[darvinyraghpath]

I will say - as someone selecting schools now for my kid - the thing I worry about is my child being surrounded by other bright, motivated kids. In my experience that's the kind of thing that makes them be better - much more than 'great schools'. It's the same reason folks move to the bay - to be where the 'best' are.

[trollbridge]

I also worry about making sure my children are socialised around average and, yes, some below-average children, and some unmotivated ones, too. I'm not sure growing up in a "bubble" of only the bright and motivated is the healthiest social approach. It's valuable to go to school with people who don't look like you and think the same way you do.

[tazu]

> It's valuable to go to school with people who don't look like you and think the same way you do.

I did and it was incredibly alienating. I will make sure my kids don't have to go through that.

[aj7]

This is right. I’m an MIT physics SB. The undergraduate curriculum is pretty uniform across schools. A lot of our teachers were poor. But what was being taught, and is always taught at top schools, is mannerisms. What does an actual physicist do? What are his attitudes towards this and that? What is important and what can be ignored? And a lot of those mannerism are taught, reinforced, and related by peers.

[smitty1e]

With 5th & 8th graders, my chief concern is the perceived anti-Western slant that the schools my taxes support have apparently subscribed to of late.

Hence my willingness to float private tuition on top of taxes.

I don't care to have them grow up confused regarding the basics.