We chose the Catholic School because we were members of the church and it appeared that the school was able to produce excellent scores on testing and were warm and friendly.
Plenty had been said about the local public schools that scared us away from even considering them.
We regret that we did not have the insight to know what to ask. Clearly, we "judged the book by it's cover.".
My dds are in a public school now. It is not fancy or high on the list of wonderful schools, but they are so pleased to have my dds Homeschool is not an option, but I do supplement at home.
Thanks Mamabear for telling this story. I appreciate the message of not trusting the rumor mill to make school decisions for your child. I think in many places there is a tendency among parents to bash the public schools and emphasize the negative; it fills a social need of something common that parents can talk about while waiting at swimming lessons or whatever. I am pretty sure it is not meant to be malicious, just sharing information. It can go the other way as well; you hear how great a school is, but maybe it won't be great for your family.
We heard many stories about how bad our public schools were too, especially middle school. Most of my friends never even attempted to put their kids in the public schools based on the rumors. Both DH and I had gone to "bad" public schools and really liked them, so we were willing to take the risk and it has been really great for us. Our friends are often surprised by how well the schools have done by our DS. One of our friends who swore they would never put their kids in PS are now realizing that the private school they had their kid in is actually a bad fit and are reconsidering public school. Of course Public schools can be a really bad fit as well. My point is to not trust the rumor mill, but see for yourself.
I hope that what all this is doing for the OP and others is showing the various processes that we used to find school fits for our kids. I think the final outcome of where we settled is less important than the processes that we have used.
