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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Actually, moving to a state with an excellent public university system is a great idea if your work lives allow for it. [b] As a pg kid, I really benefited from living in CA, with cheap and easy access to community college and UC classes and libraries from an early age.[/b]

Personally, I grew up with what others might call a strong work ethic but it wasn't really school-focused.  School was a relatively low bar which I cleared easily and then got on with doing things that interested me.  So I’d say I was responsible wrt schoolwork but the Energizer Bunny wrt my own interests/projects.

And what provided that energy was not a work ethic so much as curiosity and a delight in figuring things out.  Basically, for a pg kid like me, school was not where most learning happened.  Libraries mattered more.  In some cases, extra curricular mattered more (speech and debate and math team, for me).  Museums mattered.  Films mattered.  The newspaper mattered.  The woods mattered.  Even the kitchen mattered.

School is not that interesting, but the world is fascinating.  And school can be a useful way of discovering (vs pursuing) interests and playmates/partners in crime (another advantage of living in a college town during MS and HS — it was easy to find kids who loved to read and think and talk and explore).

Ironic thing for me is when I had a kid of my own, I set out to find DC a more challenging school than the ones I attended.  Big mistake.  DC lost the free time I had and got used to a regime in which obligation, competition, triage, and stress dominated the school environment, and school became mostly where DC learned.

DC excelled in HS, got into a great Uni, and continues to do well in college, but DC’s work/play distinction is much sharper than mine and, as a result, there’s less drive and less joy.  If I had to do it all over again, I’d send DC to public school for HS and provide more space and time for a choose your own adventure approach to intellectual life.[/quote]

Unless you are exceptionally rich, California is one of the worst states to move to if you have a smart kid.

Except for a tiny handful of tye very wealthy areas, California schools are abismal now.[/quote]

Neither my parents nor my brother are exceptionally rich (or even rich) and both live in SoCal districts with excellent public schools.  [/quote]

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