What does it take to go to a private school? You might say you need to be smart or hardworking or you have to pass tests; however, you are missing something – money. Without money, no matter how smart and hardworking a person is, they would never, ever, get the chance to step foot into a private school.
In sixth grade, many classmates talked about taking tests to enter private schools. We talked about how school would be so fun and whatever sixth graders talked about. However, the smartest kid in our class never joined the conversation. I once asked him why, and he shrugged and said “I can’t”. I didn’t understand at that time. At that time, I thought he was being humble and trying to say he wouldn’t get in. But as I grew older, I realized that his family couldn’t afford private school’s tuition, and he was ashamed.
Now, a lot of people may say that “We have the money and we deserve it”. But do we though? First of all, we did not work hard at all for the money our parents have right now. We were born with an advantage, an advantage that would guarantee us better education and a better future. But it shouldn’t work like this, at all. The amount of money one has should not be the determining factor of what level education a person receives.
Sure, there are public schools for everyone else, but they most definitely don’t provide the same resources as private schools. Private schools provide more workbooks, tests, and practices.
Now, I’ve held this debate with some classmates before, and most of their comebacks are that “rich kids can work hard too”. The thing is, I never said otherwise. I agree that, let’s not say rich kids, but many people from private schools work very hard. Yet, my claim still stands, because there are a lot of other people who work hard, but can’t get into private schools because they don’t have the money. My point isn’t “people in private schools don’t work hard and they don’t deserve it”; my point is that “private schools shouldn’t exist because only the privileged have a chance to get into one”.
Now, on my desk, I have two practice SAT workbooks, one for TOEFLs, and a SAT vocabulary book. I have even more stored in my bookshelves. I’m not saying that these cost a lot; I’m trying to say that not everyone’s family has the ability to afford so many different practice workbooks and so on for different tests.
Of course not all people who go to private schools do better on SATs, but think about it this way: if their family can afford private schools, then they must be able to afford practice workbooks and even let their child go to cram schools. All these factors, if not letting them get better grades on SATs, will definitely be a major help.
To this point, it feels like I am bashing people who go to private schools, but I’m not. I go to a private school too. I consider myself hardworking, and I have a lot of friends who work hard too. However, I have a lot of friends who don’t try hard at all, and I don’t think they deserve to receive private school education when it could be passed on to someone who works much harder.
To conclude, I think private schools should be abolished. Everyone should get the same chance to receive the same amount of education. I don’t mean that everyone should go to those crappy public schools; I mean that everyone should be receiving education to the level of private schools now.
While this would sound like a good idea to people who can’t afford private schools, the rich aren’t going to like this one. But don’t worry; it’s never going to happen. It’s not like the government can suddenly abolish them.
The point of this article wasn’t to persuade whatever authority to actually put this in consideration; the point was to show how easy it is for people like me who go to private schools to have a much better future. I understand that others can work hard too, but after all, a lot of things depend on resources. I can confidently say that if you take two people who work hard at the same level and put one in a private school and one in the other, the one in a private school will do much better.
But think about this. Why do they get to live such an easier life? It’s not fair. They don’t deserve it. They deserve to work their way into success, just like everyone else. “We all start from the same line”, one might say. But they’re running for their lives while the rich go on race cars. And they’re not even driving the car; their parents are.
Dang. I’m glad I got a look into private school life. Honestly, I’ve always had the notion that private schoolers were rich brats who are somehow all weirdly attractive. I never really considered how hard working students of middle or lower class deserve a chance at that life as, being a public schooler myself, I always just accepted that no “commoner” could ever touch such privileges. Thinking about it, that’s the biggest thing holding gifted students from greatness: money. It costs so much money to get special classes or tutors or go to college, especially a prestigious one, and some just can’t afford to take that leap without signing their life away to recovering debt.