Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I went to both public and private, I hated the private school, and the education was not different. I guess it would depend on the schools, The school my kids go to is great, I think they have 15 students per teacher and always get great reviews.

In private schools there is elitism amongst the richer kids more so than in public schools.

If a kid is eating fresh produce from an aquaponics system then they will be better able to concentrate and retain information. Also because of the DIY nature of aquaponics it gives your child problem solving skills and empowers them to be thinkers instead of parrots.

I reckon parenting has alot to do with an education as well and is perhaps more important than the particular educational institution and I'm pretty sure Charlie that you would be an excellent parent judging by your friendly nature and positive outlook here in the forum.

Oddly, when I was in school, I loathed the idea of going to private school. I remember a lot of students that were former private school students that hated it. Then again, I didn't spend much time with students that were still in private school, so I may have had a one sided view. Homeschooled students, for the most part, seemed quite happy about it.

I did not see anyone mentions that the most important factor is the parents!
Not parent, but parents. We never ever used baby sitters and always spend time with children. As I have mentioned, there is a price for everything in life.
Our children went to public school all through high school and then to North Carolina State University. We only got Electrical Engineers and Nuclear Engineers out of them. Thanks God the last one finished this May with a degree in Nuclear Engineering.
When they were going through public schooling, every night I checked the science and math home works and my wife worked with the other subjects. We were sure they know almost everything in books. My son and Daughter told me so many times that, "but teacher did not cover these pages in the class."
My answer was, whatever is in these books, you better learn from!

Some think that schools are responsible for educating our children, NO, the PARENTS are responsible for everything, and that will includes the children's education.
And there is no such thing as a bad kid, only bad parents!
And that is honest to God the truth.

I went to a private school and in my case it wasn't worth it but I was never very academic any way.

Also these days with the internet one can learn just about anything for FREE.

http://www.khanacademy.org/

The above web site is a prime example. Then there is youtube for additional help and yahoo answers if you are still having trouble there will be someone out there smart enough to give assistance.

I think the University of QLD will be making their curriculum avaialble for free online.

Many variables come into play however parenting and upbringing are definitely important.

Encouragement, praise when due and freedom to pursue their passion Like aquaponics for example

On the flip side:

Bill Gates dropped out.

Steve Jobs dropped out.

Richard Branson suffers from dyslexia and performed poorly in acedemics.

Just shows how good school is in making us successful.
School teaches us to be good employees.. not how to be an entrepreneur, understand basic economics and learn to think independently.

But without good employees, entrepreneurs won't go anywhere. If everyone is a free thinking entrepreneurial type, who does the crap work? As with all pyramids you need a large solid base to support all that's above it..

Agreed!

I have met Canadaian students who have transfered to Australia to finish their studies and they can't believe how far behind the Australian students are.

Send your kids to boarding school in the UK. They will get the mickey taken out of them because of the accents and 'Neighbours' but they will learn more, experience a different culture (what's left of it) and broaden their horizons, plus with the exchange rate at the moment you could get it relatively cheaply.

Plus you get the house to yourself.

Disclaimer: I was sent to boarding school in the UK, it didn't do me any visible harm

If you have a Montessori school near you it would be worth your while to look at it its not cheep but you can give your kids a great start to life you are not stuck in a box and told this is how we teach our kids and thats it take it or leave it both private and public schools can do this to your kids
in Montessori they treat each child as an individual and are guided in their learning and are taught how to teach themselves which in its self is is a great skill learnt for life

Success is also subjective.

If a child grows up to become self sufficient then that is successful in my mind however if everyone did everything for themselves we might not get specialization and advanced technologies that improve our standard of living.

A hybrid system, where people are somewhat self sufficient and also spendng time working would increase the standard of living across the board in my opinion.

The other day I was wondering if there is a country in the world that has a high standard of living, is not in debt and does not rely heavily on exports to keep the economy running. I guess you would class such a country as self sufficient and in the eyes of the world a successful country.

That type of school seems very interesting red beard, treating children as individuals and laying a strong foundation.

This is a generalization: if someone is an extrovert then they are more suited to being the face of a company and if someone is introverted then they are more suited to working beind the scenes.

I remember watching a video from silicon valley and a lady said that she is like an ant because she likes to build things and the venture capitalists are like lions sitting under a tree waiting for their prey i.e. the next smart minds. (This is only a simple analogy) She then goes on to say that if you are inroverted find an extrovert to work with and vice versa.

IQ, communication skills, experience, wisdom, intuition all play a role and if you lack in one area then team up.

So as earthbound said you can't have one without the other unless of course you are Tony Stark and your butler is an A.I. robot.

watching this with interest. My wife teaches primary level and attended private schools herself while I attended public. One thing she thinks her education lacked was instilling resilience - the private schools treated their students as too 'special' - 'you can be anything you want in the world little Bobby'.

Another thing she has found from working in several private schools is that there can be a higher proportion of 'special' kids. i.e. the parents think there kids are more special than others and send them to private schools and so there can be a higher proportion of 'spoiled' kids sometimes.

Personally I'd favour a good public school over a private anytime and spend the spare change on family travel, fishing gear and aquaponics

We don't have kids at present, though are considering moving areas so that we have a better selection of public schools in the future.