Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[jasonlulu_2000]

The following is what I met with in an article.
At a time when competition is rising and resources are limited, when battles over testing force schools to adjust their priorities, when cell phones and e-mail speed up the information flow and all kinds of private ghosts and public quarrels slip into the parent-teacher conference, it�s harder for both sides to step back and breathe deeply and look at the goals they share.

Could any native speaker tell me what "private ghosts" mean?

Thank you.

Jason

[CP]

The writer is using "ghosts" as a metaphor for problems or issues. He or she could have as easily referred to "skeletons in the closet." Every family has problems, maybe more now than ever before, and those come up in the parent-teacher conference now more readily than in the past.
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