Contrast Essay

Living in a town that does not have its own high school gives my son the opportunity to choose which high school he would like to attend. Over the past month this has been quite the process for both him and I. Basically, he can go to any high school he wants but the town of Orrington will only provide transportation to Brewer High School and John Bapst. So for us the choice came down to these two schools and we have spent the last month visiting them and going through the application process. So the question was, “Where does my son want to spend the next 4 years getting an education?” The decision process came down to several things that ultimately helped him make his choice.

One important factor in making this decision was the size of the school. John Bapst has a student body of approximately 480 students. A smaller school makes for a closer community among fellow students and teachers. Students seem to get more individualized attention from their teachers; some classes only have 10 students in them. At the John Bapst parent orientation night, we were told that studies have shown kids who attend smaller schools outperform kids from larger schools and the kids who attend smaller schools are more likely to attend college. Where Brewer High School’s student body has close to 1,000 students and the classes are much larger; some with as many as 25 students.

Another factor was that John Bapst is a college-preparatory high school. The John Bapst website states “It is cool to study at John Bapst and cool to do well academically.” Of the graduating class in 2007 at Bapst, only two students did not go on to college in the fall. You get the feeling that kids who attend John Bapst, attend with plans of going on to college. Brewer High School does offer Advanced Placement/Honors classes, but it is not their only curriculum. Therefore, not everyone at Brewer will be looking ahead to college.

For my son, he was instantly drawn to the character of John Bapst. He loves the history associated with the school. He stated that it would be like going to school at Hogwarts (from the famous Harry Potter books). There are a lot of rumors surrounding John Bapst…a pool on the roof, a hidden classroom called the “Purple Dragon Room,” a nun died there, etc. and he finds this all very interesting. When he visited Brewer High School, he said it was boring…just long, straight hallways – nothing exciting.

So my son has made his choice, which was John Bapst. He completed his application and his essay and turned it in before the deadline. Now we wait, until the first week of April to hear whether or not he has been accepted. We are in hopes that he will spend his next 4 years as a John Bapst Crusader.