?Education? By E.B.White Essay, Research Paper
The Best Education
Reading the article “Education” by E.B.White, I recall a personal experience, which I had to deal with two years ago when my family and I wondered if it would be better for me to attend a private school in Athens, Zyrithy, or my local public school in Oropos. All began one day in July when a family friend spoke to my parent about the huge opportunities which a private school supplied. He also spoke about the success of private education in the Paneladices exams. Finally he managed to convince my parents that a private school was the best for me in order to achieve my purpose and succeed in passing the exams for the Greek universities. At the beginning, I was hesitant on deciding to attend the private school due to some false biases. However after I attended that school, l realized that although the basic education system is the same among private and public education, the differences between concern the quality of education.
kAll the residents of my village believed as E.B.White did some “bias that public school is over private” ( E.B.White 41). One of the most common stereotypes, which affected me about private education, was the idea that only wealthy children attend in private schools. This made me anxious, for I was from a middle class family, so how could I adapt to another surrounding and how would be able my parents to pay so much money? On the other hand in public education almost everyone could attend from the richest child on the earth to the poorest immigrants. So anyone can easily adapt without make their parents suffer from financial bills. Furthermore, I was afraid that it would be impossible for me to make new friends because of the social gap between the rich children and myself. They would speak about their expensive interests like riding a horse, or an expensive car, but I wasn’t interested in all that. On the contrary, in the public education “ a great variety of children” as E.B.White argues (41), attend so they could more easily find the friends that have the same interests. Moreover, I had heard that in private schools the rules are strict. All students would have to wear the accepted uniform, every day. In the past years, I had the chance to choose my daily clothing, and that made me feel content. Finally, except for the strict rules to wear a common dress, I had to deal with the idea of a strict environment. The teachers, I thought, would also be strict. They would always be interested in the lesson and would not bother about my personal problems. However in public education I knew my teacher for a long time and I felt them as White describe as “guardian” or my “great friend”( E.B.White 41). Finally although the most bias as against the public school, I decide to attend to a private school.
On the other hand in my attending to that school I realized that there were plenty of common characteristics among private and public education. First of all both in private and public education there are pupils with different financial backgrounds. There are pupils that wear better clothes than others, or deal with a variety of expensive activities, or have teachers at home to help them deal with exercises. Secondly, the variety of characters I find in both schools is the same. There are either fake or real friends. I could either met friends that their purpose was to hurt me, or either friends that they want to made me feel them as a part of my family. Furthermore, in the private school I went, I wasn’t force to dress in a typical way as I initially thought. So both in private and public education I was free to choose my clothes on my own. Furthermore, as far as the interest of the teachers was concerned, I could meet the same kinds as in public school. I can either meet a teacher with interest in only their lecture, or a teacher who is also interested in the personality of students and tried to make the students feel as “the great friends” as E.B.White refers (41). That depends upon the character of the teacher. All these common characteristics among private and public school make me to adapt to the new surrounding of private school more easily.
However, aside from the common characteristics among private and public education, I realized a lot of serious differences. First of all in public education I was attending school in an old building that in the past, was a prison. As anyone can realize the design made every student upset and depressed. Furthermore the idea that the buildings were used as a prison made us feel like useless members of the society, who didn’t deserve better conditions. On the contrary in the private school, the buildings were much better than the old buildings of the public school. The design and the colors made everyone feel content with the surroundings. Moreover, the buildings made the students feel like respectable members of the society. In addition, although the interest of the teacher depended upon the teacher’s character, in the private school almost all the teachers were more interested in their lectures than the public teachers because the president of the school supervised them. As far as transportation is concerned here as well, the private school was in a better situation. Everyday as I was going to the public school I had to take the local bus. The local bus except that it was in a bad condition, was also so dirty that I similar to White’s son always decided to “walk or hitch a ride to all or to part of the way school” ( E.B.White 41). On the contrary in the private school I didn’t have such serious problems. Every day, a new and clean bus, stopped near my home, so it wasn’t necessary for me to feel tired before I went to school. Another serious difference is the food supply. In the public school students in some way are forced to eat unhealthy food that a cantina supplied. In the private school I had the chance to eat healthy food in the cafeteria. “In a cafeteria” we “ate lunch worked out by dietitian” ( E.B.White 41)., so we were supplied with all the vitamins we needed all day long.
Finally, although E.B.White believes that ”public school is over the private”, I don’t agree with him. The time I attended the private school of Zyridh, I completely changed my mind about private education, and I started to think positively. Due to the good condition of the buildings I felt that society was at last interested in me. Furthermore, because of the interesting and well organize lessons, I “learned fast” and I felt secure about my success in Paneladices exams. In addition to that, the comfortable and safe commuting to the school made me more interested in the lesson. Finally the changes in my diet made me felt healthy and energetic. At the end I don’t regret my decision. I gave my exams and I passed into Athens University. I feel that this achievement is contributed partly to the valuable education of Zyrithy School because of the private school was rich in formal experience” ( E.B.White 41).and made my to put my life on a schedule. Nowadays, I am sure that if I had stayed in my old public school with those awful conditions I wouldn’t have managed to past into university.
Education is the birthright of ever child and the aim of every community is to produce literate and educated citizens capable of contributing to the progress and development of the country. As a result of that, the public school has to improve, by first of all giving the students the value that they are worth. I still remember my answer when my parents ask me “How is your first day in the new school?” and my answer was “I feel that everyone here respects my personality.” That is exactly what the public education needs to do, to respect the students! This respectable can be occur by better buildings condition, better school transportation and more conscientious (scrupulous, principle) teachers.