Catholic high school vs public high school

Back in 99 to 2001 which was my time in high school, I was first at a catholic high school....... And I loved it!!

It was a new high school, only about 400 students in it so people knew everybody, no cliques, big sports school, and teachers taught discipline... Although you had a few smart asses in class it was still ok because they weren't disrespectful to anybody or the teachers...

We prayed every morning, did the o canada thing, sat down and started to learn...We had religion classes that brought forth darwin and catholic views, we studied buddhism, hinduism, muslim, anglican, all the religions in the world. Thats the beauty of it, this was a mandatory class to take because it taught us to understand other people in the world, their belief systems, ect...
How is this wrong liberals??? We learned public speaking while we held religious ceremonies us students had to make up ourselves, why we should be thankful, what jesus tried to teach the people back then ect...
They had none of this at the public school....... It was either, you learn or not, we don't care if you fail, or see you tripping out, we don't care.... It's your ass we won't help... Thats the impression I got.

I was lucky because it was in a healthy part of town, middle upper class students already had good values from their parents and knew the difference between right and wrong.


In grade 11 I had to move out into the country and thus ended up at a public high school....... There were so many druggies, people tripping out on e and shrooms in the hallways, teachers would just walk by and roll their eyes, they wouldn't do anything, they didn't care. There were fights all the time, nobody played sports, the smart people were losers and not cooll even though they actually had a thinking mind. It was clicky and full of bitterness and bad manners. They had to moral compass... The school was in a rough part of town.. The town was situated around a rural area. It was just bad... I still worked out, got into drugs, started doing bad things, and ultimately screwed up my life for a couple of years.


My point?

Catholic schools breed healthy kids. Public schools imo only breed few healthy kids.
We need faith, we need caring teachers v.p's, and principals to help bring up kids healthy, we need sports to keep them active, and take care of drug abuse problems the first time we see them ect....

Teenager's have their heads in the clouds during their puberty stage, they don't know what to think, they don't know whats right and wrong, they learn whats right and wrong and acceptable or not by superiors...

I got a dose of both worlds and i'm thankful for the catholic teachers I had, i'm thankful my v.p stood by me and CARED enough to teach me what was acceptable and what wasn't.. that's the biggest thing, If you don't CARE for students they'll run rampant and do what they want and thus they will learn to NOT CARE... Notice the rubbing off of values??

So tell me how this is healthy democrats??

I agree, I spent 10 years in a Catholic Parochial school, taught by priests and nuns, full uniform, prayer three times a day with a very well behaved and courteous student body. Then I entered the public school system and was utterly shocked at the behavior of the students (smoking, kissing, fighting and a general lack of respect for most things). I believe private schools breed a more courteous well rounded person. No offence meant to the public schools or its students, this is just my personal opinion.

I agree with you, up to a point. I spent my four years in a private Catholic high school (college prep and such), and I think I'm much better off because of it. I had a very good education, and contrary to popular belief it wasn't just all "God says this and you need to learn this this way and nothing else." I had A LOT of great teachers who were not bound by the laws and teachings of the Church, they taught us a great deal.

I personally enjoyed the Catholic aspect of it, because I am a Catholic. There were students there who weren't Catholic and went along with everything, because well thats what you have to do in that kind of school. You don't have to pray if you don't want to, but you do have to go to services and sit through morning prayer.

As for Catholic schools turning students out better than public ones, I do agree with you, but not to the extent that you mean. The number of students who drank alcohol and smoked weed in my school was probably equal to, if not more (proportionately... there were only like 400 kids in my school) than public schools. It doesn't mean the kids in my school were bad kids, they just did their fair share of partying. I also saw a few fights in my time there, definately not as much as public schools, but I they were there.

I don't think neccessarily Catholic schools are safe-havens for things that get kids in trouble, but I do think the atmosphere helps keep it to a minimum.

Catholic schools are good for people who like that kind of environment. It was structured (uniforms and such), we learned a lot (not just Catholic dogma), everyone for the most part liked the school, we were big into sports, people had lives outside of Church, etc, etc. We weren't all a bunch of goodie two shoes, but we weren't all hoodlums either.

