5 Things Private Schools Offer that Public Schools Don’t

Jun 7, 2025 | Academics

Army and Navy Academy New Facility

What is the difference between private and public schools? As you explore educational options, in most cases, you will find private school benefits include: smaller class sizes, more individualized attention, and a higher standard of conduct.

Private schools may also offer a stronger sense of community and a more focused learning environment compared to public schools. Additionally, they often provide specialized curricula, advanced academic courses, and a wider range of extracurricular activities.

To illustrate the difference between public and private education, discover how one private school in Carlsbad, California is radically different from public schools in terms of how they educate boys in grades 7-12. At a time when many boys are struggling in the classroom, the Academy employs evidence-based single-gender education techniques proven to help boys thrive when learning.

Key Benefits of a Private School Education at Army and Navy Academy

1. Small classes offering individualized support

Class Size and School Enrollment: Typically when families consider a private school like Army and Navy Academy vs. public school, it is largely because they feel their teen would do better in a smaller school environment, where teachers can focus on their child’s academic strengths, specific needs, achievement, and personal growth.

Dedicated Faculty with Expertise – To provide individualized support, it is not only necessary to offer small class sizes but also offer subject matter expertise. Private schools, like the Army and Navy Academy (“ANA”) attract and employ teachers with high levels of expertise and/or graduate degrees in their subject area.

College Preparation Support – Counselors at ANA offer personal support for academic scheduling, college applications, and SAT/ACT test prep. With this level of support, it is not surprising that private school students tend to score higher on the SAT.

2. Higher Standard of Conduct and Discipline

Structure: The emphasis on a structured environment, discipline, and responsible behavior at Army and Navy Academy can have a significant impact on developing resilience in the face of life’s challenges. ANA’s character development programs are proven to accelerate academic success while laying the foundation for a meaningful and fulfilling life.

Value-Based: The ANA focus on an honor code, student guidelines, and core values informs and creates a positive, productive learning atmosphere. Setting high expectations is central to the development of academic excellence, athletic performance, and character development at this private military academy for boys.

3. Stronger Sense of Community and Belonging

Community and Culture: At Army and Navy Academy, for instance, the role of a close-knit school culture fosters relationships among students, faculty, and families through a wide variety of special events, workshops, spring trips abroad and weekend activities.

Community Settings: As a private school, ANA is able to offer amenities you will not find at public schools, places where students and families can congregate and create a sense of community. For example, at Army and Navy Academy, residential life dorms, the student enrichment center, recreation hall, and state-of-the- art athletic facilities are central hubs for social interaction and connection.

4. Specialized Curricula and Advanced Courses

Advanced Courses: Beyond just Advanced Placement and Honors classes, electives in career-oriented fields such as: aviation, robotics, aquaculture and business, prepare students at Army Navy Academy for college and future careers.

Specialized Curricula: While most private schools offer a number of unique programs, ANA stands out due to their leadership training classes, character development program, and unique boy-centered approach to learning.

5. Diverse Extracurricular Activities

Diverse Clubs: Private schools vs. public schools may have a unique advantage in terms of the breadth and scope of clubs, sports, leadership opportunities, and other activities. Check out ANA’s clubs to see the variety of clubs and co-curriculars.

Robust Athletics: Extracurriculars, like a variety of athletic options, support holistic development and student interests. All students at ANA are required to participate in sports each season. This is something public schools simply cannot require.

Parental Involvement and Engagement

Campus Life: At ANA, there are many opportunities for parents to participate in school life and support their teen’s education by attending weekend events, athletic games and meets, as well as enjoy visual and performing arts events on and off campus.

Family Involvement: The impact of active parental involvement on student success is significant so ANA families are strongly encouraged to remain engaged by attending parent-teacher conferences and special events.

Financial Aid and Tuition Assistance

Financial Aid: To fully understand the full array of financial aid and scholarship programs, Army and Navy Academy encourages you to contact admissions to discuss your specific situation.

Need-Based Aid: ANA works to make private education accessible by offering need-based financial assistance, payment plans, special scholarships and discounts for siblings, alumni, and veterans.

