Deats - if your Mom does GC stuff and is interested in medium size projects, please let me know. I'm looking for a reputable GC to handle some basic stuff.

I totally forgot to mention the one negative with living in the Park Cities. The place is totally and completely overrun with the sip. But that's not all bad, sometimes it's good to be the extreme minority.

I went to Pearce High School (class of '75). My kids went there too ('05, '08 and '11)....... it's still a top school and has the exemplary rating.......!

[This message has been edited by chick79 (edited 1/23/2011 9:39p).]

DISCLAIMER: I have no kids

I think it reallly depends on the kid and specific school. My fiance went to church based private school and looking back at it, it was kinda of a joke. the curriculum was not very difficult and science was nearly barely acknowledged.

I went to a very large public school. Agree that it was easy to get lost in the crowd. You could do very well if you put the effort out. Also with 4000+ students, it was highly competative. Class rankings were decided fractions of a difference in GPA. The Top 10% all had above a 4.0 thanks to honors/ap classes.

My friend taught in HPISD for a year and she had some crazy stories. I'm sure there are tons of wonderful kids at the high school, but she had some really mean and snobby ones. She said she would feel so bad for the girls who didn't get a $600 purse for Christmas or a $35K car at 16 because the other kids would openly make fun of them.

She also had parents walk into her classroom unannounced all the time and one mother tried to get her fired because she would not let her son leave during an English test and then finish it after school.

I attended a public school that I'll admit was not the best in TX, but I was a top 10 AP student and looking back I don't know that I'd be where I am today if I was competing against 2000 other kids and 50 potential valedictorians at a high school like Southlake. I may not have gotten into A&M at all, despite great test scores and straight A's.

If a school is so competitive that a kid can't even make the swim team without 8 years of practice or graduate in the top half of the class if they make a few B's (or have time to work) then they could miss out on a lot of good experiences or get burned out by the time senior year comes around.


[This message has been edited by AggieHMF (edited 1/24/2011 10:13p).]

AggieHMF makes some good points. My wife and I recently had our first child and have started to think about schools since we're looking to move to a bigger house, so we're having this same discussion.

I guess we each only know what we've experienced, but I am apparently one of the few people that looks back at high school with fond memories. My high school (in the TX hill country) was 4A and my graduating class had about 300 students. The high school was regarded as a good school, but wasn't high profile or to the level of many of the schools named on this thread. I played football and baseball, was in band and choir, was in student council and in honors/AP classes. In my opinion I had a very well rounded high school experience. I also had a job every summer since I was 15 years old. There are so many schools now where a student would never have the opportunity to be involved in so many activities, and I think that's a shame. Maybe there's a tradeoff, but I didn't pursue any of those activies outside of school (other than little league sports when I was younger). In other words, I didn't have to participate in year-round sports leagues just to have a chance at making the football team (and our football program was very competitive).

If my parents had moved to Southlake or HP or a similar school (public or private) I doubt that I would have been afforded such a wide range of opportunities. I grew up in a middle class family, so I didn't have name brand clothes or a nice car when I turned 16. However, I was in the middle of the pack at my high school and got more of a "real world" view of financial situations, from rich kids to those on the free lunch program. In my opinion, that kind of exposure only helps kids when they get out of school.

I'm still not 100% sure where I stand on the issue because I understand that value of giving your kids the absolute best education and I'm not suggesting that you shelter your kids from competition, but I also think there's something to be said for giving your kids a well-rounded educational experience.

Ideally I think being able to find a progression of schools even in an RISD environment that seemed solid would be ideal.

We've done some minor house hunting recently, and really the volume of houses on the market right now is really low. I guess that's normal this time of year.

I grew up not going to public school so the experience is not something I'm familiar with. Finding an elementary public school that is reasonable isn't that hard. Really it's finding the right next step which is really complex.

I mean right now I'm in Stonewall Elem in DISD which is one of maybe just 3 that anyone thinks is worth anything. I wouldn't have a huge issue riding that out for awhile, but from there it's a run don't walk situation.

HP appeals because it's a complete package, but it certainly has some social downsides. Private has some costs. In the end there's just no free lunch.

Bishop Dunne Catholic School

quote:

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My friend taught in HPISD for a year and she had some crazy stories. I'm sure there are tons of wonderful kids at the high school, but she had some really mean and snobby ones. She said she would feel so bad for the girls who didn't get a $600 purse for Christmas or a $35K car at 16 because the other kids would openly make fun of them.

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I attended HPISD from K-12 and I can say that I have never heard someone get made fun of for not getting a $600 purse or $35K car. I always love the gross overgeneralizaitons made by people who have no firsthand experience but rather "heard it from a friend". My first car, paid for by my summer job, was a POS and I never heard a word about it. I have many friends who did not own a car in high school.


While I was in school I participated in several extracurricular activities and never was held back by there being a lot of students. There are jackwagons everywhere who think they can do what the want and HP is no different, but the education is top notch and most of the people are the nicest people you will meet.



[This message has been edited by powerbelly51 (edited 1/26/2011 1:35p).]

[This message has been edited by powerbelly51 (edited 1/26/2011 1:37p).]