Thread: Your thoughts about private schools

More than half the schools in Belgium are catholic, and virtually all (all?) schools are public.
Uniforms are worn only in a handful of schools, nationwide.

I've always attended catcholic public schools, but as I said, that's pretty normal here. Nobody pays any real attention to the 'catholic' part to choose a school for. Rather, the types of education and other factors like transportation are major factors.

Universities and colleges are also public. I attended a catholic college.
Being public is no detritement to our standing in international circles. Some of our universities have a solid reputation abroad.
Being public also has the added benefit that tuition fees are 500 euros for a year (excluding books and some basic equipment). My train pass was more expensive for a year. So when I graduated, I had no student loan to pay off.

Originally Posted by Bruno

More than half the schools in Belgium are catholic, and virtually all (all?) schools are public.
Uniforms are worn only in a handful of schools, nationwide.

I've always attended catcholic public schools, but as I said, that's pretty normal here. Nobody pays any real attention to the 'catholic' part to choose a school for. Rather, the types of education and other factors like transportation are major factors.

Universities and colleges are also public. I attended a catholic college.
Being public is no detritement to our standing in international circles. Some of our universities have a solid reputation abroad.
Being public also has the added benefit that tuition fees are 500 euros for a year (excluding books and some basic equipment). My train pass was more expensive for a year. So when I graduated, I had no student loan to pay off.

Unfortunately over here "public" means run by the government so it can have no religious affiliation at all, in fact prayer is frowned upon and teachers have been fired for wearing "religious symbols" (cross necklace). It seems freedom of religion in this country has been misinterpreted to mean freedom from religion, especially in public schools. Add that to a litigious society where a student might sue if touched and the "public" schools are basically a cluster F...k where the envirnmant is no longer conducive to learning, no matter how hard techers work and try.

Ah I see.

public here means that
a) schools cannot refuse pupils for discriminatory reasons
b) schools get a certain amount of money per student to pay for teachers, materials, ...

In return for the money, schools have to fulfill some educational criteria. Other than that, schools are free.
Whether prayer is done in school depends on the school.
We used to pray before lunch, and at the end of each trimester we had to attend mass.

Though the school cannot force people to pray or to go to communion of course (freedom of religion), there is no law to prevent the school from doing this. After all, if you don't want to send your kids to a school that does this, then simply send them to another school.
As an aside: even catholic schools allow the parents to choose if their kids follow the course on religion or the one about morals (non religious equivalent).

Originally Posted by Bruno

Ah I see.

public here means that
a) schools cannot refuse pupils for discriminatory reasons
b) schools get a certain amount of money per student to pay for teachers, materials, ...

In return for the money, schools have to fulfill some educational criteria. Other than that, schools are free.
Whether prayer is done in school depends on the school.
We used to pray before lunch, and at the end of each trimester we had to attend mass.

Though the school cannot force people to pray or to go to communion of course (freedom of religion), there is no law to prevent the school from doing this. After all, if you don't want to send your kids to a school that does this, then simply send them to another school.
As an aside: even catholic schools allow the parents to choose if their kids follow the course on religion or the one about morals (non religious equivalent).

Over her Public means the same things you listed but no religion.

Private schools can be of any type (religious or not) they just don't get any government money, though they still have to meet the same criteria. Their main advantage is that they can be more restrictive in admittance, This power of enrollment is most often used to enforce stricter discipline than the public schools are allowed to use, and oddly enough with greater discipline come higher student achievement.

Originally Posted by Wildtim

This power of enrollment is most often used to enforce stricter discipline than the public schools are allowed to use, and oddly enough with greater discipline come higher student achievement.

Imagine that! And I thought keeping God out of school and throwing money at our education system was what was needed!

There are significant differences in discipline between schools, but that is not related to being public or not.
There are schools where the kids are in charge (some kind of social experiment gone whack) where it is really a matter of the inmates running the asylum.

But there are also schools where it is the other way around.
My high school used to be run by nuns. Discipline was very strict. Walking from playground to the class in single file, no talking allowed in the hallways, no running in the hallways, not jumping the last 3 step of the stairs (this earned me a detention once )... things like that.

I do agree that discipline is for the better. You need discipline in real life as well if you ever want to achieve something.

I am a product of city (not suburb) public education. I went to public schools all the way up untill college where I made the choice to go to a private school. I believe I came out better by going to public school than private schools. There were a lot of programs that I was part of that do not exist in most private schools.

At a young age I was diagnosed ADD and highly gifted and talented. For grade 3-5 I was in a program called Twice Exceptional. There were two teachers and no more than 12 students.

In middle school (6-8) I as in the highly gifted program. The public schools also had shop class which I know the local private schools did not have. My middle school, during the years I was there, was rated the third most dangerous school in the state of Colorado. I saw some fights, got in a few myself, but I believe I am better for it. I learned to not let things get to me. The new principle now requires uniforms and the state of the school as gotten better.

In high school I as in the Computer Magnet Program. It was rated the top magnet program in the country during the time I was there. I had the option of becoming certified so that I could get a good job directly out of high school. I was also part of JROTC in high school. My school made the news for kids having sex in school and we also had a fairly high percentage of drug and alcohol use. The big difference is that the private and suburban schools had the same problems, but they had harder drugs. We had a majority of our graduating students go on to college including Harvard and other highly rated schools. My school district also has a school called Career Education Center, which I took one auto body class at, where students who have no plans for college can go and learn a trade or start getting certified to be a nurse. They offered classes in welding, auto repair, auto body, culinary, news production, and others. We have a very large Latino population in Denver and this helps them and others that have no urge to go to college (a tangent is laying here for another day) get skills that can help them get jobs.

In my opinion the idea that you get more discipline in private school is not always true. I learned discipline both at home and at school. I learned how to respect people in school, which from what I saw of the private school kids, they did not always learn. The parish I attend has a school attached to it, and more often than not the kids coming out of it are very clique and over all jerks. I was very much an outsider in my Cub Scout troop because I did not go to the private school at my parish.


I would look at what the schools and school districts offer in the way of programs and opportunities. I would also spend some time walking the halls, playgrounds, and after school if possible to see what the over all attitude is at the school. Most importantly remember that faith, discipline and respect are primarily taught (through example) in the house not at school.