Private schools

[scandinavian]

2 things to the OP:

1) If you decide to live in a "up-scale" municipality like Las Condes, Vitacura. La Reina, then the public schools tend to be better as well. I have heard quite positive things about the public shcools in Vitacura for example. Try to contact a few.

2) yes, the enrollment fee is really high, but some private schools will be OK with you paying a reduced fee (or none at all) if it is certain that you will only stay for 1 or 2 years.

The semester starts around 1/8, so if I were you I would start sending emails out to a whole range of schools now. Public and private. get somebody to help you with translating it to Spanish and you will probably get a higher reply rate.

[estela_zj]

I think short-term a good subvencionado or more economical private school might be an OK option. Subvencionados are the same thing as the hybrid public/private option that some others had mentioned here.

Our daughter is in one where we live, mostly because of the fact that it's one of the only places that had open spots. If your son is 10, it might be hard to find spots in your schools of choice. In our experience, most of the private schools and even the more popular subvencionados have super-limited space in any grade after Kindergarten. Heck, the only reason we could get into the school she's in now is because my wife was an alum there. Otherwise, we would have had to enter the lottery and hope our number was called.

Hi bones,
Thank you for the advice, I will look for subvecionado as well. I will keep the limited opening in mind as well.

[estela_zj]

2 things to the OP:

1) If you decide to live in a "up-scale" municipality like Las Condes, Vitacura. La Reina, then the public schools tend to be better as well. I have heard quite positive things about the public shcools in Vitacura for example. Try to contact a few.

2) yes, the enrollment fee is really high, but some private schools will be OK with you paying a reduced fee (or none at all) if it is certain that you will only stay for 1 or 2 years.

The semester starts around 1/8, so if I were you I would start sending emails out to a whole range of schools now. Public and private. get somebody to help you with translating it to Spanish and you will probably get a higher reply rate.

Hi scandinavian,

Thank you again. I will add Las Condes, Vitacura. La Reina to my search list.

[estela_zj]

Estela_zj, probably would be wise to find a sort of Skype "penpal" for him on line to teach him few words at least to get familiarized. Someone his age with english background as well....just thinking.

Hi Gloria,
Yeah, I can try to find one for him. He is learning through a kids' app right now.

[41southchile]

The private schools, on the extreme top end, are worth it, if your kid is going to live in chile long-term. It really is about the connections. Those are the contacts that will make or break a professional carrear in just about everything for the rest of their life.

It will determine what university they go to, probably who they marrry, where they work, how fast they are promoted, and so on.

Is that fair? Hell no, but it is the game that is played. Are you really going to cripple your kids future to make some sort of social justice statement? No one one is going to care, or even notice.

I was running the numbers on my nephews and nieces tution at private scools, and realized putting that money in to a index fund for 10 to 20 years would probably yield sufficient money they would never need to work again.

But...., those contacts they make will be in the circle that run the country, pretty much insures they will make 10 times, at least, what a compariable kid that went to a public school just in life opertunities.

Look at the entire congress of chile. How about the presidents of chile? What universities did they go to? Hell, even a lot of the communist party members went to the university of chile, catholica, or one of the other big named schools.

But if you have a kid here for few months it is not going to do much for them. Sign them up for football or something. They will learn spanish, get to have some fun. Hire a tutor if you need to keep the achedemic end of things going.

Yeah pretty much how it is, that's all I see school education as , a chance to interact socially and build contacts, anything beyond that (in lots of countries, not just Chile) such as critical thinking and problem solving are something that are not taught in schools anyway by their very nature and design, but to date I guess they are still the most efficient way to educate the masses in the basics at the moment (even then .....)
Personally I don't think I am on any social justice crusade, and probably others don't care, but I question everything about formal education, especially those formative years such as preschool, primary and high schools, the universities here don't really worry me.
Especially whereby it's very nature in Chile it is designed to exclude probably 75 percent of your population and their capacities, their way thinking and alternative views, you don't have to have money to have a brain that can problem solve and innovate.
It's too late by the time they are getting University if they haven't had a good grounding in how to learn, by then they are not really worth the effort (there are exceptions). So throw all the money you like into free tertiary education for everyone, but if you haven't got the foundations there it's probably a waste of time and money and just populist bs in my opinion. Ignoring the problem at the start and giving false hope to students and parents who think little Juan or Juanita will be ok because they went to university.

[estela_zj]

There´s a character named "CONDORITO"..... http://condorito.com/..... very chilean, where he could start learning how to read and write. Is about jokes and chilean sayings so he can get familiarized, have fun and laughs.
Kids usually get bored easily so is a must to keep him entertained. https://www.taringa.net/posts/imagenes/ ... -nada.html

Hi Gloria

I Googled Condorito, it' looks like the kind of show my son would enjoy. I will get him watch that. Thank you so much

[HybridAmbassador]

Cuando estuve aprendiendo el Castellano hace mas de medio siglo, tuve una privada ensenyanza tambien, es decir mi maestras fueron chicas callejeras Iberianas.
Ja,ja,ja nostalgia y memorias de cuando era joven, que buena vida me lo he pasado y por eso, si me moriria al pronto, nada de quejas Ha,Ha,Ha !

[robertm]

Thank you guys for your recommendations