Let’s face it, parents.  Your child isn’t that smart.  At least, not as smart as you think he/she is.

Your child is not that talented.  In a world where everyone can sing, dance, act, or do whatever silly thing will land them on You Tube or the Ellen DeGeneres Show, then singing, dancing, and acting cease to be special.

Your child is not particularly athletically inclined.  Maybe she is the hotshot on the local softball team, or perhaps your kid is a talented soccer star on the elite select club team in your county.  The reality is that the chances of them playing in college or beyond grow increasingly slim as the years pass, and you’d better have a backup plan handy when those truly destined for the pros overtake them.

The truth of the matter is that your child is most likely possessed of average to above average intelligence, and maybe a modicum of skill in some other area.  Like most other children, your child has strengths and weaknesses which will need cultivation and work, and they will need strong adult role models other than yourselves to help guide them through life.

Your child will need to be exposed to a wide variety of experiences and meet a diverse group of people in order to get along in this world.  They will need to be able to work cooperatively with others, problem-solve, and communicate effectively.  They will need to take classes that engage them intellectually without burying them in a pit of busy work.  They will need to become involved in something other than academics in order to indirectly foster some of the 21st Century Skills that everyone is talking about but few really know how to implement or directly teach.

In short, you need to send your kid to public school.

Don’t waste your time with This or That Academy, X or Y Prep, or whatever exclusive high school is in your area.  Save your money.  Your local public high school will do a fine job of educating your child.  Your child will be able to go to college if they want, and they will have the opportunity to participate in band, or badminton, or join a service club – or all three if they are really motivated.

I know what I’m talking about.  I’m a public school teacher, and in many cases I know better than you what’s best for your child.

I realize that there are some pretty crappy public school out there.  There are some pretty crappy public school teachers.  There are schools that do not offer all of the enrichment opportunities that private schools do.  However there are just as many exclusive, private and parochial schools that are not as wonderful as their marketing materials suggest.  Don’t be swayed by the number of PhD’s on the teaching staff, either. Since when does having a doctorate count more than a teaching credential?  Can they work a room of teenagers and inspire them to think creatively and to learn things they’ve never learned before?  Maybe so…

I have worked in private schools, and I am not completely blind to the allure and the promise of a better and more complete education that these institutions offer.  The promise is what sells, but the results do not bear weight.  Your child will get a just as good, if a not a better, more complete education at your local public school.  I see it everyday in the teachers that I encounter, the classes I have been in, and the opportunities presented for students to become involved and step outside of the academic bubble.

Some parents I have met want their kids to attend private schools because they are afraid of the “social element” at public schools.  They are concerned with bullying, gangs, violence, drugs, and large class sizes filled with unruly, unmotivated kids.  It’s true that public schools take everyone who comes to their door – “the sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads” – to coin a phrase from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.  Public school takes them all.  There will be elements of all of the aforementioned, everyday – and they will need to navigate their way through it.  Just as you and I did, attending Dead President or Long Forgotten Community Benefactor High School so many years ago.

Do you think all these personalities suddenly disappear when your child enters the workforce?  Look around you.  They are still there, just as their adult selves, still making their way through life as we all are.  Don’t shut your child away in a place where whichever undesirable element has been eliminated.  Expose them to everything society has to offer, and send them to public school.

Years ago this is what we all did.  Walked or drove to the local public high, endured the blatherings of our un-PhD-ed teachers, avoided the mean kids, huddled and laughed with our friends, went to football games, attended club meetings, dealt with sex and drugs and Rock n’ Roll, and somehow turned out fine.

Somehow this isn’t a good idea anymore.  That what we had wasn’t enough.  That what we went through was so terrible that we can’t possibly make our child endure the same indignity.  That our education was so lacking that we need to spend thousands of dollars to send our sons and daughters to exclusive schools in order to provide them the opportunities we feel we have missed, or should have had.  Who is our child’s education for…?  Us?  Them?

Send your kid to public school.

They will be fine.  They will learn things.  They can take challenging classes.  They can meet new people.  They can learn how to balance and present oneself in our complex, multiracial society.  They can talk to counselors that can help them deal with stressful personal or academic problems.  They will meet wonderful teachers and also meet some duds.  They will become young adults.

Send your kid to public school.