1. Which group of people will most likely read this article? Who is the targeted audience? What is the author’s purpose of writing?
2. How does the author argue the difference between public schools and private schools? Is the author biased?
3. How does this article relate to our course theme of "private vs. public?
This article is clearly written for parents who need to decide whether they should send their children to a private or to a public school, because you can find this article on the website "ourkids.net - the trusted source". But you can also notice it at the beginng of the article when the author directly addresses parents: "If you are in the throes of deciding between these two educational systems for your child,...".
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the article as a whole it seems like it is a really good argumentation of both sides - private schools and public schools. It states both pro and contra arguments for both educational systems. But if you take a closer look at it, you can notice that the authos goes a little more into the arguments referring to private schools. Especially the given statistics point out that the author prefers private schools a little bit. I would not say that the author tries to persuade parents to pick a private school for their children, but I think that the author sees a little advantage in attending a private school. But nevertheless, the author lists a lot of arguments and explains them. Furthermore he/she questions his/her own arguments, which speaks for him/her because it shows that the author really tries to be neutral and to give a neutral analysis of the educational situation at private and public schools.
This artile refers to our theme "Private vs. Public" because you can experience two completly diffrent lives - namely either a more private one or a more public one - at these two diffrent types of schools. Like the author already states you are in a much smaller environment at a private school: there are less children, smaller classes,... All these things drive to a closer contact between people. The relation between the teachers and students are probably closer than in public schools, because there are less students.On the other hand you we have public schools. At public schools a good teacher-student relation is hard to get because there are so many students. Furthermore you can add the fact that there is in most cases a higher crime rate at public schools, which can cause anxiety and other things. But what I finally want to end up is that privacy at a public school is probably diffrent from privacy at a private school, but you never can generalize, there are always exceptions.
I agree that the author is trying his best to be objective and unbiased.It seems that she just presents both sides of private schools and public schools and leaves space for readers to formulate their own judgment. However, she may not be aware of that her little preference for private schools can be noticed and may have influence on parents' choices to some extent.Besides I think she tries to emphasize parents' function in education and make us to think that parents would play a significant role in educating their own kids.
DeleteThe primary audience for this article is parents whose children are time to go to school and they need to make a choice whether private school or public school that they can send their children to. In fact, author wants to show us the two difference of education system that our children can get from them. By talking about private school, author focuses on the elitism which means the similar good economic background, good instructor, nice teaching environment, both the software and hardware of teaching are better than public school. If children are in the private school, they could get closer to teachers and peers easier If children are in the private school, they could get closer to teachers and peers easier which Nadine mentions this viewpoint, too.
ReplyDeleteThe author use two data to make a contrast between private school and public school, which clearly generates a conclusion that private school is better than public. First data is the presence of gangs, in public school, the percentage is nearly 50% of the teens, but in private school, it's only 2%.The second data is drug free, there are lower percentage of drug free in public school than on private school. Author tries to make his argument neutrally, but for the private school, he lists the positive aspect; for the public school, he only uses the contrast to show the negative aspect about public school. Even though he states two choices for parents, “If parents prefer to ...it might be best to choose a private institution. If parents have confidence in providing their children ... a good public school might be an ideal match." in the final paragraph, his preference for private school still can be tracked in the article.
The article is related to the theme “Private vs. Public" because you can see a general idea for both "private" and "public". Private represents paid access, high educated parents, good economic background while public represents free access, low educated parents, and bad economic background.
The target audience for this article was definitely parents of young children who are preparing to send them off to school soon. Overall, it seems like the author has a large bias toward private schools. While they do state both sides of the argument, whenever a possible problem with the idea of a private school arises the author is quick to defend that problem. Many of the statistics given directly correlate. negatively toward the public school and positively toward the private school. The author even goes as far to associate gangs, extreme violence, and drugs with public schools while making the private schools look like a safe haven to all of societies problems. It also seems like the author tends to generalize public and private schools while it seems like it always depends on the region in which you are located. Overall this relates to private versus public because it tackles the idea of choosing between a public school where you may be exposed to all kinds of things and a private school where a student may be more sheltered from negative social aspects.
ReplyDeleteAs the people above have mentioned, the target audience is parents who are seeking guidance in where to send their children, if they have the option between private and public schooling.
ReplyDeleteNot only does this article explain to their audience the pros and cons of private vs. public schooling, but it also lets them know that despite where they send their kids, as parents, they still need to be in charge of teaching their children about life outside the classroom. Parents should not just assume their child will figure everything out at a public school or be completely unaware of “real-life situations” until they go off to college after attending a private school. This article does a good job telling parents to still stay involved in their child’s life.
This article relates to our course theme in many ways. Not only is it talking about the differences between private and public school, but it also explains how, mentally, kids develop differently from attending either a private or public school. It raises the question, how do kids growing up in different school environments develop and ultimately react to the public world? According to this article, it is up to the parents to choose what their children are going to be exposed to. They must decide what their child will be surrounded by until they go to college.
Probably anyone who wants to compare private and public schools will read this article. However, as all of you have mentioned, the targeted audience of this article is obviously parents.
