I went to public school for thirteen years of my life, and only now, in college, do I attend a private school, specifically a Catholic school. I could not be more happy with my decision to attend King’s; I know this is the place where I will excel and thrive. I am making connections, both personal and professional, that will help build me up for years to come.
King’s College is an interesting Catholic school as only half of the student body is Catholic (myself included). There are some Catholic colleges, like Franciscan University of Steubenville or Catholic University of America, that are known for their religious identity first and their academic, athletic or extracurricular identity next. Since I started working in the admissions office this year, I rarely see a prospective student who comes to King’s specifically because it is a Catholic school. They come for our highly accredited and well-connected programs, with our Catholic identity being an added bonus or of little consequence. Either way, very few if any, people come to King’s specifically because it is Catholic.
Our Catholic identity still has a strong grip on the college, however. Our president will always be a priest, students are required to take two theology and two philosophy courses, everyone is friends with at least one priest and the king of King’s College is Jesus. All of this is just to provide a little background for what has shocked me this year.
Many of my friends at school went to Catholic or private Catholic schools (there is a difference, or so I am told) for their primary and secondary education. The only people I knew who went to non-public schools growing up were in my family: my dad and his siblings went to Catholic high school, but public grade school and my dad's father went to Catholic school his entire life but was a public school teacher for thirty-some-odd years. Attending anything but public school was never an option for me or my sister growing up, the available options were always too expensive, the education was comparable to public schools and we were always fortunate to live in districts with amazing public schools. It was not until I came to King’s that I had peers who never went to public schools.
A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook decrying people for not knowing their grammar, writing:
"A pet peeve of mine is that one doesn't know grammar at all. Who should we blame for this? Schools for not teaching grammar. Well, my Catholic grammar school did it, but they don't teach it in public school, because, well, their [sic] too interested in protecting their jobs by teaching ELA and Math instead.”
I have had many discussions about the virtues and vices of each system of schooling and have always said that I am not against sending my children to private school. However, I would hope to send my children to public school since I believe it to be the great equalizer that forces students to learn together from all walks of life, backgrounds, races, income levels and religions. I am always and will always be a firm supporter of public schooling.
There are many reasons why a family may decide to send their children to private school over public school and vice versa, and every time I have discussed or argued in favor of public school with my friends we reach a similar conclusion: They must both be good since we all ended up at the same college. For this reason, I cannot understand comments that attack public schools as being worse. True, public schooling has been and always will be a decisive issue in politics, which explains the large array of public schools across the country, but that cannot and must not negate the great things that come from public schools. Nor can it prop up private schools.
Education is something we all have access to in the modern era, in Pennsylvania a “thorough and efficient system of public education” is guaranteed by the Commonwealth Constitution (Art. III, Sec. 14), and arguing over which system is better is trivial and petty.
I close with a quote from my favorite television show, "The West Wing," from the episode “Six Meetings Before Lunch”:
“[E]ducation is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes, we need gigantic, monumental changes. Schools should be palaces. The competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be making six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge to its citizens, just like national defense. That's my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet.”
Let’s stop arguing about public versus private schools and make sure that everyone has access to a “thorough and efficient system of public education."
