Sydney Wells and her twin sister, Katharine, will not be attending the same public school as their friends this morning. Instead, the 11-year-olds will don white shirts, kilts and blazers for their first day at a private school.
Although they may not know anyone at Toronto's Havergal College, an all-girls school, their parents have enrolled them there during the critical middle-school years to give the pair a leg up.
"I'm nervous," Sydney admits, "because I don't have very many friends there. It will be fun. There's smaller classes, and it's more challenging and it's all girls."
That's exactly what her parents want to hear. With the onset of puberty, seismic social pressures and emotional changes that occur in the late preteen years, the Wells family and some others are turning from the public-school system.
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Instead, parents, including middle-income earners, are shopping around for the best educational fit for their children -- even if it means shelling out big bucks for private schools.
"It's a period when kids start maturing, so we are more concerned about their peer influences and issues of safety and the school environment," said Lynn Bosetti, an education professor at the University of Calgary, whose research deals with school choice. "Parents start looking toward finding a school that's more aligned with their values and beliefs."
Tony Wells, was intent on sending his daughters to a private school after they graduated from Grade 6. He did not like the smell of marijuana every time he passed the grounds of the local middle school.
"It's just a risk. I think they're much better off," Dr. Wells said. "It just makes no sense to me to send them to school where there's 600 hormone-crazed kids."
The choice is costing him about $25,000 a year for each child. But he feels that Sydney and Katharine, both of whom were on the honour roll, will have more opportunities in the private-school system than in the cash-strapped, overburdened public system.
"One of the secret weapons of private schools is that they offer you a lot of ways to rebel without getting yourself into serious trouble," Dr. Wells said.
The Wells family's story is familiar to Prof. Bosetti. Parents may send their children to the neighbourhood school when they are younger. But as the children hit junior high, she knows of nervous parents who work the phones and camp out for hours to ensure little Johnny or Mary a spot at what they consider to be the right school. Prof. Bosetti said there are no figures on how many parents send their children to private school for the middle-school years. But, she said, many consider it.
Public school boards are responding to this parental anxiety. Specialized charter schools in Calgary and alternative schools in Toronto offer an alternative to the public system without the cost -- and implied elitism -- of private schools.
"There's a real anxiety to colonize their child's future, to secure their place in the future," Prof. Bosetti said. "There's this anxiety among parents right now about needing their kids to be successful and needing them to be achievement oriented.
"And I think you as a parent have some say in that until your kids are a certain age."
The cost of enrolling her three boys in private school was a strain on Carolyn Boehm's finances. But she was determined to send them to Highroad Academy, an independent Christian school in Chilliwack, B.C., after elementary school.
"It was a financial sacrifice to have them in the private school," said Ms. Boehm, whose youngest is entering Grade 9 this year.
She doesn't regret it. Her youngest son, who was struggling in class, receives more attention in his smaller classes and is reading and writing at his grade level. And she believes the social environment has been better for the three boys.
"You don't hear kids swearing, and necking in the hallways is not allowed. The morals are at a higher standard," she said.
Some parents say that after the middle-school years, they may send their children back into a public high school. Cost is a big factor in this decision.
Laura Ross's 12-year-old daughter Emily will be attending private school with Sydney and Katharine.
"Financially, it's a very difficult decision. It is for anybody," said Ms. Ross, a consultant in the investment industry. "It's going to be a struggle. We're going to have to skip things."
Her reasons for moving Emily were similar to those of the Wells family: She didn't want her daughter lost in the public-school system at a time when she was undergoing physical and emotional changes.
As for keeping Emily in a private school, Ms. Ross said, "If we can afford it, we would love to keep her there."
The Wellses were content having their daughters in the public-school system through to Grade 6. But the decision to move away from the feeder middle school wasn't difficult.
"Now that you start to get into trouble with puberty and so on, now is the time to move," Dr. Wells said.作者: weili 时间: 2006-9-5 11:50 这篇文章，
