Bio

For my field work project, I chose to do an observation of a public high school and a private high school. The schools I decided to observe were Tottenville Public High School and The Francis School, both of which are located in demographically similar neighborhoods. The purpose for choosing two schools with similar characteristics was to have schools with equal social and economical factors encompassing them. This, I felt would make my findings unbiased within the scope of the project. My rationale for choosing this was to comparatively analyze the differences and similarities between both of the schools, and also to see just how true the stereotype is that private schools are better than public schools. My first visit was to the Francis School, one of the most distinguishable schools I have ever visited. The school, attended by a mere 200 students, ranged from grades 9-12. It was very clean and freshly painted. When I first walked in the front door of the school, I noticed a large, beautiful mural of the ocean and a lighthouse with what I later learned was the school motto "Create the Vision" worded across it. I then met with the principal, who informed me about the school. I learned that this school consisted primarily of under-achieving students. Most of the parents chose to send their children there because of their sub-par performance at their prior public school. For a school made up of primarily underachievers, oddly enough, 43 of 44 of last year's graduates went on to pursue their post-secondary studies. Comparatively, that is a much higher percentage than the 60% of Tottenville graduates who went on to college last year. What is it that is making this school more successful academically? I asked the principal, who taught for 20 years in public school, what she thought made her school different and, if anything, better than public school. She said there is only one difference and that is control. She explained that they had a greater amount of control on many different levels that public schools do not. The private school has the right to control who stays in the school and who is expelled for failure to adhere to its guidelines. This is not the case in public schools. Another area of control was the fact that the principal as well as all of the staff were required to know every student on a personal level. Because the school is so small, it is easier to regulate what is going on with all of the students as a group as well as on a personal level. She said "you can pick any student randomly when the bell rings and I or any other staff member could tell you who they are, what grade they are in, what their family life is like, what their strong qualities are as well as what their week qualities are and how well their grades are. " Because of the abundance of students in public schools, this type of control is virtually impossible. This particular type of control to me also allows for a holistic approach to education which I will later discuss. She also explained that in her school there is more control over the lesson plans than there are in public school. For instance, if there is something major going on in the media that they feel is important, the teacher will discuss it with the class. The teacher has more freedom to deviate from the planned lesson. In a public school teachers are not given this type of freedom because their curriculum is regimented. Another important area of regulation, one which I never thought of before was the control of hiring and firing teachers. If a teacher is not doing that great of a job and is not getting through to the students, they let the teacher go. This is not as easy to accomplish in public schools. The teachers in this school are also given performance-related raises unlike public school where their are standard salaries for teachers at certain levels. Performance is not valued in the public-school pay scale she explained. I found this to be very interesting, because not only do the students have to succeed, but so do the teachers. This idea to me put the teachers as well as students on a more equal level. This level of control allowed for a holistic approach to teaching which I will later discuss.. After my discussion with the principal, she took me on a tour of the school while classes were in session. Of all the classes I peeked in on there were no more than 20 students in any of them. There were no playing fields, sports teams and no technical labs except for one computer lab. It didn't seem to me by appearance to be the most exciting learning environment. The bell rang and students came shuffling out of class going to the next laughing, yelling and disorderly. With the exception of uniforms, the students seemed and acted like any other public school students. I then observed an American History and Government class. When I sat down I was bombarded with questions like why I was there and how old I was. The class went into discussion about the presidential debate between Al Gore and George W. Bush. The teacher divided the class into 2 sections for which candidate they preferred. The students really knew the facts and had strong conviction in their beliefs of the respective candidates. Not only was their knowledge of politics so astounding, but their ability to think and reason was even more amazing. When one Bush advocate was meriting Bush for his plan to invest more money into the military, a Gore advocate said "great, so he puts more money into the military and neglects education, so we have idiots operating artillery!" You see by this one statement alone how not only did the students know what each candidate was representing, but they were able to think out their own educated ideas. The class was truly passionate about the subject matters they discussed as well. By the lesson plan, you could see that teacher not only wanted them to know the facts about each candidate, but she also encouraged them to think and express their feelings on it. This brings me to my observation that a holistic approach was taken in this school. This whole idea of encouraging the students to think and feel on their own is truly holistic in its approach. Not only did this teachers approach to the lesson make the students learn the facts, but making them think about it, allowed them to really absorb it. This was evident in their performance. It made them more interested in learning the material because their feelings were involved and they were encouraged to voice it.. Earlier I explained that the school motto is "create the vision". I later found out that each student's purpose in the school is to envision their own personal idea of success and their job is to create the vision and bring it to life. The teachers job in the school is to aid in and encourage each student to create that vision, whatever it may be. The principal explained to me that on orientation day, creating the vision