Private School Vs Public School Classroom

Having attended more than a few schools from Pre-School to 12th Grade, I have differing views on the school classroom. Of course, throughout the years there was always the class clown or two and students often formed their own small groups in which they felt the most commonality, however, I experienced a large difference between the private school world and the public school world. Starting with the private school, students wore uniforms from Lands’ End, were placed in grades with an average of 20 students, and were expected to sit in their assigned alphabetical-ordered seats which were arranged in long rows from left to right. The teacher’s desk was often located in the front left or front right corner of the classroom with the students facing …show more content…
In private school, we were encouraged to go above and beyond what was expected of us. We had contests for most subjects and even had a reading program where we could gain prizes for the books we read for fun and had analyzed using the skills we learned in class. Going to public school, I was surprised by how little the students wanted to learn. Kutz and Roskelly word it perfectly, “Particularly for adolescents, whose primary locus for rewards and self-esteem lies with the peer group, not the teacher, dumb behavior may come from the cleverest kids.” Once I realized how lenient the standards were for students in public schools and how much they could get away with, I soon found myself losing my private school practices while I tried to fit in with my peers. Just as it was stated in the reading, teachers often used “seat work,” something I had not even heard of before as homework was to be done at home, not during class. You can tell when a teacher begins to lose their patience as they bring out their fill-in-the-blank worksheets that they without a doubt know are way too easy for the …show more content…
Small classrooms with the same teacher for multiple subjects worked well with students who were struggling to keep up since the teacher could take note and arrange for a meeting during Recess. I had Recess during all my years in private school and it was a blessing; having a break from class gave students something to look forward to, other than lunch. Also, a classroom with a variety of students from different backgrounds leads to more openness in the years after graduation from school as we have daily interactions with people from all over the world. One of the most important things to remember is to never give a student a reason to be bored or feel not challenged enough in the