ReplyDeleteThis author compares private and public schools throughout the entire article but sums up the main differences at the end of the article--although private schools aren't likely to provide emotional and real-world guidance and exposure to diverse cultures, they provide a quality curriculum. On the other hand, public schools do not provide a quality curriculum, emotion-based support but students are exposed to a diverse group of peers.
This article is related to our course theme because it's about private vs. public. However, I couldn't figure out who was invading whom in this case. Can anyone help me with this?
As stated above, it is very obvious this article is directed at parents making the decision of private vs. public schooling. I think it is interesting how the author tries to make it seem as though she is unbiased. She states arguments for both side of the debate, but quickly counters any negative for private schools with a way to fix it. She seems to acknowledge that the decision of private vs. public schooling is a private decision but seems to lean toward parents choosing private schooling, if they have the resources to do it.
ReplyDeleteIn reply to Jisoo, I don't think there is an issue of who is invading who in this article. I don't see a conflict with private schools invading public schools or visa versa. I think this article just relates to private vs public in a school situation and in a decision making situation. The decision parents make in private ultimately changes the public.
I agree with you at the point you replying to Jisoo. This is not the article which talks about who is invading whom. The purpose of the author is to analyze the advantage and disadvantage of public and private schools. Just like Lauren said, parents should not assume to figure everything out or make their children unaware of real life in private schools. So I think the author write the article quite objectively.
DeleteI partly agree with you, but I also think that you could answer Jisoo's question in a diffrent way. When we read this article, we read something that is public and because the decision about whether to go to a private or to a public school is private, I would say that this public article is invading our privacy. The article influences our thoughts and our decision, so that it is no longer only a private thing, but also a decision which was influenced by the public.
DeleteYou also could go even further back and say that our behavior in privacy - or better to say our character - lets us pick a school (because we have to make a decision), because we attend one of these school types we activley can influence the picture of a school, this picture is what the public sees and because of this picture other people make their decision about whether choosing this school or not. What I finall want to say is that it could be seen as an continous cycle where privacy invades public and public invades privacy. I know this might sound confusing, but it could be a possible way to interpret this.
This article seems to be for parents trying to decide on what type of school to put their children in. I think the author does a fantastic job of hiding her (I'm guessing it's a women based on the author's other articles, specifically the tips for mothers article) bias in this article. She starts off with the social aspect of it, proclaiming that public schools do a better job at creating a well rounded, humble person, that can get along with many classes. Then she proceeds to say that this can be controlled by the parents, and your child isn't doomed to elitism if you send him/her to a private school. The second argument the author makes implies private schools are generally drug free compared to the immoral cesspools we call public schools, but she promptly provides statistics showing that these substances are also present in private schools as well. So I believe if you take into account both aspects that the author looks at, the author seems pretty unbiased. This article relates to private vs public by weighing the pros and cons of exposing your developing child to the "outside world" or "sheltering them" via school system.
ReplyDeleteThis article clearly has a large bias towards private schools as my peers have already clearly pointed out. Some parts of the article aren't very accurate due to the sampling the author has done. For example, the article says "Many individuals I know who attended both public and private schools as teenagers found the transition to private school easier". Therefore, the author is only really showing his and his friend's point of view on the subject. Also, the author takes an extreme point of view on public schools by going as far to say there are more gangs and substance abuse in public high schools. Another possible topic that the article does not show hardly any negative aspects of private schools.
ReplyDeleteAlso, private schools don't necessarily shelter children like the author seems to believe. There are many other possible opportunities for children to be social even though they are home schooled that the author doesn't even seem to explore.
I think that the author is wrong when explaining that the private schools are protected more than private schools. I agree with you about the shelter and I think that the author is biased towards private schools. Public schools have a higher chance of being confronted at school with things like drugs, gangs and alcohol; but I feel like private schools are more "sneaky".
DeleteI think that it is interesting that the title of the article is "Social Aspects". Regardless of the schooling you attend, kids will be kids and do what they have to do to feel rebellious.
It is very interesting to me how you point out private schools being "sneaky". I strongly agree with this statement. Attending public school, it was seen as almost normal to drink and it wasn't a huge deal to be exposed to drugs. On the other hand, my cousin attended a very prestigious private school and found that drugs were even more readily available. It is statistically proven that children who attend private school are more wealthy that those who attend public school. I think that private school children feel the need to rebel. Having the money to get drugs and the urge to rebel contributes to many private school systems having extreme drug and alcohol issues.
DeleteAs most of our classmates have mentioned, this article is targeted for parents who have difficulty in making a choice between private schools and public schools for their children. The whole article mainly focuses on social aspects of both private and public schools and doesn’t include any academic perspective. According to the subheadings “Free and Paid Access, and What That Entails” and “Book and Street Smart, and What Parents Can Teach”, we know that the author is trying to first compare and then push observations to conclusions. Also, from the description, the author easily induces us to think that public schools suggest free and street smart and private schools suggest paid and book smart because it fits our stereotypes. It seems that the article aims to be objective by stating advantages and disadvantages of both two kinds of schools. However, I notice that there are always some solutions to negative parts of private schools. For example, the author states that elitism can be altered by parents’ efforts. Moreover, all the statistics are favorable to private schools rather than public schools. I assume that the author may have a little preference for private schools.
