Is Prep School Worth It?
With all of our daily banter about target schools and top MBA programs, a key piece of the puzzle often gets lost in the shuffle.
Elite preparatory schools have become just as much of a fast track to Wall Street as an Ivy League education...if not more so. There is apparently an upstart trying to break into this cartel of prestige.
In this battle of the haves versus the have-mores it is pretty tough to pick a side.
Objectively speaking, most of us would rather ignore the impact of private schooling.
The silver spoon crowd doesn't like being reminded of the game's rigging in their favor.
The tin lunch box crowd likes being reminded of their steeper climb even less.
I do, however, think it is about time we had an honest debate about the Pros and Cons of elite prep/private schools and the young aristocracy breeding machine of modern America.
As usual, I am going to give you guys the blue collar caveman perspective and you fine gentlemen can feel free to squelch my Neanderthal logic.
Why Private Schools Suck
1) I may talk a lot of trash about unions and public schools, but they are a great entry into reality. Overcrowded rooms, lazy bureaucrats and a system which funnels rather than nurtures...such is life...such is reality.
Though we don't have anyone to explain it to us at the time, a public school education prepares us for the daily reality of disappointment which all organized societies toil in.
In an odd way, even though public school doesn't prepare most for the real world...it actually does, since the world itself is unprepared.
Private schools on the other hand create a money based sense of order and logic which is great in a society which can afford it...newsflash:
America is not that society.
2) There is absolutely nothing wrong with putting your money to work. Whether we are talking about investing in stock or in education. Simultaneously, when who you blow becomes far more valuable than what you know there are serious storms on the horizon.
Take the following quote:
The school aims to take pupils to “global preparedness” by offering terms in Mumbai or Shanghai, fluency in a foreign language. Chelsea Piers, a sports complex in the neighborhood favored by ice hockey, basketball and squash dads, will help provide physical education.
Is this really of benefit to a developing child? Or is it more so the expulsion of masturbatory overachiever tendencies on the part of their parents?
Will speaking Mandarin and mastering squash help me in business? Undoubtedly.
Am I really going to be a complete person capable of doing business in a global landscape without once having stepped outside of my parent provided bubble?
Not friggin' likely.
3) Are intelligence and skills truly products which can be bought on the open market?
Can ~$40K a year for 12 years really make your kid a better person and a greater success in life?
I constantly hear about how HYP>XYZ due to some professed superiority of staffing, materials and resources...
Yet every single day life proves to me that those who compete hardest wind up on the gold medal podium.
Most of these winners do not come from the lap of luxury and the pocket of prestige, is it thereby logical to reason that the private school route is not the fast track to success?
Does being handed the keys to the kingdom before you're old enough to drive really give you a leg up?
Or does it actually handicap you in the long run?







Comments
Fully agree on everything you
Fully agree on everything you said.
Private elite schooling provides certain advantages...but it also breeds complacency. The negative effects of the latter usually prevails.
I fully sport prep school for
I fully sport prep school for high school... not worth it for lower levels...
new england prep schools.
new england prep schools. could not imagine going to school with "the masses"
Then how do you anticipate
Then how do you anticipate competing with the masses?
I went to an elite British
I went to an elite British boarding school (Eton/Harrow/Windsor) and it was absolutely the best thing my parents ever did for me.
Quote: Yet every single day
Yet every single day life proves to me that those who compete hardest wind up on the gold medal podium.
While I agree with this statement, I strongly believe that private schools give certain individuals a leg up. My comparison would be to athlete's training. Those who get up early, work out longer, and push themselves more will end up performing at their best on the field. However, those athletes, who have better facilities, coaches, and support systems definitely get a leg up. While those support systems don't guarantee success by any means, those who choose who to take advantage of what they are given will do better than those who don't and those who don't have the support systems.
Private school/prep school doesn't guarantee anybody the gold medal podium but it does help those who would push themselves anyway to even greater heights.
Midas Mulligan Magoo
Yet every single day life proves to me that those who compete hardest wind up on the gold medal podium.
Sounds like the key to success is to teach kids to want to compete and excel. This sounds more like a parenting problem than a schooling one to me.
This is also not always an
This is also not always an apples to apples comparison.
If I stay in the town I currently live (fairly nice Chicago suburbs) my future children will be going to public schools. However, if I get the urge to move the family into a high-rise in the city it would be prep school all the way.
