The college counsellor stood at the library window looking out over the newly landscaped gardens below.
She sighed, “We are looking more and more…like a….” She grasped for a word.
“Like a private school?” I suggested.
“Yes, that’s it, a private school”.
We both continued to look out the window, aware that we had gone over to the dark side.
So, wait….that’s a bad thing? Most public schools these days want to operate like private ones, with uniforms, college prep courses, and parent contracts that force them to agree to hand their children over to the warden if they break the rules. I don’t hear many people saying nice things about public schools.
We are a private school, but because we are lower socio economic we have always looked more like a public school… now the manicured gardens are a symbol that we are deserting our mission.