Prologue

I am currently trying to get my son into a private school in a suburb of New York City and it is just about killing me.   Let me give you a little background on our situation.  


Our public elementary schools are decent.  One of the problems is, I know a lot of the kids that go there and I am not excited about that.   For example, one of the mothers posted (on Facebook) a picture of her 7 year old son holding the gun that was used to kill all those babies in Connecticut in December.  What kind of parent thinks that this is amusing or cool.  What the hell is wrong with them?  Their younger son, who is now 5, was severely reprimanded in preK for standing on his desk and yelling "gimme a beer"!  Seriously?   In fact, the boys are named after alcoholic beverages.  No, this is not a joke.  We are 45 minutes from NYC but I live in Redneck, USA.  This is just one example of the kind of kids that my children would be going to school with.  Don't get me started on the rest of them.  

Listen, I know what you're going to say:  public schools have more diversity, they teach kids to live in the real world and to not be so sheltered.  Say what you want, but is it really so bad for your elementary school child to be sheltered?  My son is quiet, sweet and loves to learn.  I will not allow that love to be taken away from him by some tenured teacher that wastes away at his desk, letting the bad kids get away with murder and ignoring the good kids.  I know from experience that this is what happens.  Where does the learning fit in?  I don't know either.  


What it comes down to is, I want my kids to have the best possible chance at life.  The school that we are looking at will give them that on top of reinforcing our moral values.  They not only focus on education but confidence, manners, curiosity, ambition, respect for one another and pride.  It is a small school with a small student-teacher ratio.    The teachers sincerely care about each student as an individual and will work with that child on any areas that may need improvement or (god willing) if the child needs more challenging work.  Now, to figure out how to get my child in is an entirely different problem all together.