Wesley Chapel, New Tampa, or Fishhawk *schools* and neighborhoods?

[EngGirl]

Originally Posted by bentlebee

Me neither in some cases, but my son is now able to deal with all kinds of people which is what and how life is about...sheltering kids is in my opinion not helping them for the future, they need to sit in the big chair of loife and schools are a good example of society.

My kids don't hang out with kids like this after school and made a clear choice but they are able to see that people are different and that it is up to them to make a choice to do the right thing and be motivated and what that will do for their future.

You are right. I am just thinking about kids of all ages which is important... besides, at some point they might be more influenced by others... at least some kids might be and "lazy" kids near by might be a problem... it's not a secret some younger kids would prefer goofing around if they have a company like that. And when they reach teenager's age, they will think they know everything better than their parents....

"lazy" kids are coming from somewhere, right? if public school covers only a certain area (by boundaries), it means that "lazy" kids might be from the same neighborhood, so does it mean our kids shouldn't be playing outside because we want to protect them from "lazy" ones? This is where the choice on being in good neighborhoods takes into account.

I don't think it's a good idea to shelter our kids from whatever is around, but I am so grateful my parents did it for me, so I never ended up being around bad companies. I grow up outside of the US and it might be a different story, but I was in very average, low grade public school and my parents saw where we were heading, so I was transferred to somewhat charter school where they had 4 applicants for each seat and I managed to be accepted. So, all my friends from my childhood were divided into 2 groups - from public school and from charter school. Kids from public school in general were not very successful in their life, less that 5% of them ended up in college, and now all they can think of is alcohol or drugs (in general...), and kids from charter school all graduated from different colleges and universities and now have very successful careers all over my home country. It was such an experience to meet my childhood friend from my childhood when I went to visit my home country last year... What a huge gap between my school friends and charter school friends!

So, in my opinion it is important to ...let's call it... guide... our kids to the better choices and sometimes it means to shelter them from "lazy" kids in school. My kids don't need to be around school gangs in order to learn how to deal with different people... You know when a child is different (he/she goes to school to learn), other kids might start bulling him/her and I hate this topic so much so I will not go into this at all.

Also, I would like to mention I am not a big fan of private schools either.

[MartinEden99]

Originally Posted by EngGirl

So, in my opinion it is important to ...let's call it... guide... our kids to the better choices and sometimes it means to shelter them from "lazy" kids in school. My kids don't need to be around school gangs in order to learn how to deal with different people... You know when a child is different (he/she goes to school to learn), other kids might start bulling him/her and I hate this topic so much so I will not go into this at all.

Also, I would like to mention I am not a big fan of private schools either.

I think as you bentlebee have been stating, the key is striking the right balance of exposure to all of life vs overwhelming a kid with negative influences.

Thats why I personally tend to look at the performance of elementary schools more specifically for the right neighborhood than the high school even if I had high school aged kids (and perhaps middle schools to a lesser extent as well). The ES obviously feed into the MS, which feeds into the HS. But your immediate neighborhood will have kids/parents (many times with kids at all 3 levels) that are part of that ES and thats ultimately who your kids will live nearby, see at the park, or tend to socialize with in general.

Obviously you'd want to look at the MS & HS as an indicator of the entire environment of a broader area as you can certainly have 1 great spot in the middle of a lot of bad spots. But if you went strictly by HS you may end up dismissing very solid learning environments because 1 bad spot (which might not be bad" but just less-well performing academically) that feeds into the HS brings the school down a bit into a more average grade.

I've just relocated back from out of state myself and also considering the same areas in the OP. I have actually lived in the Wesley Chapel area before I left (no school aged kids before I left) and am personally leaning that way myself. I really like the vibe there but am admittedly less familiar with Fishhawk. I know people who live there but haven't spent a lot of time there myself.