Public School vs. Private School

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Public School vs. Private School

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When I was growing up, I lived in the richer part of the suburbs. There were private Catholic schools all over the place—and most of the people who lived in this particular area of St. Louis, Missouri could afford to send their kids to private schools. Of course there are other types of private schools—for example: there are schools that specialize in the fine arts more that public schools, like schools designed to educate students—but also focus a lot of time on their skills as actors, painters, writers and other artistic goals the children may want to explore. For kids who really have their hearts set on the fine arts—it is no contest. If the parents can afford it—choose the private school.

There are also many private schools that are designed as college preparatory schools and many of your private Catholic schools will put themselves in this category. Perhaps because they offer many advanced classes that can earn students college credits before they even graduate. However, as I mentioned before, in the district in which I grew up nearly all of the private schools were Catholic. So the parents had to make a decision—if they were not religious, did they want their children to be involved in a religious institution, even if it meant a chance to be accepted at a better college or university in the future? Or, if they were religious, did the parents want their kids to be in the public school system so the household could save money? Or, if they were religious, would they prefer to place their kids in the public school system in order to expose their children to more contemporary lifestyles and have a less sheltered childhood? Public school vs. private school—it is a tough decision for religious people.

In my hometown, in my particular school district, as I mentioned private Catholic schools were prominent. However, there was (and still is) a considerably large Jewish population in that area—but no private schools for Jewish kids. So when I went to the public high school in my district and the population of students was almost 90% Jewish. They has no choice when it came to public school vs. private school because a Jewish child has no place in a Catholic school—it would be a disaster.

However, because the schools surrounding mine in this district were so privileged and advanced—my public school actually had excellent departments in almost every program—I guess to keep up with the standards all around us. They offered many language courses like Latin, German, Russian—and others not normally offered in public schools.

The other departments also had great classes to offer that were more advanced and could also count as college credit for students before they even graduated.

They had an excellent arts department all around. Poetry, pottery, painting, drawing—and if you took enough electives in art you could qualify for an exclusive class they called “fine arts five”—for this you would also receive college credit.

Our theatre was actually much bigger and better than even the local community theatre was. There was a theatre program you could use up all you electives in that involved several quarters of acting classes at different levels from beginner to advanced, it required backstage classes and technical theatre classes—and if you did all of that, and had been involved in at least two of the musicals or fall plays we put on every year—you could take a directing class and actually cast, direct, and perform a play for the whole student body and one night open to the public.

So I guess that when deciding public school vs. private school—there are factors to take into consideration. How good are the public schools in your district and will they provide as many opportunities for your child? That is the main thing to consider.

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