It's not "too early" to invest in your child

Learn about the costs of "free" education, and why it's a good idea to invest in early childhood education.

On this episode: 

• The origins of public schooling in the United States
• How multilingual learners are disadvantaged in U.S. public schools
• Student perspective: the value of a private school education
• Talking the language of wins — are you setting your child up for success?

Decoding Education is the podcast that brings together research, experience, and community voices to answer your burning questions about preschool through grade eight education. Brought to you by Cedar Hill Preparatory School in Somerset, New Jersey.

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Transcript

Tori Marchiony:

Hello and welcome to another episode of Decoding Education from Cedar Hill Preparatory School in Somerset, New Jersey, the podcast that brings together research, experience, and community voices to answer your burning questions about preschool through grade eight education. I'm Tori Marchiony, a content producer who is fascinated by all things education. I came up through a top ranking public school system where I earned an IB diploma before getting a bachelor's at a public university. 

Ahead, you'll hear a conversation between myself and Cedar Hill Prep’s brilliant founder, Nandini Menon, who is nearly finished earning her EDD in education. Specifically, mind, brain, and teaching from Johns Hopkins University. So I bring a lot of curiosity and enthusiasm while she brings the real expertise. 

Tori:

It is intimidating for a lot of people, especially when they believe that there is a free option, that by virtue of already living in a place they have free education for their kid. So there's this mentality of free versus a big investment at a time period that we have been conditioned not to value. So I'm just curious if you have any advice to people for how they can recalibrate their mindset around that and make it happen.

Miss Nan:

So just historically, if we look at the whole concept of free education and tie it to the birth of the United States of America, we had people from different countries that came here, we had all the different European groups come and have enclaves, let's put it. In order to be the United States of America, it was useful to have an indoctrination system. Those days, you had your church schools.So at that time, they said “No, but you have the German Church, the French Church, the Dutch church, but how do we teach them the American Way?” Now they won’t come to a public school unless it's free. So free schooling was the only way to get all of them to learn a uniform way, so that as a country we had one paradigm. 

But do you know, in those days, we started with a deficit perspective. There were certain cultures- the Irish culture, the- you know, whoever was a later immigrant, was discriminated against. Our country is built on the deficit syndrome. To see someone as less. We adopted the British education system, but we didn't adopt their vernacular system. British education still is embracing of multilinguals. American education is that the multilinguals are lesser than the monolingual. If you look at your brain, if someone knows more than one language there's more parts of their brain that are developed. If you speak only one language, less. But hey, we're not going to make that part of the public education paradigm. 

Now tell me something. If I was to give you a grocery product for free, do you think I can give you milk from this organic farm, which makes sure that the cows are just grass fed, etc. 

Tori:

That’s the government cheese.

Miss Nan:

So my point is this. How much can you get for free? Like how can you expect an Ivy League education for free? How can you expect to get a Mercedes Benz for free? Will you get paid to be a surgeon without going to school? To be that? So my point is, when are we going to examine our wants and desires against what can happen for the amount we are putting out? And what can you get for your child without you being an engaged parent?

Chris Maleakey:

My name is Chris Maleakey. I'm 15 years old and I'm currently a sophomore in high school. From grades one through seven I went to public school in elementary and middle school, and chose for my eighth grade to go to a private K through eight school. Upon completion of my eighth grade, I had the option of either going back to my public high school, which at the time was one of the top public high schools in all of New Jersey, or going through the admission process to get into a private school. I noticed some key differences in both my experiences of learning, and today I'm going to reflect and share them with you all.

So I thoroughly enjoyed my public school. It gave me opportunities to meet new people, to make new friends, to expand my knowledge because we covered a lot of material. It taught me how to take notes efficiently. It gave me opportunities to enter different competitions, and it gave me opportunities to immerse myself in music. So for that I have zero regrets about going there, I enjoyed it. 

But it wasn't until that I went to private school in eighth grade that I realized that there are different levels to which a student can be actually challenged. I- from the moment I stepped foot in my classroom and went to my first class, I found something really special. The teachers really, really cared about our learning. They desire to teach us, they desire for us to enjoy learning. And guess what, what I found that really shocked me was the students were so eager to learn. They had such a hunger and desire to learn so many new things. And I thought that was so awesome. And I was so happy to actually be a part of that, you know. 

