Modern life is strange. If you count, strangers will spend more time with your children than you. This is historically unprecedented, perhaps except for the wealthy in history who could afford nannies and tutors.
Yet, ordinary people would usually raise their kids.
Each of us places enormous trust in teachers and the California school system. It is our duty as parents to select the best possible school for our means and possibilities. But what constitutes a good school, and how do we pick one?
1. Academic focus
You can rely on any school to be able to teach the basics. However, certain schools can emphasize some subjects rather than others. For example, let’s say that your child is interested in music. Well, not every institution will have the proper equipment, interest, or resources in helping him/her reach that goal.
The music example can be applied to other subjects such as literature, math, or even athletic pursuits.
The school cannot be good in itself, that is not enough. It has to be good for your child.
2. Money
And now we get to the bane of all of our existence: money. While it does not bring happiness, it sure gets rid of the things that generally tend to make us unhappy. Not everyone will be able to afford to go to California private schools.
The state is known across the world for its high-tax, tightly regulated governance. Even having a child in public school can cost you an arm and a leg.
People always discriminated against those who were poorer, which is somewhat normal. Yet, today’s climate seems to have exaggerated that trait. Maybe it is because of the blatant money worship in pop culture and 1 in 3 songs mentioning Gucci and Prada.
Or, maybe it is because of social media and the non-stop comparison that kids make between themselves and influencers.
Regardless of the cause, even middle-class children get teased for being poor. There is outstanding social pressure to keep up with trends, and that will cost you.
Pick a relatively close school, because commuting also costs money, and try to stay within your price range.
If you can barely afford a private school by the skin of your teeth, I would advise that you do not take that gamble. What if your revenue stream suddenly shrinks? You can imagine the disappointment and shock of your child being suddenly taken out of his regular groups and sent to California public schools.
3. Size
People aren’t meant for this conveyor-belt education system that seeks to teach tens of millions of students all at once. It may seem that I am complaining, but I am not.
It is a miracle that we can even achieve the goal of sending most people to school.
But biology is biology and the truth is that we are all different. Some children learn extremely fast, while others are slow learners. Or, some may have anxiety or attention deficit disorder.
Each of us and each of our children have unique needs. The teachers will do their best to accommodate, but there’s only so much you can do when you have 15-30 students in a class.
And the same goes for the school, which can range between hundreds and thousands of students.
In this situation, you have to aim for the middle and try to find a lesson plan and an academic standard that best serves the most people. Those who are gifted will get bored, and those with special needs will not have them met.
The more personal and customized the education, the better the results will generally be. Smaller schools with smaller classes do tend to outperform the factory-sized ones because each child gets more attention and the resources are not stretched so thin.
4. Do not discount emotion or instinct
At the end of the day, choosing a place where your child will spend half of his time is not easy. And you shouldn’t treat it as a calculation of resources and time in an Excel spreadsheet.
Emotions are tied to memory storage, and it is measurably difficult to learn if you are bored, anxious, or feel alienated. Try to go on a tour with your kid, and see how he reacts to the new school districts in California.
Also, you can look around for the general feeling of floating in the air. Sometimes, our instincts see more than our eyes. Our gut feeling should not be the only factor, but it should have its weight in the decision-making process.
5. Results
How do you judge the best school in California? And what is the purpose of schools in general?
Well, first, as the pandemic showed, people do not use public education only to get their kids educated. These programs serve double-duty, as they also act as government-funded daycare while the parents’ work.
But your kids’ school has to produce some academic results, not just watch over him while you are busy at your job.
According to FOX13Now, an increasing number of children are choosing to purchase their papers only, rather than write them themselves. Academic standards are slipping, and everyone knows it.
When choosing a school, you should also look at their graduation rate, their average SAT scores, and the student’s college attendance rate. In our hyper-competitive globalized world, results matter.
If the school is good enough, you won’t have to search for the best paper writing service, given that your child will be able to complete his own homework.
Conclusion
I do not think that I’ve said anything new in this article. It makes both logical and intuitive sense to select a school with programs that your child requires. It also makes sense that you should pick a school within your price range.
A place that makes your child happy, and where the teachers can spare the time to tackle particular issues.
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