This is not your stereotypical "private schools suck because they have school uniforms, whereas public schools rock because they don't" thread. This is looking at more important issues, such as religious, individual, sexual, romantic, and creative repression. Religious schools force kids and teens to follow a certain religious belief. When you're a child you are consequently forced or at the very least severely encouraged to believe in God at religious schools. Then when that kid grows up and becomes a teenager and adult, they are typically the religion they were forced to be as due to their schooling. If your parents force you to go to a Muslim school, then you'll most likely be Muslim, even if as a teenager in a Muslim high school, you don't want to be a Muslim and you don't believe in Islam. Also, all-boys and all-girls schools, and consequently school uniforms prohibit healthy growth for teenagers. Could you imagine how impossible it would be to go through puberty when you're only surrounded by males? It's like forcing them to become homosexual and repressing their ability to form relationships and explore their sexuality like normal teenagers do. Since they force teens to wear school uniforms, they repress individuality and creativity as well. They also teach one-sided biased information, such as "Islam is the only real religion" and stuff like that. Also bear in mind that students who go to private schools are socially challenged, because they lack understanding for how the public world works, since they are forced to wear school uniforms and go to private schools instead of mingling with the general population. Students who attend private schools often grow up to become less tolerant than students who attend public schools, as you can see here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/30/opinion/30blow.html
Private or religious based schools exist to instill a particular version of knowledge and morals into a very specific group usually defined by involvement in a particular religious belief system. The students are placed in these schools and funded by their parents because their parents want them to have a specific type of education and moral upbringing. If the children in these schools are being repressed, it is because that is what their parents feel is best for them. As far as I know, parents still have the right to decide what is best for their children. On the other hand, it is sometimes a losing battle. I spent years in a Catholic school paid for by my parents because that is what my grandparents wanted. If you were to meet me today, you'd wonder why they didn’t ask for a tuition refund. All the dogma and superstition passed right through me and I couldn’t have less to do with organized belief systems today. The truth is that private schools have not proven to be any more effective at education than public schools. Many private schools have had to take anyone that can pay for the tuition in recent years. Some have to turn away students. I see private schools simply as a business fulfilling a niche. They are not good or bad just a different model of education. To believe that public education is the only workable model out there would be just silly. Home schooling on the other hand is just a roll of the dice. I've met parents that are committed to it and do a fantastic job and others that are doing their kids no favors whatsoever.
