Public or Private School?

[Sprinkles_penguin]

Hello everyone! I was just very curious about this because I wanted to know how common public or private School is in different countries or places. Personally, I've attended to private school for all my life, and I'm very grateful for it. I'd also love if your specified what country are you from, what are some of your experiences in school, or how is education in your country.

I find these types of polls very interesting because they reflect and help to explain the social situation of a country. For instance in my country, Mexico, it's estimated that only 15% of students attend to private school, while the other 85% go to public school.

 

[Antonio]

Public School all the way!

 

[oak]

I was your average joe public school canadian kid. My mom grew up in Catholic private school so she never considered putting me and my sister in private school. I'm grateful honestly because I was quite the eccentric child and wearing the same uniform as everyone else would not have been agreeable to me.

 

[beehumcrossing]

I currently go to a charter school

It’s basically a private school, but we do have to follow some state rules. And we get money from the state (still less than public schools, but oh well) which is cool lol

If you’re curious, I’m in the USA

 

[Bcat]

Where my Homeschool posse at?

 

[mayortiffany]

I went to private school all the time!

The public school system in my area is great, but my parents were a bit concerned that it'd leave me behind. I was a shy, non-trouble making kid. They thought that since I wouldn't be loud or act out in class, I might be ignored by the teachers. They also thought that since I showed signs of being gifted, a private school might be able to better support me than a public one.

I'm grateful for the educational opportunities the school gave me. I connected to a lot of the programs offered and the teachers there. But, I think that public school can also be a great choice, depending on what a student needs and is looking for.

For the school I went to was a good fit because its course offerings were designed with the expectation that their students would go to university (which I did), and because many of the other kids I went to school with were similarly academic and shy. If I had been more sporty and more outgoing, I might have preferred my catchment public school because the school population was much bigger and their sports offerings more diverse. My local public school also had better technical classes, like tourism, textiles, or design and fabrication.

Due to frequent teachers strikes in the past, the private school system in my province has seen more interest lately. I remember meeting many kids at my school, or who came on prospective student tours, who said their parents wanted to transfer them because they were sick of their schooling being disrupted by strikes. Most private schools in my area are not part of the same teacher's union as the public schools so the private schools are basically unaffected by striking.

 

[Corrie]

Public all the way through! I'm just an average kid, there was no need for me to go to a private school.

 

[kayleee]

I live in the U S of A and I went to public school ✌

 

[TheSillyPuppy]

I've attended public high schools all my life as student. At least where I am, the high school I attended is consistently in the top 20 schools within the province, and I can attest that I had fantastic teachers in all subjects -- I know not all public schools are this fortunate.

Private schools here have a bad reputation for having terrible grade inflation, to the point where some universities take courses taken in private schools with a grain of salt -- even adjusting high school entrance averages of applicants who attended private school, or have taken a course or two at a private institution.

 

[xSuperMario64x]

I've spent much of my education attending public schools, but there were about 3.5 years between K-12 when I was in homeschooling. I was in public school all throughout HS, and I'm currently attending a private university.

there was a point in time when my parents considered putting me and my brother in a private school (I was in 7th or 8th grade at the time) and they settled for the public (county) school because tuition for private schooling was/is way too expensive. the only reason I'm able to go to a private university now is because I'm practically living off of scholarship/grant/loan money.

 

[Mr_Persona]

During those times. I was homeschooled until 5th grade l went to private school. Then l went back to homeschooled. Then after those years l started 8th grade then l went to public school through 12th grade.

 

[xlisapisa]

I’m from the US and was in public schools from K-12th grade. I doubt my mom would have had the money to put all five kids through private schooling. That definitely would have cost an arm and leg, possibly the whole body. lol, no regrets though. I feel I got a pretty good education without the huge price tag.

 

[mogyay]

public school, i got a great education for free, i'm not entirely sure what the appeal is of private school but each to their own!

