Oct ober 23, 2015
I ssue 1: Orient at ion Volume 1- 3
Photos from wikipedia.com
LighthouseNewspaper
PRIVATE VS. PUBLIC SCHOOL EXPERIENCE Elise Tucker Editor-in-Chief Coming from a Catholic private grade school to a public high school was really a cultural shock to me rather than an academic shock. Seeing the different religions, outfits, and how people acted was surprising for a five foot freshman such as myself. Just the aspect of a new school, new people and new teachers scared me enough to want to run for the hills, but now I have fallen into the mold of "normal" here at Westside.
"Also Roncalli is way different from all the other private schools in my opinion," Merrill said. "We are small and the administration genuinely cares about all of us and knows us by name." My grade school's focus was English and Religion. When I went there there was only a couple good math teachers and science teachers. Freshman year English was a breeze for me and my family because I knew all of the material because we learned it in 6th grade. Merrill also describes the teachers and the adminstration as well.
Other experiences can be different though. Roncalli Catholic senior Emily Merrill shares what she thinks the academic differences she has faced from being in a Catholic high school.
"They (Roncalli) want us to do the best we can and they are super nice. I think there's maybe only a couple bad teachers but the rest are great and I actually learn stuff." Merrill said.
"Well I think the main difference academic wise would be were required to take a religion class every year," Merrill said. "Also we have to have a full 8 periods of classes we can't just have a half day or anything like that. I've never been to public school so I have no idea about the level of academics we have compared to you."
On the other end of the sectrum, we have the social aspect of high school. Each school has groups, bullying and access to technology in some way, but when you look at the class sizes Roncalli is smaller than Westside.
Westside is one of the largest schools in the Omaha Metro area and compared to Roncalli or any other private school it looks like a shark.
When I walk around Westside, I find new faces in the Landing everyday. In classes, I don't know a lot of people even though I'm now a senior. For Merrill she likes the smaller size of Roncalli.