If you're a Catholic, I think Catholic schools are good for you. If you're not, well then maybe a secular private school would be better. For the most part, though, I think private schools are better for students than public ones.

I must add that I don�t know if the stricter policy of the private schools or the parental leadership of good religious parents contributes more to the positive raising of children but I suspect it�s a combination of the two.

[Edited on 2-6-2004 by kinglizard]

i think there is something not being mentioned here. parents who pay for their childs schooling is naturally going to be more interested in their "investment" than a parent who's child attends public school. this is not a hard and fast but more or less a rule of thumb. so more often than not they take more of an active role in their childs education than the parents of a child who attends public school. again this is not a hard and fast rule and there are always exceptions.

also in catholic schools the standards are higher, not just academically but in all aspects, behavior, dress, etc. now public schools are catching on to the dress code concept but the standards for learning are going down the toilet.

now i went to public schools but my family took an active role in my education, not just in terms of what i did in school but my education outside of school, reading books, that sort of thing.

now my family wasnt religious but i was taught manners and courtesy. i learned the say please thank you you're welcome. i also learned to hold a door for other people along with other ways of being courteous to others.

i think parents play a more important role than any given school they choose for their child. the school can only teach so much and children are there for only so long, but their parents are there the entire time they are growing up.

i think people underestimate the power parents have over their children.

The parents were more involved and serious about the education their kids were getting, in general, so it was a combination of the two. But the parental role is the bigger factor, IMO.

Take a kid from a home with concerned, involved parents, and put her into a public school and she will do very well. Put the same child in a parochial school and she will excel. Take a kid from a broken home/background and she will struggle in almost every environment.

EDIT: This was originally posted in response to kinglizard, but ThePrankMonkey just reinforces it.



[Edited on 2-6-2004 by jsobecky]

I went through public school most of my schooling. There was a year though in England where I went to a Catholic school and I must say it was worlds apart from public schools, for the better. I wish I could of went through my whole schooling in a Catholic school. I really liked the RE course taught there.

Although I have no first hand experience of religious schooling, I could not even concieve of finding a reason to have rather gone there then a public school. First off it is of course the whole religious aspect of it, but the few individuals I know that went to catholic schools accumulated so much repressed aggression/desires/energy that they nearly exploded when in a non-religious/non-strict dicipline setting. By this I mean that when they had the chance to rebel (which I consider normal for a teenager), they went completely over the edge and were in most cases worse then people that had gone to public schools all their lifes. Now I am no angel so that is actually saying a lot.

You can't go around making general statements about public schools when you said you have only been to one. My opinion is that you went to a bad public highschool.

In my city the Catholic highschool is where all the rednecks hang out doing drugs, getting drunk, and playing baseball.

Apparently you went to the wayside for a while, but you recovered, what makes you think others wont? Life is a learning experience even if it is a bad one, who are you to deny them that?

Originally posted by jsobecky

Take a kid from a home with concerned, involved parents, and put her into a public school and she will do very well. Put the same child in a parochial school and she will excel. Take a kid from a broken home/background and she will struggle in almost every environment.

wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong........... My parents didn't pay for my high school education...... My parents were concerned about me as ANY parent would be concerned about their child like they should be, and thus be involved in their childrens lives. I came from a broken home as well, in that they were divorced before i was 13, they argued alot which hurt me, I learned to not trust people, I learned to be very skeptical... But nonetheless, it didn't affect my education and it didn't affect my socal interactions with other students.. Academically I was a b-c student because I was more concerned with socializing and sports, but at the catholic high school the key ingredient there was CARING, the teachers and all set standards and morale, that was the ingredient missing at public high school.....
to note: I only got those grades because I knew I would worry about it come grade 12 and college when the marks really counted, and thus became an honor student. so academics to me didn't count.....
both school imo did a good job academically, but with emotional IQ public school lacked FAR BEHIND, and catholic school didn't, and EQ plays a much bigger role in people's lives then IQ. That's why imo we have so many emotionless uncaring superiors in public high school...... they just do their job, get paid go home and thats it.

catholic school? They do their job with CARING, concern, and a passion for making sure their students (they look at them like they were their own children) grow up to be model individuals. They get paid but I don't think that is their main concern... Catholic school has a sense of faith, and from faith comes passion and caring and strong morale.