ReplyDeleteThe article relates to our course theme since it is about “Private schools vs. Public schools”. Two different educational systems provide students with two different education styles. It is hard to tell which one is much better for students since education involves more than schools.
After I read the whole article, I still have questions: why doesn’t the author include academic perspective? Is that because it’s not important?
For your questions, I think the answer should be pretty obvious to many people. Since in the private schools, they have better educational equipments, it is easier for students to get better grades comparing with students in the public schools. Then, I think academic may not be the most important factor comparing with students entering gangs or starting to use drugs. Creating a better environment for children and focusing on the education on morality may be far more important than academic.
DeleteThe author discusses how parenting makes up for lack of education. This article focuses on the social aspects of public and private schools and is appropriately named. Academic perspective is almost irrelevant in this article because of the author's emphasis on the social and emotional support, or lack of support, each type of school will yield. Based on my interpretaion of this article the issue of academia is not important to the author's point.
DeleteAgain this artile is written for parents who are deciding which typ of school to send their children to. I think that the author did a great job of providing statistics and good evidence to support both types of schools making it ultimately up to the parents and their discresion. The fact that the author states "it is the parents’ duty to teach the child what the child does not learn through the educational process as a student" definitely shows that the parents need to decide what they are most comfotrtable with because they are responsible for what gets put into their kids minds. In both school setting the same occurances of social aspects are there it's just not as prevelant in private schools. From what the article said there are going to be negative influences at both such as drugs and alcohol but there's more of an opportunity in public school and it also has to do with what type of kid you are and who you associate yourself with. Again this is up to the parent to decide what kind of environment they want to place thier kid into.
ReplyDeleteDealing with "Private vs. Public", obviously the private schools are more low key and expensive than public and public school are less expensive and more social. I personally went to public schools my whole life making it hard for me to say which is better. When in the article it says that public schools tend to receive lower quality education i beg to differ in my case. I went to a very prestigious public school and all of the private schools around me were about the same as my public school. Overall i think that both types of school are great it all depends on what your parents find best for you.
This article was probably written for parents of either young children who are about to enter school or for parents of kids entering high school. The article is targeted to this group because many of these people have a choice to make about whether to send their kids to public schools or private schools.
ReplyDeleteThe author is somewhat biased towards public schools. One of their main points was the social aspect of private schools, stating that private schools can make students feel elitist. Feeling elitist can cause students to possibly feel socially awkward in the public sphere where they may encounter people of very different ethnicities and social backgrounds.
This article relates to public vs. private easily. There can be large differences between test scores in private schools over public schools, but this article does not weigh in on the "who's invading whom?" aspect. In America, it is a choice for families to send their children to the type of school they choose. Usually, like the article states, the decision is made on whether the family can afford the costly price of private schools. But both types of schools are upheld to the same laws on the standards they need to meet so in this situation, I believe, neither is the public invading the private nor the private invading the public.
This article is mostlikely parents of kids about to start school. The article gives arguements for both sides but I would say that the article leans more to the side of private schooling. It is hard to tell if the author is biased but we could tell more if we knew if he went to a private school or a public school and how his experience were. The stats the author gives us shows how public schools have more drug and gang related activities going on. I didnt agree with the author saying that private schools encourage individualism more since most of the private schools have uniforms so they wouldnt be able to show their individualism. This article doesnt really invovle the private invading the public or vise versa. It relates to our subject matter because it talks about differencs of a private school system vs. a public school system.
ReplyDeleteMany of my classmates have agreed that parents deciding where to send their children are more likely to read this article. Young, curious parents especially would be more likely to read this article while doing research on the advantages and disadvantages of each type of school.
ReplyDeleteThe author claims that "All we can do here is inform you as best we can and wish you the best of luck" while implying she gave unbaised information. Many of my classmates soon realized that this was untrue. Many of her claims are negative in regard to public schools. She paints the popular misconception of inner city public schools. Using words like underage drinking,drug abuse, dating and college the author, whether intentionly or not, paints a negative image she feels only public schools see. While she does argue that children from private schools may have a hard time adjusting to a more diverse culture, she imediately refutes this point by saying it depends on the private school.
This topic relates to our course theme in several different ways. One way is public and private schools and the different spheres in which they operate. Very appropriately named, private schools are considered a more private realm. We think more affluent families, which like our Trojan video, affluent is seen as classy and private. Public school, however, is open to anyone. From poor to rich, either can enter with no cost. Another way this could possibly relate to our class theme would be through the simple fact that this article discusses parenting. Parenting and parental decisions are considered a private issue. The author of this article implies this as well. "This is a decision that cannot be made here nor in any other blog post or article; it must be made between parents, their children, and the institutions in question." When we see parents and children we automatically think "family" which in our society is a private matter.