My opinion is that elementary school DOES matter... If she gets a bad education now.. and then moves to another district in middle school she could very well be behind the kids already.. Sure middle school is important, but you don't want to be behind going into it.
I'd classify willing to move in order for your kid to get a better education as GOOD PARENTING.. not putting too much pressure on them...
I can vouch for this too. I grew up in Clear Lake - they do have a pretty good school system. I still live there too and it's a nice area.
How much behind can a kid be, at least in terms of academics? Certainly nothing that good parenting can easily make up. It's not like you need the kid to know algebra and read Shakesphere by the time she gets out of 5th grade. I'm not saying good elementary schools don't matter. I'm just saying they don't matter enough to warrant moving away.
You are on target with both of your posts. rockHEAD - My daughter loves to learn. She'd rather read or do math than watch TV. I don't pressure her at all, she comes by it naturally. I just want what is best for her and I'll do whatever is necessary to make sure she gets it.
Me too. We are looking at houses right now and the prices are very reasonable, particularly when compared to the Woodlands. In addition, the Toyota Center is a 20-25 minute drive around game time as opposed to the nastiness on IH-45 North.
I think you can get very far behind.. Writing skills, grammar etc.. all kinds of important things are learned in elementary I was in gifted program and pretty well AHEAD in a good school district so I imagine you can be behind too
Please tell me what exactly they teach to a four year old that is so important that you can not tech at home?? They are not solving abstract math or physics problems at that stage! The important thing is for the kid to develop good study habbits, everything up to high school pretty much could be easily be taught at home. If you want your kid to succeed, just spend time with her and work with her on extra materials not taught at school.
Wow HISD that brings me back. I used to live near Bellaire and I remember getting bused all the way out near Hobby airport to go to a magnet in elementary and then getting bused to Northwest Houston to a magnet for middle school. It was only by the time I was in highschool that I could go to a magnet/IB near where I lived. I guess the more things change the more things stay the same. So HISD still fudging test and crime reports?
I would love to move back out to that area, I just work so far away. We used to live at The Lodge at Baybrook (The huge apartment complex right behind the mall.) We really liked it out there.
I already work with her in the evenings. What do you suggest my daughter do while the non-english speaking kids are learning to speak english? She's already doing math at close to a first grade level and enjoys learning. She should be learning things she doesn't already know not waiting around for disadvantaged kids to catch up. Having her re-learn what she already knows doesn't sound like a good way to develop good study habits. The test scores for our zoned school are horrible. I want more for my kids. Label me as a bad parent if you will.
I started the gifted and talented program in Kindergarten and I am currently a Senior in high school. I can honestly say it was the most worthless thing I have ever done, but my district is very prestigious and difficult so that could be a factor in why it was so worthless to me.
Also, being in the GT program means your kid will have to have classes with the same kids for the rest of their K-12 tenures. It's hard to make friends outside of this group.
Ah, another thread where someone posts to vent, then people have to start questioning his parenting skills.
Voodoo , I am not saying you are not right. Just that it is not as important at this young age to be in a great school, it is good if she is in one of course, but I am not sure it makes a big difference in the end. Example, I have seen many asian students who came to this country not speaking a word of English and usually spend the first year just to try understand the teacher. But by high school many of these same students are in the top 5% in their school. So I believe the home environment can influence the child a lot more than the shcool system in most of the cases.