 

[Midoriya]

I went to public school for elementary and middle school, and then changed to private school for high school because I realized the public schools around here are terrible. I got excluded in middle school a bunch and the kids were really rude, so glad I didn’t go to public high school because I don’t think I would have survived LOL. The best years of my life were in private high school and it allowed me to actually grow a lot as a person while learning. So no, I wouldn’t trade that for anything. I know there’s places that actually have good public schools, but not here.

 

[cornimer]

I went to public school for grades 1-8 and private school for grades 9-12. I had a better experience at public school, but each did have advantages. The private school gave a lot of work, which was obviously a disadvantage at the time, but then when I went to university I found it EASIER than high school lol. The other main advantage was that all the students were very well-behaved so there were never disruptions in class and it was easier to focus on learning. However, I don't think the educational experience was so much better than a public school that it was worth the high price tag. I also didn't make any friends at the private school (aside from a relationship that turned out to be very emotionally abusive). You'd think it's easier for someone with social anxiety to make friends in a small group of people, but I actually found it limiting. My class was kind of divided into two "cliques" and I didn't really fit in with either of them, so therefore I was just alone most of the time. At public school I had ended up forming my own group with the other people who didn't belong to other groups, but I didn't have that option in private school.

One more small complaint about private school: because it was a Catholic private school in particular, it was hard to explore your individuality. We had strict uniform rules and behaviour expectations. I didn't develop my own sense of style until the end of university. Some of the teachers and students were also homophobes and we had 0 sex-ed or freedom to openly discuss orientation.

 

[Kuroh]

> Private pre-school
> Public School until 9th Grade
> Online School halfway through 9th Grade - 12th grade
> Public University

My parents saw a commercial for online schooling on tv and asked if I wanted to try it! Hands down THE best school experience ever. Learning should never be a miserable experience/environment and the online schooling showed it didn't have to be I also got to sleep in every day!

The people that run public schools could be pretty uncaring. In middle school, they gave my family a hard time because I was shy/introverted and felt comfortable being at lunch/break time with my friends instead of randomly separated from them. (they divided lunch into groups: "Lunch A" and "Lunch B" and you couldn't choose which one lol)

As for university, there was a lot of unnecessary stress. Professors wanted you to get books within 3 days that were extremely expensive and we didn't even use 80% of them ever. Also the restrictions (again) of putting holds onto your account when signing up for classes. The holds were either by accident or because you still had to do some minor tasks that they didn't tell you about. Due to the hold, you would end up with a terrible schedule since all of the classes got filled up

tl;dr: public school was unnecessarily stressful while online school was a great experience! (personally)

 

[eggie_]

public school!! sometimes i wonder what private school is like, bc i bet theres a lot of things abt private schools in my area that i think are true just bc theres rumors abt them at my school. like apparently this year the private school kids have a special interactive robot with a tablet on it in place of the teachers.... or something??? i dont know lol.
but also im happy with my public school. everyone there, at least in my classes, works really really hard. especially the teachers!!

 

[Aurita]

went to public school k-12 my high school was a charter school but that’s still technically a public school

there were some chaotic times but I had fun & think I got a pretty good education! I did want to go to private school when I was younger mainly bc their uniforms looked so cute o:

 

[LadyDestani]

I live in the US and I only attended public schools. My family moved every couple of years and we had our financial ups and downs, so I got to experience first hand the difference in public schools based on where you live.

I lived in wealthier districts and went to nice public schools. I also lived in poorer districts and had to suffer through terrible public schools. There were good and bad teachers at every school I attended, but when the facilities and materials weren't up to par, even the best teachers struggled to get through to students.

I still felt like I got a decent education regardless of where I went, but that was mainly because I was the type of person who loved learning and put in the effort.

I don't think I would have liked going to a private school, though. The idea of wearing uniforms is very off-putting to me. Also, most of the private schools that I know are religious and that would not sit well with me at all.

 

[DinosaurDumpster]

Been in public school since pre-k.
Everyone is pretty insane from my experience. But, you either win or lose the lottery for your teacher. Most of my teachers have been chill so far. The substitutes can get very insane though, but most of the time they don't really care.

And don't even get me started on how disgusting the bathrooms are. I'm not sure how it is at private school, but you do not want to be in there.