#but i am no longer convinced that would make a difference partly bc segregation and partly bc like

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

nightmarish (and probably racist) private school parents contributed significantly to the nightmare year that ultimately killed my willingness to continue with classroom teaching (aka the dream of my entire adulthood to that point) for good, and also several of them drove close personal friends of mine completely bugfuck crazy, so, like, i'm really not emotionally invested in defending private school parents as a demographic. but i do find that a lot of discourse around the motivations of private school parents in choosing private school feel to me misguided and more interested in moralistic grandstanding than in accuracy (on the INTERNET? crazy, i know). and i am saying this now and thinking about it now because the number of these things i had to deal with in high school was: zero!

#i mean there were other things about my high school experience i didn't realize were fucked up until i was an adult #and my high school experience definitely contributed to the Problems of me and several people i know #but. i dunno. #i think that people tend to assume private schools are basically the same as public schools but with like #different (whiter/richer) student demographics #and maybe more APs or whatever #that is really not true to my experience as someone who has spent a lot of time in both #(also residential segregation is so intense i think even the demographic question is more complicated than people assume) #(the whitest school i attended in my life was the westchester public school where i spent first and second grade) #(diversity in that classroom was like. me a japanese girl and a kid whose dad tried to keep his jewishness on the DL) #also i used to think private schools should be illegal so that rich parents would have to invest in the public school system #but i am no longer convinced that would make a difference partly bc segregation and partly bc like #parents also don't know what makes schools good #the private elementary schools i taught in the parents thought we were doing a great job pedagogically and we were Not as i came to realize