TL



[Edited on 2-6-2004 by jsobecky]

Originally posted by MrJingles
You can't go around making general statements about public schools when you said you have only been to one. My opinion is that you went to a bad public highschool.
Actually if you want to get more into it, I attended a public highschool in London, which was SO BAD!! A public high school in another town, and another public high school back home for grade 12.
I was in Catholic high school grade 9 and 10 and LOVED IT.
Part of grade 11 I was in London at the public high school then moved home to my moms which she moved into the country so i had to attend another public high school, and grade 12 I had to attend another one because I moved again... So 3... And they were ALL BAD....

In my city the Catholic highschool is where all the rednecks hang out doing drugs, getting drunk, and playing baseball.
The public high school next door to my old catholic high school was renowned for being a pot head school, in fact their name had the name pot in it to replace port, my friend transferred there from the catholic hs and became a massive druggie, her whole group of friends were e heads, pot heads, meth heads, coke heads, you name it they did it all.

Apparently you went to the wayside for a while, but you recovered, what makes you think others wont? Life is a learning experience even if it is a bad one, who are you to deny them that?

the point isn't about drug use......... The point is about the difference between public teachers and catholic teachers and other superiors...
Not drug use...

This is about morale, caring, and why I think we have a problem in public schools more then catholic schools, and I think it's because public schools is lacking in this area... Stay on topic.

Small, private schools, where you have to pay and go through a selection process to get in -- and where discipline means you're tossed out into the public system and get no refund -- will always turn out better than public schools.

Public schools *must* accept everyone. Overcrowding, poor teacher-to-student ratio (a good ration is 12-15 per teacher), politcal pressure, and social problems will always be worse in public schools.

Bush, the "education president", could have mended this if he took the money spent on a useless war over nonexistant WMDs and pumped it into teacher salaries, expanding classrooms, and social programs for the US>

Oh and if you do want to talk about drugs I have known 3 boys I can think of who went goofy .....

One is now a bum he tried to kill his parents because he became such a jib fan and started hallucinating and thinking people were in his house with merchedes and then tripped out thinking his parents were the enemy, so he lives on the streets now hallucinating, he didn't want help, and he talks to himself to this day, and it was only 4 years ago..


Another boy from the other public high school became a huge E head he would stop in the middle of the halls and start doing the glow stick dance thing, he would talk jibberish and then walk off mad because nobody knew what he was tlaking about.

Another boy who went to a public high school started getting into E pot coke, and then started selling it. He started breaking into people's houses , stealing car stereo equipment, and now is a fugitive because the authorities want his ass.. He actually wanted me to go down to Jamaica with coke stored inside my body cavaties to get through immigration... Hung up on me because I wouldn't do it...


I'm not saying ALL kids are like this, but I have yet to find a catholic kid who is like this.. I mean, a teenager who spent his whole school life in a catholic hs ... As opposed to a catholic kid going into a public highschool, thats what happened to the third one I just mentioned...


Another belief I have and i'll share iwht you guys is that if you follow through 9 to 12 at a catholic highschool I bet you'll turn out fine...
If you stray and go to a public hs chances are you'll end up doing something funny.
or if you have been in a public highschool 9 to 12 you probably are doing something not real cool thse days too. I could be wrong , just a generalization... im not thinking to hard on this one tho.. so it's a broad generalization on my part. think of it what you will. I'll add more as my brain calms down from the coffee ....

I think you're generalizing, a lot. I went to a Public Highschool, a few of them, and there were few cliques, tons of kids played sports, sure, there was drug abuse, but the teachers never turned a blind eye. I had wonderful teachers who cared about the kids and their educations, who were there to help you if need be.

These schools were in a small city in Central Ontario, with lots of kids from the country in a few of them.

