Homework 51

Through this unit and my extensive research, I have looked at the difference between public high schools and private Catholic high schools in New York City, and how religion plays a role in the curriculum taught at private schools. I interviewed several of my friends who attend private Catholic schools, and read a novel about a boy who attends a private all boys’ Catholic school. Throughout all of this, I have come to the conclusion that both public and private schools teach the same values and subjects, but in a different curriculum. While private schools incorporate religious values into their curriculum, public schools tend to stay away from anything religious because of the diversity found in public schools. Public high schools gives students the ability to develop their own thoughts and create their own insights while private Catholic high schools teach students what they should know and limit their ability to develop their minds through the use of religion.

In my neighborhood of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, I am faced with private schools all around me. Xaverian High School (an all boys school), Bishop Kearny High School (an all girls school), Fontbonne Hall Academy (also an all girls school), Bay Ridge Preparatory School (a coed school), and Poly Prep (also a coed school) to name a few. Several of my friends attend these schools, and people from around my neighborhood are always surprised when I tell them I attend a public school in Manhattan. It’s unheard of, unless the school is some popular, big name school, such as LaGuardia or Stuyvesant. Why would you bother to attend a public school when you can attend a private school that’s in your area, they would ask me. It never bothered me that I didn’t attend a private school, after all I am not Catholic, and these schools are Catholic schools. However, I did start to wonder what was so special about private schools. What can they possibly teach that is so wonderful, that they can stick a ridiculous ticket price on to the tuition? Sure they explore religion, and students are required to take a religion class, while public school students are not required to because religion does not play a role in a public school curriculum. But what else is so special about it?

I asked one of my friends, Moose, who went to and graduated from Xaverian high school, on his opinion on attending Xaverian. He told me that when he was younger, he attended a public school and did not care about grades or doing well in school. But he begged his parents to let him attend Xaverian for high school, and going to Xaverian changed his life. He explained to me that he gained an immense amount of school spirit, and that Xaverian pushed him to work harder in school. Through the strict rules of the teachers at Xaverian, Moose was motivated to work hard in school and succeed. Upon graduation, Moose now attends John Jay with a full scholarship.

A lot of my friends attend Xaverian high school, so I asked another friend of mine his opinion of Xaverian. His name is Aidan, and he is a second time senior at Xaverian. He told me that he loves his school and reps his school as much as possible. He stated that he has immense love for his school, and everyone that attends it. Maybe that’s why he got left back, because he just didn’t want to graduate this school. When I asked Aidan about his opinion on religion classes at Xaverian, he told me that he never really thought about it. To him, religion classes were just a part of the curriculum, but he never really thought about how they affected him. He was content learning about religion it never bothered him.

In the terms of this matter affect the meaning of my life, it doesn’t affect me at my current age. I have attended public school all my life, and although I am attending a private university in the fall of 2010, that is different than attending a private high school. However, this matter will affect me at a later age, when I do have a family and have to decide where to send my children to college. Sure some of these pros and cons are subject to change (such as the tuition costs and curriculum), but by knowing the basics I can have some idea of where I want to send my future children. Although it is rather early to be deciding this at my age, I can also help my family members (such as my cousins who have toddlers) decide upon sending their child to a public or a private school.

For my independent research, I read the book The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. In this book, one boy decides to defy the administration, and disturb the universe. Jerry Renault attends a private all boys Catholic school where everyone listens to the administration and to the secret society named the Vigils. Each year the school has a chocolate sale, where students are required to sell a certain amount box of chocolates in order to raise proceeds for the school. This year Jerry decides not to sell the chocolates, thus upsetting the principal and the Vigils. This story depicts how Jerry goes from being a hero to be shunned by his classmates.

This novel was exactly what my topic was all about. Here we have a teenage boy who attends a Catholic all boys’ school who decides to defy the orders given to him by the administration. Through the values of the school he attends, he is then punished because he doesn’t listen to the rules set forward by the Sister and Brothers that work in his school. The Chocolate War shows the reader how one student who decides to defy the religious administration of his school goes from being viewed as a hero by his fellow students to being shunned by them because the Virgils and the principal tell them it is wrong to follow Jerry’s lead. Religion plays a big role in the education and lives of private school students, and this book shows just how much of an influence it has in their lives. The principal, or Father, decides what happens in a student’s life when they are attending the school, and the student has no say whatsoever in it. Religion provides a stricter curriculum, and teaches students that there is only one way to go about their lives, only one structure to stick to.

I decided to ask my mom about her opinion on public high schools versus private Catholic high schools. Or rather, which she would prefer me to attend (regardless of the cost). She replied that she would prefer to send me to a public school because she believes that we don’t need a religion background or meaning in our lives. She believes that in high school, students are too young to be learning about religion, and having religion control our lives. She said that public schools “give you more of a chance to develop your own mindset and think about things more freely, where private schools force you to incorporate religion into your lives and mindset.” My mom doesn’t believe that religion should dictate someone’s life at such a young age.

I then asked our fellow classmates, Adam Wardas and Carrie Li if they had to choose to attend a public high school or private Catholic high school, which would they choose? Adam replied “private because I know I’d have a better life after going there rather than the public school.” I then asked how he believes religion plays into a private school education, to which he replied “I don't think religion should play a role in education, but if it’s there, then it will affect the mentality of the students because it still influences them nonetheless.” After this I followed up with how would it affect your mindset, to which he replied “well if you believe that religion is real, then all your decisions will be directed towards living in that religions "perfect" society, where you try to get to "heaven" ”. Even though Adam would prefer to attend a private school, he doesn’t believe religion should play a role in a private school education. Carrie said she would prefer to go to a public school (“but it can't be a crappy one”) because “typically I would consider a private school to be strict”. When I asked how she believes how religion plays into a private school education, she replied with “it seems that religion based education allows less freedom from students where the students aren't encouraged as much to express their thought because from my perspective religions seem so close minded. They seem to be more into instilling religious concepts into their student’s minds than letting them think freely or giving them a chance to challenge these ideas”. Carrie believes that religion sets boundaries for students, thus limits their ability to think and develop their mind on their own.

In conclusion, I have found that public high schools and private Catholic high schools both have the same values and teach the same subjects, where as private Catholic schools create more of a focus through the use of religion while public high schools give students the ability to learn and develop their own mindsets. Public high schools gives students the ability to develop their own thoughts and create their own insights while private Catholic high schools teach students what they should know and limit their ability to develop their minds through the use of religion.