Best Posts in Thread: Public School

Our 6 year old son has started first grade. We had him in Dumaguete Agape Chinese Christian Academy for kindergarten, which was a great school and he did very well. We moved to Siquijor and put him in another kindergarten there....it was terrible. We took him out and put him in another....it was terrible also with all the dancing and other BS. We ended up doing a home schooling course. We hired a young lady to "teach" him as the curriculum is already made out and CDs with world class teachers. He is doing great although we are currently in US taking care of business. He is reading at a fourth grade level, he is learning fractions, multiplication and division. We are using A Beka.
I do not want to raise him to be an employee like I was for many years before becoming an entrepreneur. Academic achievements are overrated as many times they do not result in a better life for those achieving higher learning. I do want him to learn a strong work ethic, integrity, humility along with creativity and diligence, none of which can be taught in school. I do want him to question everything and then come up with a better way of doing things and know how to, and have the boldness to implement those ideas.

 

For the 5 years my daughter attended school in Dumaguete, I was extremely frustrated with the number of "holidays/festivals" and the amount of time spent on non-learning (dances, etc...) Believe me, I understand that teaching their culture is important, but they do go a little overboard. The teachers/schools there are also extremely disorganized, waiting until the last minute to send 200 students to National Bookstore/Cangs (many times, due to after-school activities, the stores would be closed) for supplies for the next day. It is no wonder these kids spend so much time in college catching up on things they should have been taught before getting there. Not sure the k-12 is going to accomplish much, as I hear they are expecting the kids to take even more classes, and I am sure they are still teaching the dances, etc. When we moved back to the states, even my daughter was relieved to get back into "normal" school routines.

 

I have had all those same thoughts, and even was a little more selfish because I wanted to have more freedom in my retirement to go and do things I could not do before. But now that I have children I will never abandon my responsibility to them. I have thought about these problems a lot and now that the political and economic situation here seems to going south, I am considering the move back to a more civilized country. Living here alone is one thing but living here with children seems to be a ever growing bad idea.

 

My son is in his second year at Don Bosco and is in Nursery Two, Kindergarten next year. We are very pleased with the school, the teachers, and the scholastics. This year they are learning reading, language, and math. Some of it is simple stuff and other more difficult. For example, they recently learned plurals and when to use s or es.
He has not missed a day of school last year or this year. There is a daily prayer which some parents may object to. There are two teachers for his class. There is a choice of a morning or afternoon session. There are two morning classes with 17 students each and one afternoon class.
My wife and I are happy to share more on this.
Btw, our boy went to One International School for two years prior to Don Bosco which gave him a great headstart.

 

I assume school is providing lunch to the kids, including caviar, angus beef steak and more such a kind of food!?

 

Yes well as the old saying goes the world needs ditch diggers too.

 

I do not have knowledge of the curriculum in Switzerland but in the US and Philippines there are many cuts in "education" without any detrimental effect, such as Creative dance, music, art, civics just to name a few. These subjects are a luxury and not needed by most people in our everyday life. Unfortunately many students continue their higher education in these subjects thru college and end up unemployable as these are not marketable skills. The bureaucrats in charge were educated by the same system they are now trying to regulate.....so don't expect them to make sensible cuts.

IMO There is nothing WRONG with taking these classes but be realistic in recognizing the future prospects of employment BEFORE spending your hard earned money.

There are many useless college degrees today and that is one reason the unemployment rate is so high for recent college grads in US.

 

I paid 84k upfront for all three terms together. Higher classes will probably be more expensive so your number may still be correct for older kids.

He's in a group of 6 with two teachers (one British, one local). I'd have to pay about the same or more for public kindergarten in Germany (fees depend on income), and get a much worse teacher / student number, so I have nothing to complain about.

For sure it's a steep price compared to the other options here, but I figured that especially in the very young age it's a great investment. So easy to give the kids a big advantage later on.
Also like the fact that the school appears to be unbiased when it comes to religion.