Comparing Private and Public Schools

Resources: If you want to do side-by-side comparison of academics, environment, extracurriculars, and support, resources include: Private School Review, Boarding School Review, Niche, and Great Schools. These are all websites that provide overviews, data, reviews, and ranking information.

Rankings: Check the ratings and rankings on the various sites mentioned above. Niche ranks schools with a grade, whereas Great Schools and other sites may use stars or percentages. Private School Review allows you to compare schools at a glance and also ranks schools in the top 20% by city, state, and other metrics. For example, in San Diego County, California, you will find private schools like Army & Navy Academy, Pacific Ridge, Francis Parker, La Jolla Country Day School, The Bishop’s School as top or best private schools in a number of different categories.

Statistics: Statistical data from the Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) show some advantages of boarding schools in terms of college matriculation, graduate school, careers, and income..

Unique advantages of Army and Navy Academy within the private school landscape.

Considerations for Families

Factors to weigh as you check out the difference between private and public schools include: academic needs, family values, budget, and long-term goals.

Questions to ask when deciding if private school is the right fit may include:

What does your private school offer that my public school does not?
What makes your private school different from a public school?
Do graduates of your private school students do better in life?
What are the disadvantages of your private schools?
Does your school offer programs for students with learning differences? If so, is the school for mild, moderate or severe issues (e.g. dyslexia, dysgraphia, auditory processing, ADHD)?
Does your school offer ESL or ESOL for international English Learners?
Does your private school offer day and boarding options?
What kinds of campus services do you offer?

When weighing whether to enroll your child or teen in a public vs. a private school, there are obviously a number of considerations to take into account. Hopefully, the key differences and questions provided in this article will help you develop some questions to address with admissions as you explore the world of private schools for elementary, middle school and/or high school.

Army & Navy Academy Admission Office:

Looking for an all-boys private school in San Diego County, California? Feel free to reach out and consult with us to evaluate whether ANA is the right fit for your teenager’s academic, athletic, and social/emotional growth and development. To fully explore the “ANA Difference”, we encourage you to contact admissions, apply online and schedule an appointment to visit and tour our historic beachfront campus.

Phone: 888-762-2338

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Candace Heidenrich

Candace Heidenrich is the CEO of Aperture Advisory Associates, where she works with private secondary and higher education leaders to strengthen programs and practices. She founded Aperture in 2018 after more than a decade in a senior administrative role at a boarding school in California. Additionally, she held faculty and chair positions at private schools and colleges in Los Angeles and Ojai. Her background also includes director and executive level positions with start-ups and Fortune 500 corporations.

While earning her B.A. in Education and Humanities in the Lawrence Henry Gipson Scholar program, she studied abroad at Oxford before pursuing her master’s at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A frequent speaker at national conferences, she is a recognized thought leader and authority on enrollment management and marketing best practices.

A practical leadership guide for boys and parents, built on structure, mentorship, and the daily choices that shape character

If you spend a few minutes with Major General Arthur Bartell (U.S. Army Retired), you’ll notice something right away. He is direct, calm, and deeply focused on people. Academy President Barry Shreiar sat down with General Bartell in a recent podcast episode to talk about what develops confident young men in a world that feels louder, faster, and more complicated than ever.

It was not a conversation about hype or shortcuts but about playing the long game. Boys become men through structure that becomes habit, habits that become lifestyle, and a lifestyle that becomes identity.

The conversation also served as a reminder that what ANA is building is bigger than school. It is an academy in the truest sense, a place designed to shape the whole person for life.

Key Takeaways

Structure is not the goal; it is the tool that helps boys build durable habits.
A boy’s confidence often grows from small, repeatable habits: eye contact, a firm handshake, showing up ready.
Mentorship matters most when it is consistent, honest, and respectful.
Consequences teach better than shame, and recovery from mistakes is a skill boys must practice.
Technology and AI are not going away, so boys need readiness, sequencing, and guardrails to work within this reality, not a denial of it.
Daily physical training is about more than fitness, it is a culture check for discipline.
ANA’s mission to forge virtuous young men is more relevant now than it has been in decades.

