Publicly Smart to Privately Normal

Our country boasts itself on our “equal education for all” constitutional right, yet it’s no hidden secret that our educational system in this country has an extreme gap in equality. Private schools are known to have higher quality education than public schools, as you have to pay tuition to attend rather than paid for by the government, but what about public to public schools?

I remember watching a documentary clip in one of my college psychology classes comparing the resources and educational experience of two public schools, one in a lower-economic status community and the other in a middle-to-upper-class neighborhood. The contrasts were dramatic. The school in the lower-economic status community hardly had any books available in the library for students to read. Their textbooks were outdated, and a PE teacher who seemed to have no grasp on the concepts the students were to learn led their science classes. Not only were resources limited along with the teacher’s knowledge of the subject, but also the students seemed to be less motivated to excel because of the lack of support in the school. In contrast, the school in the middle to upper class community had an array of books, in good condition, available in the library.