We obviously had different experiences with the public school system, and just because the high school you went to may have had bad teachers, and students as you describe doesn't mean that all other public high- schools are like that.

There was a catholic highschool quite close to the highschool that I graduated from, and I had a few friends that went there. I saw fights going on there, I saw people who were high, half-drunk, and complaints about teachers who just didn't care. Granted, I never went there, but this was coming from people who did, and what I saw myself while visiting there.
How do you account for that?

You're assuming, because of your experiences of 1 catholic highschool, and one public highschool, that public highschools are bad, and catholic schools are good. Quite a bit of assuming from very limited exposure to them, IMO.

Originally posted by Byrd
Small, private schools, where you have to pay and go through a selection process to get in -- and where discipline means you're tossed out into the public system and get no refund -- will always turn out better than public schools.
My school wasn't private... Everyone could get in if you lived in the boundaries. There was no private school, no parent was paying for their student... This was an ordinary catholic school, a new one but still normal catholic school...
Public schools *must* accept everyone. Overcrowding, poor teacher-to-student ratio (a good ration is 12-15 per teacher), politcal pressure, and social problems will always be worse in public schools.
All the schools I went to weren't over crowded, max students in the class was 30 -34 same as catholic school...

Originally posted by TrueLies
My school wasn't private... Everyone could get in if you lived in the boundaries.

What Province was this in, TrueLies?

This is about morale, caring, and why I think we have a problem in public schools more then catholic schools, and I think it's because public schools is lacking in this area... Stay on topic.

Ok, I'll stay on topic.

What exactly do you expect in public schools when all the bad students get dumped in with the good taking away from everyone's education. Obviously if there was a simple cure, we wouldn't have this problem.

What I noticed in my schools, is that if you even try, and be a good student, then they put you with the good teachers and students.

Parresia,

your right I am generalizing, but i've been raised all my life 2 elementary school were catholic, 1 high school that was catholic,

and 3 public high schools... yes I moved alot...

Catholic hs had it's share of fights, the odd pot smoker, ect... usually those people hung out in the smoke hole and chummed around together... I was friends with them too, but didn't hand out with them.

All i'm saying is the observation of EQ in both public schools and catholic schools, yeah I had some good public school teachers... I would of rather stayed in a catholic high school 9-12 if we didn't moved so much.

I loved the compassion, the togetherness in everybody, the student body was one, the teacher's were like gaurdians watching over you to make sure you towed a straight line, AND FOR YOUR OWN GOOD. Teenagers will get away with anything if they can and they need strong guidance to help them through that stage or they end up like little misfits. Tis all i'm saying... I think.. LOL...

Originally posted by parrhesia

Originally posted by TrueLies
My school wasn't private... Everyone could get in if you lived in the boundaries.

What Province was this in, TrueLies?

Ontario.

Originally posted by MrJingles

This is about morale, caring, and why I think we have a problem in public schools more then catholic schools, and I think it's because public schools is lacking in this area... Stay on topic.

Ok, I'll stay on topic.

What exactly do you expect in public schools when all the bad students get dumped in with the good taking away from everyone's education. Obviously if there was a simple cure, we wouldn't have this problem.
Are you saying that the bad students took the good students away from being good because of peer pressure? I don't get what your saying here.
What I noticed in my schools, is that if you even try, and be a good student, then they put you with the good teachers and students. shouldn't that be a compliment? Actually I guess when your that age they label you? I think it also depends how you interpret it. If you handle like they are just jokingly #ing with you your cool, but if you take like it's an insult then I think you'll be more inclined to follow them them be a leader yourself and put the smack down on them for being stupid, because when you actu stupid you look stupid and obnoxious, and who wants to be around that? Only stupid people. Don't lower your standards because you think their cool for putting you down.. If i'm correct on this let me know, if i'm rambling let me know too. All i'm saying is, you can stand up and be your own person, be smart, be a smart ass have the best of both worlds and i'm sure people will follow suit, you can be both, you don't have to be totally bad because those kids will put you down for being with the teachers or other smart kids...