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Public School vs. Private School
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our selection of Public School vs. Private School.
 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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