It depends on your future goals and alternative options. I want my future children to be well-rounded, smart and driven. They don't need to be pigeon-holed geniuses. If my future kids don't work at GS, that's ok with me.
Note: * I went to a crappy
Note: * I went to a crappy public school in North Carolina*
I think prep school is helpful in some respects, as in getting into a better college and getting a better education/preparing you better for the educational road ahead. But at the same time, it is very insular. I went to private middle and elementary schools and the difference between them is striking. Where academic excellence is promoted at the private school, at the public one it is derided. But, there is no exposure to different walks of life at a private school- prep or otherwise. Trust me, you don't know the world until the dude that sits next to you in your Civics class is being chased down the hall by a cadre of cops and then is slammed to the floor, handcuffed, and his GIANT bag of heroin confiscated. Ahh....real shit.
Reality hits you hard, bro...
Does it give you better
Does it give you better exposure to the elite circles of society? Yes. Does it better prepare you for life? I would say no. I've met one kid from boarding school that was an actual human being, and he absolutely loathed everyone else at Deerfield because of how awful their mentality was. I hate the notion of entitlement, if it's the preppiest trust fund baby expecting a Ferrari at 16 or the hoodrat black kid waiting on his weekly food stamps while flunking out of 8th grade for the third year in a row, that attitude sickens me.
A lot of people do certain things to add days to their life. I do things to add life to my days.
I don't think it can really
I don't think it can really be disputed that going to better schools gets more exposure to banking/consulting/etc. The main question I think is if people who get to that point actually do better at their jobs. I think no
Also, its not a really
Also, its not a really accurate assumption that "the best" go to private schools...There is plenty of competition at the top of public schools (with regard to education and women), and many of the kids are no less intelligent or competitive or willing to work hard. It's somewhat of a ridiculous concept to think that an 8th grader getting placed into private school or public school knows how smart he is, or will be
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networking networking networking
If you raise your kids level
If you raise your kids level headed - make them get a job, chores, volunteer, get them a Honda instead of a Ferrari at 16, and smack them around a bit when needed plus give them the opportunity to attend a top private school ----- he is going to turn out to be a pretty good kid.
The coke addicted dicks I've met have all had one thing in common. Parents who were just as self centered and spoiled as they are.
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I've been observing my aunt
I've been observing my aunt and uncle's incredible success at homeschooling their 5 kids. Of the 3 adult kids, one is a newly minted CPA, one an NSA code breaker, and one a registered nurse and brilliant woman and mother. The system they and their homeschool peers practice costs about $1,000 or less per pupil annually. And these kids are and were highly involved in the community--sports, theatre, church, music, volunteer work etc-- more than most public/private kids.
My experience involved going
Work hard, play hard.
several of my college friends
I dont think I would ever
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Virginia Tech 4ever
Prep school is all about what
My kids will go to prep
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
I think prep schools are
I went to a normal public
Midas Mulligan Magoo
See my WSO Blog
It definitely relates to the
Wow, pretty much everything I
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Some people push themselves.
A poor Catholic school in the
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It would be Duncanville
wrm276 wrote: several of my
I started out in public
freroht wrote: Not to nitpick
Edmundo Braverman wrote: I
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
We love you Va. Tech, but
Work hard, play hard.
Having been a public school
"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."
Theodore Roosevelt
im pretty sure ill be going
I need a crib, a big estate, I need a boat and that need a lake, I need some salmon that need a plate, that need a chef so I feed my safe
From trading equities to slanging wine in Latin America
A ship is safe in harbor, but that is not what a ship i
shorttheworld wrote: you all
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tiredese because i was too
I need a crib, a big estate, I need a boat and that need a lake, I need some salmon that need a plate, that need a chef so I feed my safe
From trading equities to slanging wine in Latin America
A ship is safe in harbor, but that is not what a ship i
shorttheworld wrote: busty
Where I unload on Twits and take verbal S***s
I think it is worth
Private/Prep schools provide
How does MMM have no SB's for
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WSO is not your personal search function.
I would like to date a girl
there are just as many
awm55 wrote: That being said,
Work hard, play hard.
blackfinancier wrote: How
I need a crib, a big estate, I need a boat and that need a lake, I need some salmon that need a plate, that need a chef so I feed my safe
From trading equities to slanging wine in Latin America
A ship is safe in harbor, but that is not what a ship i
shorttheworld
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
LLcoolJ wrote: there are just
Work hard, play hard.
My kids are going to go to a
shorttheworld