The Good, The Bad, The Rockin' Little Heartbeat: Vandy Edition

[Catgrad7072]

Is the cost of tuition worth the education, experience, etc.? I just can't imagine paying what amounts to a college tuition for my kid to go to high school.

In the humble opinion of this former (10 year) JCPS teacher, I wouldn't send my child to public schools in Jefferson County for the following reasons:

1. With very few exceptions, education has been replaced with socialization. The 'three R's', so to speak, go by the wayside when teachers are asked to teach skills and behaviors that are no longer taught at home.

2. Discipline is lax to non-existent. Standards for student conduct have been lowered in effort to reduce suspensions and make the numbers look good to the general public. Students know that there are few consequences for bad behavior. Following a lesson plan and teaching content, of any sort, is really difficult when teachers have to spend time controlling unruly children.

Yes, the cost of private education is worth it.

[Uncle Dave]

Question for Will (and any other parent that sends there kids to Trinity, St. X, etc.):

Is the cost of tuition worth the education, experience, etc.? I just can't imagine paying what amounts to a college tuition for my kid to go to high school.

Yes, it was worth it. My brothers and I spent 12 years in Catholic schools here in Louisville starting in the early '50s. We all went to St. X and loved it. When I went tuition was $575.00 per year lol. Tremendous academics, tight discipline(physical beatings were common), 130 year long tradition, great sports, life long friends with classmates and teachers. Regarding public schools, my daughter graduated from DuPont Manual. That school is THE exception here in Louisville I think. She got a free ride to Grinnell College in Iowa, and a half ride to University of Chicago's law school. Yes, I'm proud of her.

[Lighthouse]

I was yelling "Play defense!" with 1.6 seconds left and noted to Lighthouse that only parents are interested with 1.6 left in 14-point JV games.

And that's the truth.

[Lighthouse]

Public schools like Manual, Male and maybe Butler are the exceptions. Atherton had a good reputation, but I have no idea about now. Will can comment on them.

[Joneslab]

Atherton has actually become the second best public school in the city behind Manual. That's why we chose to send our son there, even though I kind of wanted him to go to Manual. We didn't know about Atherton's reputation until we started looking around, and I think we made the right choice. Atherton's diversity is one of its biggest draws, and one of the problems I noticed in Catholic school was that you're around the exact same type of kids for nine years. I think it's good for people to get out and experience different types of people and hear from different viewpoints.

We sent our kids to Catholic grade school but now I'm really not sure why other than my wife is a cradle Catholic. It was just something we decided on because at the time we had the money, and we live across from Fern Creek. At the time our kids started kindergarten Fern Creek schools were notoriously bad.

My son hasn't talked about anything wild at Atherton that I didn't hear about in eastern Kentucky. They had a fight the other day; we had a fight almost every day. They have students in in-school suspension. They have one student they have to actually walk to class because she screams in the hallways. You probably don't see that stuff at private schools.

But we couldn't pay 15 thousand dollars a year. That seems just absurd to me.

[catfaninin]

Miller has another home-grown gift committed for next year in 5-star Jackson-Davis. If he blows it with him too his tenure could be short.

TJD is a good player. But I don't see him as a superstar by any stretch. He will most likely get Keion Brooks as well. But those 2 replacing Morgan and Langford is a significant dropoff.

IU fans are already starting to panic. Mostly because they are totally delusional. They still want to imagine IU belongs in the elite program conversation when that has not been the case for years.

[teamchemistry15]

Regarding the public vs private school debate, I don't think any of it matters. I graduated from Seneca. It was statistically one of the worst schools in the city my graduating year. When I say "worst" I mean "dumbest." A core group of my graduating class kind of took exception to that and have shown that test scores don't predict the success in the future. Of that "dumb" graduating class we have a few dozen nurses, a handful of doctors, several business owners, a handful of us are earning six figures, highly decorated service men and women, high ranking law enforcement, and a number of other flat out successful people, including a two time Olympic athlete. That being said, it didn't matter if we were the worst school in America or an expensive private school, we were driven enough to be successful. I think that's the case in every school in every class. Some of the class is going to stand out above the rest. It was about 15% in our case. I see a few of them in some of the restaurants I deliver to making close to minimum wage. There's nothing wrong with that, but I know they are capable of more. On the other side of things, the class president from St. X from about 20 years ago works for me and a few of my friends from time to time. He might work seven or eight days a month giving us a long weekend or helping on a busy day, but hasnt expressed interest in learning more about our businesses in order to work more. The bottom line is some people are satisfied on just making it and some people always look for more, regardless of the education history. Good role models at home are far more important than the cost of school, IMO.

[Joneslab]

Regarding the public vs private school debate, I don't think any of it matters. I graduated from Seneca. It was statistically one of the worst schools in the city my graduating year. When I say "worst" I mean "dumbest." A core group of my graduating class kind of took exception to that and have shown that test scores don't predict the success in the future. Of that "dumb" graduating class we have a few dozen nurses, a handful of doctors, several business owners, a handful of us are earning six figures, highly decorated service men and women, high ranking law enforcement, and a number of other flat out successful people, including a two time Olympic athlete. That being said, it didn't matter if we were the worst school in America or an expensive private school, we were driven enough to be successful. I think that's the case in every school in every class. Some of the class is going to stand out above the rest. It was about 15% in our case. I see a few of them in some of the restaurants I deliver to making close to minimum wage. There's nothing wrong with that, but I know they are capable of more. On the other side of things, the class president from St. X from about 20 years ago works for me and a few of my friends from time to time. He might work seven or eight days a month giving us a long weekend or helping on a busy day, but hasnt expressed interest in learning more about our businesses in order to work more. The bottom line is some people are satisfied on just making it and some people always look for more, regardless of the education history. Good role models at home are far more important than the cost of school, IMO.

