Institutional Schooling

I often read about homeschoolers' viewpoints on education and this-and-that, and I often read about the comparison of homeschooling versus public schooling.

But there is another faction that they often leave out, namely private schools.

Or perhaps they are actually lumping private schools together with public schools. Some might object to that, and rightly so; private schools (on average) probably achieve better academic results.

I attended a private school from the middle of 6th grade through 9th grade, after which I attended an IB program at a public high school. I really can't speak much on how I "would've" turned out if I'd continued at the local public schools, because I can't observe my parallel universe self who attended those schools, nor can I rewind time and convince my parents to keep me in the then-status quo. But what I can tell you is that in terms of character building (or shaping of self or whatever), it's my opinion that a private school is not much better than a public school.

Sure we attended chapel every morning (you had no choice). Sure the teachers were a bit more free to make the occasional mention of God. Sure we had a religion class every Friday (you had no choice). (memories of my religion classes go something like this: watching an old Lion/Witch/Wardrobe production and laughing at the stupid looking costumes, watching Ben-Hur, and the Episcopal priest telling us that sarcasm is a form of anger, to which I thought "I might be a very angry person.") But the fact is that aside from those things, uniforms, and school size, private schools still do strongly resemble their public counterparts. You still get grades and your scholastic development is completely tied to that fateful range of letters. It's also age-segregated, and there is no requirement of any sort of piety from students or their parents.

This is why when I discuss education with Harmony, I will often discuss in terms of two groups: homeschooling, and institutional schooling, because I have grouped private and public schools together. I do that because, while private schools get better results than public schools, my observation is that private schooled children are still largely being educated by someone else and are spending the majority of time around someone other than family members.

Perhaps I've ruffled someone's fur in this matter. My point wasn't that privately schooled children can't turn out to be wonderful people (just like publicly schooled children can turn out to be wonderful people, for instance my wife); goodness no, if Pearl were to be struck motherless or otherwise unable to be homeschooled some day, I'd do everything I could to get her into a private school. Rather, the point was that it's not really valid for people to trash public schooling while thinking of private schools as proverbial cities on a hill.

What do you think? Are any of you former private schoolers? Do you agree or disagree with what I've said? Am I completely missing some secret point about private schooling? Do you notice a difference between public or private schooled children?