Statistics show that public schools are failing miserably in a lot of areas. Everybody seems to think that charter schools or private schools are the answer because they tend to do better.

Of course they do better.

Private schools, for example, are easily spotted as to why they do better. Going to their school is a privilege, not a right. Which means that a private school doesn't have to put up with nearly as many delinquents, kids with learning disabilities, lazy kids, or decent, normal kids but maybe book-smarts isn't exactly their thing. A public school does.

As for charter schools, they would tend to have a specific focus, usually on either the arts or math. This means that the kids getting in are going to be gifted in one of these two areas, meaning that they were probably going to be amongst the more successful students, anyway.

Basically, either one, because of their very natures, have a much greater proportion of the "academically gifted". And, in the private school's case, if Little Johnny can't make the cut normally, mommy and daddy probably have the money to get him enough tutors that he'll do okay.

Both are also exempted from a lot of the normal requirements, meaning that the teachers can actually teach rather than just teaching to the test.

The bottom line is that they're not necessarily inherently better. They just look better on paper because the odds are stacked in their favor with a bunch of eggheads, rich kids, and looser restrictions.

Technical high schools do better and they are public. They have better attendance, better grades, better continuing education/employment rate and a much higher graduation ratio. It is because the kid actually gets to do something they're interested in for a large part of the day.

The one I went to had medical, computer engineering, mechanical engineering, design, auto mechanics, cosmetology, business and a bunch of other areas of study.

The main class was 3 hours long with 3 hours of normal classes. It was actually useful for my future unlike most classes in normal schools. The school also gave the ability to earn college credits in that specified area of study.

The kids and teachers were so much nicer for some reason too. I think it was a combination of being happier and getting more sleep since the school started at 8:30am instead of 7:00am like most. It also takes a certain type of person to leave their high school and come to a new one at their own will. We had ambition I guess.

What we are doing here is a new idea of having "free" schools. Basically giving the opportunity for anyone to run schools, from business's to parent groups, charities and faith organisations. I have 2 close friends who are teachers, both are considering setting up their own free school.

It just means people are able to take control of their schools and offer something different and a bit more dynamic than the current system. Both my friends have visited schools in Sweden and Japan to get some ideas on how to do things differently. Their ideas are very interesting and completely different to the current model we have here in the UK.

yeah i'm kinda glad i chose to go to a boarding school. There were a greater number of pupils that wanted to learn and in most subjects we had teachers who could actually teach so i got to learn how to understand the subjects rather than the teachers turning me into a BS dispenser that just absorbs the answers to exam questions and spits them out perfectly at the required time. Sadly i had a lot of friends that would still just learn the answers and not the understanding and then they wonder why i could get good grades in exams without hours and hours of revision.

tbh the biggest thing i couldn't understand at school is why people spent hours and hours memorising answers when they could just learn to understand the subject matter and then the answers would seem obvious because you would understand why it is the answer.