Comments on: The Old Boys of '99: Introduction

By: Pearl

Pearl — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 15:14:12 +0000

Fascinating reading of post and comments.

I never knew in early school what a prestigious school could do, neither could my parents. I did want single-sex education tho.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 13:33:59 +0000

Like everything else, there are good sides and bad sides to the private school system.

When I switched out to a public (Catholic) system in my last year, it was a bit of culture shock. The teachers in private school were much smarter, interesting, and passionate. But if I had a question about something, they would tell me to see them after class so as not to hold up the rest of the class. In public school, they would stop the entire class and make sure that everyone understood before continuing. It was as if they cared more, wanting to be sure that no one was left behind.

The cookie cutter system is a good way to keep things standardized, so that universities don’t have to weigh the marks depending on which school you go to (which they’re not allowed to do anyway, but it still continues in practice).

There’s also a big debate about co-education. A lot of Old Boys feel socially stunted because of the lack of girls in the school. Out of the entire faculty, there were only three women. Nowadays, school plays and band projects are used to alleviate this, but only a fraction of the school is involved. I agree with the tradition of single-sex education though. When the opposite sex enters the equation, the entire dynamic of high-school changes. Trinity College School went co-op, and they started slipping in the independent school standings.

Private schools favour the strong. If you can take advantage of everything they have to offer, as an athelete, musician, or scholar, they will give you a huge advantage. Otherwise, if you’re an average person like me, who was never outstanding at anything, it’s more of a waste of money.

By: Reno

Reno — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 04:43:00 +0000

I always wished I’d gone to private school. Not because it’s supposed to be “better” but because the experience seems like it would vary so much school to school, whereas public schools are generally cookie cutter creations these days. Even the universities in Ontario are pretty standardized now. I’m graduating this spring and in 17 years and 4 different schools, it’s pretty much felt like the same system, same experience. A lot of this opinion is based in the fact that I know next to nothing about private school and have a pretty romanticized mental image based in movies and books.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 05:32:51 +0000

I think for the most part, that passage is right. At their cores, most people don’t change. And of course, we never want to look like failures, so it’s natural to only speak of our successes.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:22:02 +0000

I can’t remember the source, I’m pretty sure it was a book written in the last 10-15 years, but it was a passage about how a reunion and how people who were jerks in high school are still jerks and people who were superficial are still superficial. But everyone covers it up a little bit better. It’s funny after being out of high school for a while and seeing people and reconnecting … that assessment isn’t too far off the mark.