Good post.

I think it comes back to teachers. How good are the teachers? My wife went to Southern High School and was the valedictorian there, and Southern is traditionally among the worst in Louisville. But she loved it and has always said that she had great teachers.

Generally in a school if you aren't part of the group of students who are hell-raisers, the behavior issues that the other poster mentioned are not going to affect you. We had bands of racist, marauding goons in my eastern KY high school, but that wasn't my crew. What I remember more than those guys was the really good (and, unfortunately, really bad) teachers.

You're just as apt to have bad teachers in private schools as public. I know this from my kids' experience. However, what Trinity and St. X offer are massive amounts of extra-curriculars that public schools really can't match. If you go to Trinity for instance there isn't much of a difference in going to a college.

But is it worth 15 THOUSAND a year? It's hard for me to believe that it would be.

[Uncle Dave]

I agree with teamchemistry's great post. At St. X, 80% receive financial aid. That's fact. They have an enormous endowment. They absolutely promote diversity. You DON'T have to be Catholic to go there. 30 years ago I knew a family of refugees from South Vietnam, of all places, who sent 4 boys there and pretty much got a free ride. They were Buddhists. I'm glad...they were deserving. I know Jewish folk who graduated from there. Minorities. I have a dear friend who's daughter is a single mother raising her son. He's a great kid, and wants to go to St. X because they have a fishing club lol. I hope and pray he makes it. The idea that X is a school exclusively for rich, white kids with a silver spoon stuck up their ### is incorrect. My brothers and I worked part time jobs to help out. That's just the way it was.

[teamchemistry15]

Good post.

I think it comes back to teachers. How good are the teachers? My wife went to Southern High School and was the valedictorian there, and Southern is traditionally among the worst in Louisville. But she loved it and has always said that she had great teachers.

Generally in a school if you aren't part of the group of students who are hell-raisers, the behavior issues that the other poster mentioned are not going to affect you. We had bands of racist, marauding goons in my eastern KY high school, but that wasn't my crew. What I remember more than those guys was the really good (and, unfortunately, really bad) teachers.

You're just as apt to have bad teachers in private schools as public. I know this from my kids' experience. However, what Trinity and St. X offer are massive amounts of extra-curriculars that public schools really can't match. If you go to Trinity for instance there isn't much of a difference in going to a college.

But is it worth 15 THOUSAND a year? It's hard for me to believe that it would be.

Teachers for the win. I have a few teachers I am still in contact with. There are two from high school that had a HUGE impact on me, and I even still speak to one of my teachers from elementary school and I am 31 years old. Even moreso today, but growing up in my generation there were a lot of temptations. I know every generation/decade had their options for paraphernalia, but things are just so darn easily accessible. Like, I have only done one illegal drug in my lifetime. I smoked pot when I was 21 one time. But, if you give me about an hour I could realistically have any amount of any drug you want. Having influences in life with teachers who aren't afraid to put in the work to keep you on the straight and narrow is invaluable. I was also involved with the YMCA's Leader's Club. I still speak with the coordinator I had during my time there. As a matter of fact, writing this makes me realize I probably need to reach out and thank them all for helping shape me into who I am. I know I have my flaws, I've made my mistakes, and I'm FAR from perfect, but I could be doing a lot worse in life.

[Joneslab]

I agree with teamchemistry's great post. At St. X, 80% receive financial aid. That's fact.

Well, this is a fact but it doesn't tell a whole story.

The diocese will help you out but they often won't help you out a ton. They have to rely on the money they get in the fund; some years that's quite a lot, other years it isn't.

A relative of mine is at St. X. He scored a 99 percentile on the entrance test. They're far, far from rich but really wanted him to go to Catholic school. They worked with St. X hard to get this kid financial aid. The aid they ended up getting was underwhelming to say the least.

We're on financial aid at our Catholic grade school. Have been for years. It's a great help but it doesn't put much of a dent in the tuition tbh.

I agree that these schools aren't just for rich white kids. But that doesn't mean it's not very hard for the average working class family to send their kids there. Trinity/St. X are so expensive it would've taken a monumental amount of financial aid for it to happen for us.

[TrueblueCATfan]

I always hated getting into the private/public school debate......both of my daughters graduated from public schools....oldest went to Male and youngest went to Seneca....they both worked hard to get good grades.....they both went on to college and both have very successful jobs now making very good money and they would have done that had they gone to a private school......school is all about what you want to put into it

[J.Jennings]

Back to Vanderbilt, still can't believe we went downt there and beat them down to a pulp, that place is a hard place to play even when Vandy is playing a bunch of 1 stars, Cats flexed muscle that game!!!!!!!!!!

[Lighthouse]

Well, this is a fact but it doesn't tell a whole story.

The diocese will help you out but they often won't help you out a ton. They have to rely on the money they get in the fund; some years that's quite a lot, other years it isn't.

A relative of mine is at St. X. He scored a 99 percentile on the entrance test. They're far, far from rich but really wanted him to go to Catholic school. They worked with St. X hard to get this kid financial aid. The aid they ended up getting was underwhelming to say the least.

We're on financial aid at our Catholic grade school. Have been for years. It's a great help but it doesn't put much of a dent in the tuition tbh.

I agree that these schools aren't just for rich white kids. But that doesn't mean it's not very hard for the average working class family to send their kids there. Trinity/St. X are so expensive it would've taken a monumental amount of financial aid for it to happen for us.

I agree with this unless a kid is a star middle school athlete. Then it gets much easier.

[Joneslab]

I agree with this unless a kid is a star middle school athlete. Then it gets much easier.

Yep. I may have told you this the other night, but I heard last year that Trinity was sending an assistant coach into Indiana and picking up two kids on the basketball team every single morning.