally and figuratively at a cost. At the time I was going through it, I would have said, ‘Yes, private schools have an edge that public schools don’t have,’ but that would have come out of my own bias. Recently, I had two parents come in with their kids. They sent their child to a private school because of behavioral problems. It really helped in a smaller setting, but what ended up suffering was the academics. In essence, they sent their children to a private school thinking all their needs will be met, and since the main need was met, they thought the money was well spent. But, one kid said he was bored, and the other didn’t do as well academically. So, I just can’t make a blanket statement anymore, as I probably would have done a few years ago.”