*Disclaimer* The piece of writing you are about to read is about my experience with public and private school, I recognize not all public school may not be exactly like the ones I have gone to and experienced, and I recognize all the private schools may not be as nice or might not have as much of a positive impact as this one. Please note I am not trying to criticize or accuse every public school of being like the ones I am about to talk about. I am also not going to mention names of schools, as that’s just messed up.
I have gone to public school for most of my life, from preschool until 7th grade. I’ve started private school here last year, in grade 8. But out of all the years I’ve spent in public school, these years so far in private school have been the best so far, maybe not for my personal and social life, as last year was a bit rough, but actual school experience wise, they have been the best 1 and a half years of school I’ve ever had. Having ADHD and autism, school and social situations have been hard. But, in public school, they don’t really give a damn about your situation, or how school is going for you individually, and they don’t really care about you specifically anyway, unless you get a good teacher. But, in general, if you have a problem, or something happens with someone else at the school, they almost will never look into what actually happened, they will just take the side of the person who is more vulnerable, and assume that the person who has the disability, like autism, is automatically responsible because they have autism, and could therefor be more likely to cause problems. They don’t care about you as an individual, they only want to help you if you are causing a problem for the school, or hurting the reputation, and they need you to stop something. In private school, not only do you have teachers who want to see you succeed, and who actually have a passion for teaching, you also get support, and if there is an issue, there is a thorough investigation to find all the details, before making an assumption about who did what. In a private school, they also have the power to expel someone if they do something too bad. In public school, they can’t really do that because you have a right to education. So with a school being able to choose who they accept, and being able to kick out anyone who they don’t want there, it provides a much better, less toxic, fairer environment. And instead of being solid and unforgiving like public school, private school can work towards a solution better. What I like to say is public school will call your parents if you do something wrong and say something along the lines of “The student needs to stop doing this, or else the student will be put under restrictions, and will not be allowed to be in class and will be kept in a separate room”, whereas a private school will call and say something like “This student needs to work on not doing this, we request/need you guys to come into the school for a meeting, and we can find and discuss strategies to work toward a solution that works for everyone”. So basically, public school says that a solution must be found or repercussions will occur, and a private school says let’s meet and work towards a solution.