Compare And Contrast 2 Schools Essay, Research Paper

Each state of the United States has hundreds of different schools.

These schools include public and private institutions of varying size and

culture. For many, going to one school is a gift. I am fortunate enough

to have attended 2 schools in different parts of the country. Fairfield

College Prep in Connecticut was my school of choice for my freshman and

sophomore years. Jesuit College Prep turned out to be my final High School

for my remaining 2 years. Although Fairfield College Prep and Jesuit

College Prep seem similar in many ways, they are really very different.

Fairfield Prep and Jesuit Prep are both Jesuit affiliated schools.

Several Jesuit teachers are spread out amongst classes taught at each

school. These Jesuit influences, of both schools, follow the main goal to

teach the students and attempt to make learning interesting, while keeping

a Christian attitude in all that they teach. Both schools are private

institutions, which the Jesuit community leads. This Jesuit community in

each school requires a strict dress code of a tie, shirt, slacks, and nice

shoes. This dress code is active for all the 800 student bodies of each

school. Both student bodies consist only of boys ranging from about 14-18

years of age.

However, the environment of each school are very different. Jesuit

Prep provides a warm learning environment by vividly decorating each wall

throughout the school with paintings and works of art to share culture with

the student body. Fairfield Prep students must look at the usual drab

colors of an off-white based paint that showers the walls of each main

building. Each building of Fairfield contains hundreds of lockers, each

with a lock protecting each locker. Fairfield’s padlock security scheme

does not exist within the Jesuit Prep community, as each locker is bare

with no locks or locking devices anywhere in sight.

As the environments are different, the overall attitude of both schools

is different, too. Fairfield Prep encourages a strict follow-the-teacher

approach to teaching where the students must learn all from the teacher and

expressions of their ideas are discouraged. Jesuit stresses an open

atmosphere that encourages a cooperative atmosphere where the students

learn with the teachers and the students are able to discuss classwork, or

even socially with the teachers after school. This open atmosphere leads

to more personal freedom for the students, as they pursue their own

thoughts and ideas at Jesuit Prep. These thoughts and ideas encouraged at

Jesuit Prep are challenged in more difficult courses taken by all the

students. The curriculum of Jesuit Prep requires students to study and

read more literature books and novels.

These differences of Jesuit Prep and Fairfield Prep show that two

schools which seem very much alike, are really very different. Many

private schools across Texas and Connecticut share similar properties, yet

they each have their own distinguishing features. The United States has

many schools, but none of them are exactly the same as another. Any

school, no matter where it is located, has it’s own unique background,

which truly makes the experience of learning at more than one school, a

gift.

johnny kesserwani