Repatriation: Yes, you can go home again!

[hk blues]

2 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

We are ok with our current private schools.  However, in general, most schools, public and private, teach by memorization and there is very little critical thinking taught.  At the higher end, very expensive schools, like Brent here in Subic, they do teach to Int'l standards.  I can't afford them though.

I'm not saying they're the best by any means but the word atrocious was a little hard IMO.  The education my son is getting at an average level private school here is comparable to that I received in the UK.

[Jollygoodfellow]

4 hours ago, hk blues said:

I have to disagree a little with your evaluation of the education system, from my own personal experience with my son the school is not atrocious.

I think it depends on where people live in the Philippines. If a member lives in the sticks then the school will probably be below standard of a city school but they think they are all the same.

[fillipino_wannabe]

Personally I'll probably move back when I have kids. Some things really shouldn't be up for debate:
Schools and Universities are better in the UK/US
Job opportunities are better in the UK/US

[earthdome]

I too am interested in this topic. But from the reverse. I lived over 2 years in the Philippines and moved back to the US with my wife. Now we have a one year old daughter. I will not allow my daughter to attend public schools in the US. They are not like the schools when we were children. Do you support the 2nd amendment to keep and bear arms (guns)... well, your children will be taught to fear guns rather than gun safety. The schools have become politicized and often teach political agenda's. If your son is a bit unruly they will claim he has ADHD or some other disorder and push you to drug him.

In a school not far from where we live a mother kept seeing her 2 middle school age children come home with signs of physical abuse. They were being bullied. She spoke to the school about it a number of times, but they did nothing. Finally, to protect her children, she pulled them out of school to home school them. The school reported her to child services and claimed she was neglecting her children by taking them out of public school. Yet it was the school that failed to protect them.

Most public schools now have 'resource' officers who really are just police assigned to the school. There are a growing number of cases where these police treat misbehaving children like they are criminals, even hand cuffing grade school children.

Regardless of whether we live in the US or Philippines I plan to have our daughter either attend a good private school or be home schooled.

The other issue aside from schooling is health care. You better have a good employer with a great health plan... or else you will pay a great deal for a poor health care plan for your wife and children.

We are doing ok in the US but our budget will go much further in the Philippines, especially if we want to pay for a quality private school in a few years for our daughter.

[Kuya John]

48 minutes ago, earthdome said:

The other issue aside from schooling is health care. You better have a good employer with a great health plan... or else you will pay a great deal for a poor health care plan for your wife and children. 

Glad you brought  health care up E/dome,

The very reason most Expats head home, if they have an ongoing health problem.

I'm sure it is also a worry for parents of young children living on a low budget, wherever they choose to live.

[earthdome]

3 minutes ago, Kuya John said:

Glad you brought  health care up E/dome,

The very reason most Expats head home, if they have an ongoing health problem.

I'm sure it is also a worry for parents of young children living on a low budget, wherever they choose to live.

Yes, the health care issue is a two sided coin. On one side the husband if over the age of 65 has medicare but can only use that in the US or its territories like Guam. So he has to pay out of pocket for his health care in the Philippines. Granted it costs much less but also the quality may not be as good. On the other hand his wife and children can benefit from Phil Health and relatively lower cost health insurance in the Philippines but in the US you have to pay a great deal for poor health coverage.

 

In the end it depends on what makes overall sense for a specific family. For me it works better for us to be in the Philippines, even after I reach 65, since my former employer provides medicare gap insurance as part of my retirement that will help pay for expenses outside of the US not covered by Medicare.

[nor cal mike]

3 hours ago, fillipino_wannabe said:

Personally I'll probably move back when I have kids. Some things really shouldn't be up for debate:
Schools and Universities are better in the UK/US
Job opportunities are better in the UK/US

I don’t think I can agree that education should not be up for debate. An important part of the “moving decision” has to do with education. For me this discussion has been and continues to be very informative. I think as others have said the quality of the schools vary greatly depending on location and affordability, but for the moment I want to shed a different light on schools in the US.

Since US schools are used to compare I would like to raise a couple of points. In the US we are currently using a system called “common core” which is not real popular with many parents. However the problem I see here is the amount of political reference brought into the classroom. What I see taking place is indoctrination instead of education. If you look at our institutions of higher learning you see ongoing civil unrest and political violence. Crime in our colleges has reached a point where it is now one of the considerations of parents when selecting a school. Statistics show that education in the k-12 grades is on the decline. Many colleges have lowered their requirements for admission because high school graduates are not college ready. As a consequence many of the bright young people working in the US are immigrants who were educated in “third world countries”. We simply are not educating enough students to fill the jobs available.

While I can’t speak of other countries and yes I am sad to say it but I think we can no longer assume that because it’s  “American made” it is automatically better.

[nor cal mike]

1 hour ago, earthdome said:

I too am interested in this topic. But from the reverse. I lived over 2 years in the Philippines and moved back to the US with my wife. Now we have a one year old daughter. I will not allow my daughter to attend public schools in the US. They are not like the schools when we were children. Do you support the 2nd amendment to keep and bear arms (guns)... well, your children will be taught to fear guns rather than gun safety. The schools have become politicized and often teach political agenda's. If your son is a bit unruly they will claim he has ADHD or some other disorder and push you to drug him.

In a school not far from where we live a mother kept seeing her 2 middle school age children come home with signs of physical abuse. They were being bullied. She spoke to the school about it a number of times, but they did nothing. Finally, to protect her children, she pulled them out of school to home school them. The school reported her to child services and claimed she was neglecting her children by taking them out of public school. Yet it was the school that failed to protect them.

Most public schools now have 'resource' officers who really are just police assigned to the school. There are a growing number of cases where these police treat misbehaving children like they are criminals, even hand cuffing grade school children.

Regardless of whether we live in the US or Philippines I plan to have our daughter either attend a good private school or be home schooled.

The other issue aside from schooling is health care. You better have a good employer with a great health plan... or else you will pay a great deal for a poor health care plan for your wife and children.

We are doing ok in the US but our budget will go much further in the Philippines, especially if we want to pay for a quality private school in a few years for our daughter.

Well said!!

I’m happy to see someone tell it like it is. I too see way to much politics and political persuasions in the schools here and very little real education.

[Jollygoodfellow]

1 hour ago, earthdome said:

Do you support the 2nd amendment to keep and bear arms (guns)... well, your children will be taught to fear guns rather than gun safety.

Please dont go down that road in this topic or any. Just causes arguments. 

[Jollygoodfellow]

15 minutes ago, nor cal mike said:

I too see way to much politics and political persuasions in the schools here and very little real education.

When you say here, are you meaning the US or Philippines or Mars?