Why This Conversation Matters for Young People

General Bartell served 36 years in the U.S. Army. He entered at a pivotal moment, after the Vietnam War and during the rise of the military as an all-volunteer force. He lived the Cold War years, deployed during Desert Storm, served in the Global War on Terror era, and later commanded U.S. Army Cadet Command, overseeing ROTC and JROTC programs nationwide.

As a military child and later an army officer himself, Bartell spent his life moving frequently, and remarkably, his eight years serving as the president of Army and Navy Academy was the longest he had lived in one place.

That matters because it is how he is able to understand what ANA does so clearly. He knows what instability feels like and what leadership requires. He also knows why a values-driven environment is not a “nice extra,” it is a stabilizing force, especially for those in formative phases of life.

Lesson 1: Your Day Builds You, One Rep at a Time

One of the most practical stories Bartell shared in this episode was about physical fitness training and why, through it, character is revealed.

General Bartell remembered a commanding general in the 10th Mountain Division who believed he could evaluate a unit simply by watching their morning physical training (PT) routine. This general would show up unannounced and watch how the unit formed up, how they carried themselves half-awake, followed instructions, and how they stayed together when it got uncomfortable. Afterwards, he would send a letter to the commanding officer, detailing what he observed went well and what needed work.

That story resonates with cadets because at ANA, PT is not just exercise; it is part of the culture.

It teaches boys to do hard things early, before excuses pile up.
It reinforces the idea that discipline is a skill, not a personality trait.
It creates a collective challenge, often uncomfortable, which becomes shared pride.

For boys, especially, this matters because the body is often the front door to the mind. Movement can regulate emotion. Exertion can reduce stress. Physical challenge can create clarity. General Bartell’s leadership point is simple: the little things show the truth. A unit’s character shows up in the morning. A boy’s character does, too.

“He used to say that he could tell everything about a unit by how they did their PT.”

– General Arthur Bartell

Lesson 2: Structure Is Not Control, It Is a Launchpad

Structure leads to habits, and habits lead to lifestyle.

ANA uses the military model because it provides a clear, boy-friendly structure. The point is not blind conformity but to reduce chaos by building consistency.

This is one reason families often see changes quickly in a boy who needs a reset. When the day has a rhythm, boys stop negotiating every step and instead start practicing steadiness.

Here is what that can look like, in real-life terms:

A uniform is structure. How a cadet wears it is a habit.
A handshake is structure. Eye contact is a habit.
A schedule is structure. Showing up ready is a habit.
A rule is structure. Owning choices is a habit.

Those habits become a lifestyle, and lifestyle becomes identity. Over time, boys stop “trying to be disciplined” and start recognizing themselves as disciplined. That shift is a major part of what parents want, even if they do not always describe it that way. They want their son to feel capable and to trust himself. Structure done well helps boys build that trust.

“We have a structure here and our structure leads to habits, and habits lead to a lifestyle.”

– Barry Shreiar, ANA President

Lesson 3: Consequences Teach Better Than Punishment

Boys will make mistakes, and many will test boundaries. Some of that is immaturity, some of that is wiring, but the simple truth is that boys often learn by doing, not by hearing.

General Bartell likes to reference a hot stove as an easy image to make his point. You can warn a boy not to touch a hot stove, but many still feel compelled to test that warning. That is not a moral failure. It is a developmental reality. The key is what happens next.

Punishment says: you are the problem.
Consequence says: your choice has an outcome, now let’s learn and recover.

At ANA, the goal is not to crush a boy for a mistake but to build his ability to recover, make a new choice, and keep moving forward. This is a life skill, not just a school skill.

“I never liked this notion of punishment, so I would push this notion of the consequence.”

– General Arthur Bartell

Practical Strategies for Parents and Educators: Consequences That Build Character

State the rule and the reason in one sentence.
Use predictable consequences, not emotional ones.
Keep your tone calm, even when your son is not calm.
Separate the boy from the behavior. Address what happened, not who he is.
Ask one reflective question after the consequence: What will you do differently next time?
Praise recovery. Boys need to learn that bouncing back is part of strength.

