I work in the public system. If you knew HALF the stuff that goes on that parents are not aware of, you'd flip your lid, bruthuh! It's nuts. With the levels of bullying, vulgarity, sex talk at super young ages, the lack of respect for people of faith, the secular agenda and nonsense that goes on as well as the incompetent administration, I wouldn't recommend it. The funny thing is, I'd recommend the exact OPPOSITE of what you guys are planning (that's ok!). It's better, in my experience, to have a kid go private K-6, then go public junior high and high school. They've built up that foundation strongly and can cope. Going the reverse route almost always blows in the parents' faces. I've seen it! The kids start in public, hear about Miley Cyrus and "twerking" and cuss and talk sex, and wear what they want and hang out with libertine little twerps, work in an environment geared toward the low kids and really less structure, then they go to private where there is more structure and rules, the kids are VERY tight and close-knit because of years of being private together, and your kid sees them as snobby, goody-two-shoes uptight private Christian kids. That has happened on many occasions with kids who were at my school whose parents went private for junior high. They often come back to public because the kid doesn't want the structure and traditional values. You also face lousy numbers. My kids go to a school where you are like 18 kids to 1 teacher. This year in fourth grade there are only TWELVE kids in my class! My son gets a ton of attention, interaction, and the science experiments and hands-on opportunities are off the hook. They take twelve times the field trips that the public kids take as well. They get more art, much more participation in drama, they know their teacher better, they have daily religion class, memory verses, and they learn that Bible. My kids all know the Bible inside out. It's awesome. They also have prayer and collections where they encourage philanthropy.
At my school, public, where I teach the average is 30 kids to 1 teacher! It's cookie-cutter, loud, discipline nightmares, MANY "ED" kids (emotionally disturbed). You have no idea how many mentally ill kids there are at the public schools who are now "mainstreamed!" Your kid, if he/she is smart, will end up being the coach for low kids trying to pull them up rather than being challenged. Due to budgets and common core standards now, there is a huge learning curve for teachers. Frankly, I'm in the midst of a learning curve.
And what's crazy is you can't get over how many atheists and secular humanists there are in public ed.!
In the end, you end up explaining less stuff to your private kid (sola scriptura, etc.) than to your public kid (sex, bullying, more sex, vulgarity, perverse music and video games, yada yada, evolution, etc.) In California we have a "Harvey Milk Day." Bet your booty we'll have to celebrate it one of these fine days. LGBT "hero" of the month! Already California passed legislation to put gay and lesbians and bisexuals into the social studies program. It just hasn't kicked in yet. when it does, I will refuse to teach it. If called on it, I'll have to retire early. I hope it won't come to that.
I've watched dangerous, angry, mentally-ill ED kids tear apart students on the playground and beat the snot out of them. The principal's solution? Take away the bully's recess and PUT HIM IN THE KIDERGARTEN CLASS TO WORK WITH K KIDS! Yeah, I'm not kidding. And another kid who thrashed another student within an inch of his life on the playground got a behavior referral, but not before my principal took him into our teacher staff room and bought him a cookie and Pepsi, telling him, "I know you're a good kid." My friend and I have watched as principals have come and go, and they all don't want to deal with bullying, harassment, violence, and apathy. Why? Because if they suspend a kid, that goes to the district office. The D.O. keeps statistics on how many suspensions there are. If there are too many, the principal looks bad and gets called on it. So, principals turn a blind eye.
A good example is about 8 years ago we had a new fifth grade teacher. The sixth grade teacher down the hall was having tons of trouble with this insane kid in his class. The kid told the teacher to "go F himself" and was beating up kids in the classroom! The teacher knew the principal wouldn't do anything, so he kicked the kid out, sent him to the new fifth grade teacher. The kid got mad at the new teacher when he got up to leave because Tom, the new teacher, gently touched his shoulders indicating "sit down, you're staying put." The kid went and got a baseball bat and ran at Tom, trying to swing it into his head and pummel him. The next day the mom of this psycho kid filed charges against TOM for touching his shoulders! Never mind the kid used a baseball bat!
The special ed system is a joke. They just do paperwork and tell parents what they want to hear. Speech is a joke. They meet with kids twice a week for 10 MINUTES!!! Then they make it "seem" that so much is going on. Sometimes they don't call kids for weeks.
For "Christmas" kids can sing and learn "Grandma got run over a reindeer," but anything about Christ is O-U-T!
Public education is in ashes. I'm too far in to get out now, and I fight my butt off to make a difference. But trust me, with these parameters, the public's stupidity, bad parenting, bullies and the PTA having more power than teachers, and just the modern secular junk we shovel, I don't believe in the very system I work in!
"As long as the experience isn't some super fanatic holy-roller wackadoodle cult..."
Well Gurney, I DID specify that this is Southern Baptist Convention!!!
As for private/religious vs public schools, my wife and I very much agree that we will likely go the public route. If we feel the need to go to a private school after 6th grade or so, it could likely be a boarding school whose practices we would vet heavily prior to any placement. We want our kids to be mainline Americans who also are good Orthodox Chrisitians.