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[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by viet_mom
All the postings on here about "good schools" makes me wonder how I should evaluate a school. Vietbabe will eventually be in elementary school and we happen to have moved literally across the street from the town's public elementary school (as in, parents park their cars in front of my house to walk their kids to the school) and I could walk her to school every day.

Prior to the move I had been planning on sending her to a Catholic school at a local yokal church because that is the type of elementary school I went to. I liked the atmosphere not because of religion but because if a kid did something wrong/mean, they would be told how the act hurt the feelings of another child, etc. as a reason it shouldn't be done (yeah, I know -- a variation of "Catholic Guilt"), whereas at the public school (which I went to briefly) a child would simply be slapped with a detension with no further discussion/action even though the child just sent a girl home in tears after calling her dead mother a whore. (Nice, huh?)

Plus it seems the classes in Catholic School are smaller than public school and darn if those little plaid uniforms won't look adorable on her (and how cute it would be to see her playing Mary in a school play). Bottom line: I want her to go to Catholic School so bad, but with public school across the street I'm inclined to send her there unless, after visiting it, I see utter mayhem and chaos at the public school. Other than lack of mayhem and chaos, how are we supposed to evaluate schools? Anyone else unduly influenced by the close proximity of a school (or think proximity is over-rated?)

Vietmom

Do the parents go in the school or leave the kid outside? Do parents come and go during the day? The more involved the parents are the more likely the school is fine/good.