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Hi! My family is relocating from midtown for a job in Paramus.
We've been looking for homes for a while and have been around the area a bit. I get most of the pros and cons of the county, don't really need encouragement / discouragement.
We have two kids (5 and 3) and are hoping to be in one place for ~15 years. My kids are sociable and good natured but given their, uh, parental heritage (we're nerds), are most likely to thrive in a school system that encourages students to pursue their strengths. I grew up in a place (far upstate NY) where being smrt was a big social liability.
Which school systems have a positive engagement approach to academics rather than a pressure-cooker environment? Some competition is fine but they don't need 8 hours of homework a night or anybody flogging them for getting a 97% on some test. They will do amazing as long as they are pursuing their interests. I'm mostly curious about high schools. Elementary schools in the area seem to be really strong and middle school... dunno. Seems like it's over pretty quick.
We're doing fine financially but don't care at all about stuff like luxury cars or house size, etc. The area is moneyed, I just would rather that not be a huge focus during my kids' school experience (good luck, I know).
Given their expressed interests so far I sort of anticipate them being into arts (lit/music/art) and science (bio particularly) but of course things change.
Would anybody want to weigh in on the feel of the following school systems?
Ridgewood, Glen Rock, River Dell, Northern Highlands, Pascack 1 & 2, Northern Valley 1 & 2, Tenafly, Paramus, pretty sure they're all great schools academically, just want to know how each of them feel. We've driven by most of them. I know there are a lot of similar threads and I've read a bunch, but I haven't found one that talks about the feel of the environment in each place comparatively. Also happy to hear recs about other town schools. TIA.
Interesting link, I hadn't thought about it that way, but correlation with grad degrees, yeah. It would be cool to see what types of degrees that means - law and medical, MBA, sciences, etc.
Paramus is a great town to live in! Low taxes, well funded schools, close to everything that is needed. People spend more money to live in towns like Glen Rock, but in reality the schools are not that different (I know someone that works in Glen Rock). Only time you will see a difference (in a bad way) if you compare lets say Paramus or Glen Rock with like Lodi.
Every one of these systems will provide excellent academics and educational experience.
If you want to avoid the gunner/money schools, you might avoid Ridgewood, Northern Highlands, Tenafly, and to a lessor degree Old Tappan and Pascack Hills.
You also need to figure out whether you want a regional system or a single town school. One difference is spreading the property tax pain over multiple towns vs one town being on the hook for the whole HS program. If a town runs into a financial problem it will have less effect on a regional system vs a single town system.
In a single town system you might have more say to what happens in the system vs a regional system.
The pressure-cooker environment comes from the parents and filters down to the kids. Trust me, there is no teacher or administrator who wants that kind of environment.
Parents need to set the culture in their own home when it comes to grades and resist the culture around them if it doesn't fit with their values. If it means your kid doesn't make the top whatever % of the class, so be it. I'm so tired of people blaming the schools for these environments. (sorry rant over )
I agree with picking a town you like north of Paramus and going with it. It's splitting hairs sometimes drilling into this school data. And try to find a house you really like as well
Last edited by bookspage; 06-10-2018 at 07:57 AM..
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