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I don't have kids, and I know it's cool to bash public schools on FR but read your rant against public schools as exaggerated fear mongering. I don't think you can take something as local as a school system, and make these huge sweeping generalizations like "schools make parents the enemy".

Find out about YOUR school in YOUR town. Be actively involved in it, and decide. The schools in my town that I went to are still OK, and most of my friends' kids attend them. In your situation I don't know where else you expect to park a newly adopted child all day "day care?" and still expect you both to have the energy for school at night.

Look at the national teacher's organizations. Look at the curriculum. They've made themselves the enemy of parents who share my values. It may vary a tad from school to school, but it is way more widespread than you suggest. I wouldn't support them if the government didn't force me to.

Find out about YOUR school in YOUR town.

there was a time when this was very true... however, no matter what anybody wants to think about their own neighborhood schools, today there is no such thing as local control over government/public schools.

I'm glad schools in your area are great, and it can not possibly hurt that you have family members who teach in the school.Public schools are not being slammed because it is cool or even because people are ignorant of Darwin's theory of evolution. Public schools are being slammed because they have win some loose some attitude towards kids. Count your blessings that you will never know what it is like to have a child kicked to the curb by a school.

I work very closely with the schools in my town which, incidentally, are supposed to be some of the best in the state. I know many of the people who work in the school system and many of the children and their families. I am going to be moving next week, not that far away, but to an area with a somewhat different demographic. I can't imagine that the differences would be positve ones.

I suppose my statements do sound like sweeping generalizations, but I did state that that is simply my personal attitude. I am sure there are flaws in my logic, and doubtless there are exceptions. I do believe that there is an essential, underlying truth in it though and my daily experiences confirm rather than disprove my opinion. It has nothing to do with being afraid of children learning about Darwin. They should learn critical and independent thinking, and the only way they can do that is by being exposed to differing points of view and learning to put things in perspective. In my experience, the public schools do very little to foster that.

If I do adopt, I would really prefer to find a decent private school, and it may be that one or more exists in the area I am moving to and I just haven't run across it yet or they don't have a website. Once I get moved, it will be easier to research these things.