Hernandez 1

Brandon Hernandez
English 113B
Professor Lawson
May 12, 2017
Word count: 1193
Back to High School
As a high school graduate, there is nothing more exciting than the first day of college.

The feeling of a new school and new faces is similar to that of a kid going to Disneyland for the

first time. The past that is high school is not forgotten, the best and worst memories walk through

those halls. It is incredible to realize that in those four years more time was spent school than at

home. Realizing how much time you spent in high school can sometimes begin to contemplate in

your mind. Questions start to fabricate like, "why did I attend the high school I attend. A

childlike question, but not a childish question, and like many questions there is no definite

answer, but in a Catholic private school named Bishop Salesian High School thing seem to say

otherwise. Private Catholic schools, such as Salesian high school, create an ideal school image

for parents but are not superior to public education.

Private schools exploit their relatively small campus size to paint a picture to parents that

they are more than just a school, but a community. Parents typically, when examining a for their

son or daughter, look at the community around and inside the campus. I distinctly remember my

mother asking about how the area, and size. She wanted a school that had few students and was

in a safe neighborhood. But my question now was, what was the reason from the rest of the

students? I surveyed ten students from every grade including kids some peers from my class, and

with all the seriousness I can present in words, all ten students said the same thing as I previously

wrote, because their parents thought a small school is a better than a bigger school. This idea of a

smaller school is better than a much larger school is based on the thought that teacher will pay
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attention more to the students and be able to help 1on1. Therefore, their children can progress,

creating a community of students and educators. Although it is true, it is also true of the larger

schools. At the end of the day the students most still seek help from the teachers, before

attending Salesian I went to an even smaller (public) high school called Central City Value High

School, and just like Salesian, the teacher did not seek out the student, the student had to find the

teacher. Now in days it is systematic that teachers don't look out for the education of students, it

is intended to prepare students to be active and seek answers, Salesian was 700 students and

Central was 435, the attention received from the teachers of both schools were the same, nothing.

Most Public schools are much larger than Centrals and Salesians enrollment numbers, but it does

not matter how many students or space there is, school size does not affect the way a student

learns, but private schools will always that stereotype to their advantage.

Being a religious institution, Salesian profits from Catholic families. The second reason why my

parents choose a Catholic private school was that it was Catholic. The majority of the students do

identify as Catholic, but it is not because they are Catholic they attend, in fact, a lot of them do

not go to church outside of school. Any religion whether it is Christian, Roman Catholic or

Islamic, it always carries some degree of respect, and that is what Catholic families seek, that

their children are not just book educated but well-mannered and respectful children. I

interviewed ten first time private school attendees on their first- time impressions on a Catholic

education before coming to Salesian and now attending Salesian. The answers were similar; it

was a Catholic school. The students also spoke of the fact of Salesian being an all-boys school,

Brayan Villalobos said, "It seemed very prestige to me when my mother told me it is an all-boys

school, I thought, wow they take education so seriously they took away the biggest distraction to

man, the women. Villalobos went on to tell me that he was a bit imitated because he pictured the
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school to be very strict with upright rich boys; then he laughed. A laugh that can only be

understood by a Catholic private school student himself, because that idea is slaughtered in a

matter of minutes. Without a doubt in mind, Catholic schools are not the safest compared to

public, in fact, some are much worse. If the priority of a parent is that his/ her child is in a bully-

free environment, then that child should be home school, because that is the only way they will

bully-free. In private school everything is personal, Salesian is full with ambitious students in

sports, academics, and girls, they would do anything to show they are better than you. Teachers

implementing dress code regulations upon rebellious teens, sexual harassment towards female

teachers, it happens both at private Catholic and public schools, there is no escaping it, but to the

parents, Catholic schools are right next to heaven.

Paying money for education does not make education any better. Something, without a

doubt in my mind that becomes an obstacle for many families, when considering to enroll their

child in a Catholic private school is money. Like my family, a lot of the Salesian families do not

make enough to save for college and happily pay high school tuition, so what motivates them to

go ahead still and enroll their child. Persuasion is the answer, many of the families are persuade

to think to pay for their child's education gives them control over their child's future. First of all,

private schools do not live off tuition paid from students, but off donations from companies or

wealthy families. And like every public school in LA, some private schools get more money than

others. Public schools have the ability to tax local business, companies, stores, all to raise funds

for the school. Plus, with the annual budget they receive from the government each year, public

schools will always be in a much better financial state than a private school. But many parents

are missed informed when it comes to paying for education, not all schools private schools have

access to modern technology or the best books. Salesian is one of the struggling private schools,
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but my first high school, Central City, struggled even more. My friends at Central got the same

or even better SAT scores than me. It becomes clear that money is being spent for the wrong

reasons because students will learn if they want to learn, money does not make them smarter.

In conclusion, it becomes difficult to say one type of education is better than the other,

they both have similar problems, but private school is just as good as a public school. I have

friends that go to different Catholic private schools, and they say it is the same. Private schools,

like Salesian, just describe and create an image that maybe they aspire to be, but are not.