What should I do if I'm being forced to go to a Christian School?

[Losty]

Parental involvement is not a cop out. If you don't give a shit about your kids, they won't succeed 8/10 and that is not just for education either.

My entire job revolves around helping kids pass their classes and I spend 90% of my time trying to get parents more involved. When successful, the results are palpable.

[Jehanne]

If I am being forced to go, what should I do?

In my opinion, just "roll with it"; go to the school.  You may be surprised; in fact, there are a lot of atheists at the so-called "Christian" schools!

[SteelCurtain]

You were however saying that Private School teachers were 'by and large better at their craft'. I very much disagree.

And I disagree that private schools are a better educational opportunity. When accounting for demographics, it's been shown that public schools actually outperform private schools. I know it's an accepted truth that our public schools are 'failing', but they really aren't. Our nations schools really aren't poor. Drop out rates are going down, graduation rates are going up, the percentage of people attending college is going up, test scores are going up. If there is a failing, it's in addressing childhood poverty. It's an issue we continue to ignore in favor of calling for reforms (often by people who stand to profit off of these reforms, and then reported on by news stations that are affiliated with those same people.) Do we need to make improvements? I won't deny that we do. But that's always going to be the case. It certainly doesn't mean that our schools are failing or are poor.

Again, I am not making a broad, sweeping statement about the nation's school systems. I am talking about a specific district/region that I have inside information on.

I am a product of a public school, and I wouldn't change that for anything. I went to a deregulated school in Florida and got an amazing education with some incredible teachers.

[IATIA]

Make Biology your first class. You will be gone in two shakes of a lamb's tail.

[Cecelia]

Losty-  In my experience they aren't much better at all.  Their scores are better, but they also serve far fewer disadvantaged kids than public schools (proportionally).  I'm not saying Private Schools can't be excellent, just to be clear.   I just don't think they're necessarily better.  Some of the smartest people I've known (as a student, and a teacher) attended public school, and I don't think they'd have fared better at a private school.   

Cecelia,

I was educated in public schools, as were my children. By and large I would agree with your quality assessment, even though I despise the 'parental involvement' cop out. Perhaps fodder for a later discussion.

What you really said that I take issue with is the mention of how difficult expulsion is in public schools. The reason this bothers me is the irony when I consider how difficult it is to get rid of misbehaving teachers, let alone those that are underperforming.

It's not a 'cop-out' at all.  It's easy to place the blame on teachers for everything.  But there's many factors to academic success.  I make an effort to contact the parents of every student I have that is struggling.  I find that most of them can't be reached at work or at home.  I don't know how many voice messages I've left, and emails I've sent for parents asking them to contact me and let me know when they'd be available for a meeting.  By contrast, when parents are involved I find that students tend to do better.  More of them reach their full potential, certainly.  Having a parents assistance in pushing a kid goes a long way. 

I always find it interesting that most people focus on 'firing bad teachers' rather than on 'attracting and retaining good teachers'.  Because doing one, without doing the other does you no good.  You just get new bad teachers.  Of course how hard it is to actually fire a teacher (as well as the cost of doing so) varies by state, and locality.  In some places it's simply too expensive (Much cheaper to give them good reviews, and let another school deal with them when they finally decide to leave).  In other places the rules are too stringent.  But again it varies by location.  Now misbehaving teachers often DO get fired.  It happens quite often, so it's obviously not THAT difficult.  Of course again, you have administrators who would rather get the teachers to leave of their own volition rather than actually firing them.  Which just transfers the problem from one area to another.  Part of the problem with firing bad teachers is identifying what a bad teacher is, and finding those teachers.  Some people think it should be as simple as tying their performance to test results.  I'd disagree with such a approach strongly (despite the fact that my students have tested quite well in my eight years of teaching).  I find it rather simplistic, and I don't think it would actually accomplish much more than raising the rates of cheating.  It'd be wonderful if we could just weed out the truly 'bad teachers'.  Trust me, no teacher wants bad teachers at their school--if only because it makes their job harder.  (When a student doesn't understand a concept they should have learned already, it makes teaching them the new stuff that relies on that concept much harder)

As for the difficulties in expelling a student--I should note that I'm simply referring to how easy it is for a private school to expel a student for behavioral issues.  I don't think expulsion should be easier.  Education needs to be available to everyone.  Including, and perhaps most of all, the 'trouble makers'.  Of course much like disadvantaged students, they also tend not to do as well in school for a number of reasons. Often including issues at home. 

Again, I am not making a broad, sweeping statement about the nation's school systems. I am talking about a specific district/region that I have inside information on.

Okay, I misread you.  I'm sorry, I thought you were saying nationwide the public school system was poor--not that the specific district was ranked lowly nationwide.  I apologize for the misunderstanding--totally my fault.  I'm used to people talking about the national school system being poor, rather than a specific region being ranked poorly.

[Mothonis]

I would never go no matter what, but hey that's just me

[I_am_not_mafia]

Maybe the OP should ask to go to a normal public school. His mother is probably reaching her limit on what she can teach him now he is getting older and the OP is clearly more intelligent than his mother. This is probably her main motivation and her preference is for a Christian school. If the OP asks for a public school she may be more easily convinced because she saves money. She can also go out to work and get more money. Is there a dad bringing in a main income here? It is in the OP's interests not to be homeschooled.

[account_inactive]

I would never go no matter what, but hey that's just me

Even if it were to benefit you in the future? I mean sure, your biology and other science lessons may be a bit messed up but the education will still be miles ahead of public school kids.

[Mothonis]

I would never go no matter what, but hey that's just me

Even if it were to benefit you in the future? I mean sure, your biology and other science lessons may be a bit messed up but the education will still be miles ahead of public school kids.

Well iam not sure if thats a major difference at a high school level,and private and public schooling might soon be obsolete with online courses .and while parents have a right to impose rules they dont have a right to impose beliefs

[drfuzzy]

I would never go no matter what, but hey that's just me

Even if it were to benefit you in the future? I mean sure, your biology and other science lessons may be a bit messed up but the education will still be miles ahead of public school kids.

And remember that he's not specifying which flavor of "xtian" . . . there are a lot of Catholic High Schools where the education is excellent.  And I have spoken to a lot of these kids - most of them aren't believers, they're just attending because of . . . parents.  But the Protestant Schools are definitely another matter.  Most of them follow the ACE Curriculum  http://www.aceministries.com/curriculum/  -- which also provides homeschool materials -- and they are frighteningly bad.