Because the classroom size is so small, it gave me an opportunity to really connect with all my teachers. And it gave them the opportunity, the ability, to help me whenever I needed. If there was something that I didn't understand, they would go out of their way and make time so that they could meet with me and I could understand it, which I never had the opportunity to do before. 

The thing about private school that I found is that, yes, there's a textbook, there's a curriculum, but that's just for some sort of structure. They're really teaching you the things that you will need the most to apply to your life in the future to prepare you for college. They teach you not necessarily for the sake of finishing a curriculum, but for the sake of your development as a student and your growth, and for your future. 

I also learned that you're part of a community, a family, when you're there. You're constantly supported by your classmates, your peers, your teachers. They're always there for you. And I was taught life skills. Aside from academics, I was not just taught to be a good student, but most importantly, a good person, a good citizen. I had the ability to speak my mind, not just my peers, my classmates, my friends, but to my teachers. It was someone that I looked up to, and they were able to guide me. 

You know, even though I don't have any regrets about going to public school, I wished that I started my private school experience earlier. But after eighth grade I figured that I had a strong foundation, I've experienced both a public and a private school experience, and knowing that my public high school had a variety of programs, I figured I'd be fine in either place. But eventually, I applied to many different private high schools. I got into one that I really liked, and I decided to go, and let me just say, I think I made the completely right decision. 

Because talking to some of my friends that are still at public high school- in the public school program, I found one key difference between me and them was that I was so happy. I enjoyed going to school every single day, they grudgingly went. They had hours and hours of work assessments. Teachers kept piling work on them more and more and more. They didn't have time to live their life, to enjoy school. They hated school! They said, “you're so lucky, you actually enjoy school.” They said, “it's a pain getting out of bed every morning knowing we have to go to school.” And one big thing I also found was that in public school, I was tested and taught for proficiency, for my memorization skills. But in private school, I was really tested and taught for the sake of my understanding. And I was tested on mastery, true application of the concepts, so that in my future I would be the best prepared. And that's why I can say I have no regrets going to public school, but going to private school and switching over from the public school program to a private, independent school program was one of the greatest decisions I've ever made my entire life.

Miss Nan:

Children can handle rigor,\. I have yet to find a child who couldn't handle it. If they couldn't, it was motivation. Or they had that- that period because they came from another environment where it was never done, and so they need that steep learning curve. But we support them. That's called scaffolding. When you come to a school that has the right intent, we will provide that child the true scaffold to get them up to all the other peers. And then when they start playing their A game? Oh my god, they preen! They're so thrilled because children love succeeding.Children want to succeed, they love wins. So let's talk that language of wins. 

And you know, right, nine out of 10 children, I know for a fact, complain about science fair, complain about science fair reports. But my better kids, when they join high school, they come running back, “Miss Nan, we were the only ones who knew how to write a scientific paper. We were the only ones how to do the citation index so early.” Because we teach that. From very young. We do science fair from preschool all the way up. 

Because to me, when you introduce the real framework of learning from very young, it becomes as easy as brushing your teeth. It becomes automatic. Automaticity is the key to memory making. Automaticity is the key to academic muscle. When you teach children, they- and you know how we all love to joke, “you don't know what you don't know.” Now you're teaching them what they need to know. So they need to know what these vocabulary words mean. You teach them how they should write an academic paper and expository essay. Tell me now, aren’t those all life skills that you need to submit a business proposal? So then if you have half the parents saying, “no homework, no assignments, nothing. They go to school, they finish it. After that it's our time.” All I can say is, “that's the choice you can make for your child. But is that setting them up for success?”

Tori:

Thank you so much, Ms. Nan, and thank you audience for listening. Be sure to tune in next time. If you're considering private education for your child, your next step is finding the school that's the best fit for their specific needs. And the best way to do that is to get on campus for a tour. Cedar Hill Prep is currently enrolling for the 23-24 academic school year, so be sure to check out the link in our description to sign up for an open house or call 732-356-5400 to book a private campus tour with CHP’s admissions director Donna. We can't wait to meet you. Until next time, this has been Decoding Education from Cedar Hill Prep School. Thanks for listening.