Lesson 4: Mentorship Is the Shortcut Boys Actually Need

Mentorship is repetitive, consistent, and sometimes feels inconvenient. It is a weekly phone call. It is the adult who is willing to say the hard thing, respectfully, and stay in the relationship.

Shreiar and General Bartell talked about General William Crouch, an ANA alumnus and former Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, who served the Academy as a board leader and mentor. In the Pentagon, he had a reputation for being intimidating. At the Academy, he was direct, but also deeply empathetic. For General Bartell, he became a grounding presence during his transition into school leadership.

This is exactly what boys need too. They need adults who:

tell the truth clearly
keep standards high
don’t withdraw when a boy struggles
model steadiness under pressure

That is how boys learn to lead themselves and later to lead others.

“He epitomized the word mentor. He was always brutally frank with me, but always respectful.”

– General Arthur Bartell on General William Crouch

Lesson 5: In a Tech-Saturated World, Boys Need Readiness and Order

The episode turned toward one of the most urgent realities facing parents and schools: boys are receiving information out of sequence.

General Bartell mentions how early boys are gaining access to smartphones, and how unprepared they can be for the volume and intensity of what comes through that device. Shreiar extends the idea with a powerful analogy: kids are being handed advanced material before they have the basics.

AI adds another layer. The challenge is not simply academic integrity. The deeper issue is development. If a boy uses powerful tools before he understands fundamentals, he can lose the chance to build:

critical thinking
discernment
frustration tolerance
the ability to spot what does not make sense

In other words, he can lose the very muscles he will need to thrive. This is where virtue education becomes practical. Virtues like responsibility, integrity, and self-control are not abstract. They are the reason a boy chooses the hard work first, and the shortcut second.

“They’re not prepared. They’re not mature enough to understand the information that they have.”

– Barry Shreiar, ANA President

Practical Strategies for Parents and Educators: Helping Boys Use Tech Without Losing Themselves

Teach in proper sequence: fundamentals first, tools second.
Create phone-free zones tied to purpose, like meals, homework start time, and bedtime.
Ask your son to explain his thinking out loud. This reveals gaps that tech can hide.
Teach a simple rule for AI: AI can assist your thinking, but it cannot replace your thinking.
Build “friction” into impulsive habits: charging phones outside bedrooms, app limits, or scheduled check-ins.
Model restraint yourself. Boys learn more from what they observe than what they are told.

ANA as a Living Lab for Virtue, Structure, and Growth

This conversation is a clear window into what ANA is designed to do. ANA is not trying to produce perfect boys. It is trying to shape capable young men who can handle life with steadiness and character.

That is why cadets practice the basics daily:

showing respect in small interactions
learning to recover after mistakes
building confidence through repetition
living inside a structure that becomes their self-discipline
being mentored by adults who stay consistent

General Bartell described something he noticed immediately after closing his talk to the Corps of Cadets earlier in the day: cadets making eye contact, giving a firm handshake, carrying themselves with confidence. Those are not small details. They are early signals of identity forming. This is what “forging virtuous young men for life” looks like in real time.

“These cadets are our credentials.”

– General Arthur Bartell

What You Practice Becomes Who You Are

Cadets, here is the truth you may not want to hear, but later you will be glad you did.

You are building your future self right now, whether you mean to or not. Every morning is a vote. Every choice is a rep.

When you show up, you build reliability.
When you take correction without collapsing, you build resilience.
When you own a mistake and recover, you build integrity.
When you do the hard thing before the easy option, you build leadership.

You do not need to be perfect, just consistent. And if you are wondering whether this really matters, ask almost any alumnus. Many of them will tell you the same thing: for some, the light bulb may turn on later, but when it illuminates, that’s when the growth happens.

Final Takeaways

Structure is not about control; it is about building habits that last.
Consequences teach boys how life works, and recovery is part of strength.
Mentorship changes trajectories, especially when it is consistent and honest.
PT is a daily culture check for discipline, teamwork, and mental toughness.
Technology requires readiness and sequencing, not just rules.
Virtue is practical; it is the reason boys choose the hard right over the easy wrong.

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