biggest item in my checklist for that environment is peer influence.

I feel north (or south) Edison might be pretty good.

Bayonne and JC feel all right.

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When I say “conducive/positive learning environment”, what do I want for my son? Here’s how I answered Mr. Omoloju of RJB school:

First and foremost, there should be no safety concern or negative influence. On top of that, something to engage his energy — Perhaps a minor academic subject; perhaps sports or arts; perhaps coding/robotics… As my friend Alok put it, enough programs to keep the students busy.

Another friend, Jack He, pointed out that some average schools would have some bad students (presumably more than in top school) creating negative influence. Jack felt parents can counter that effectively.

Q1: What if my son falls behind on academic benchmarks while engaged in some of these extra-curriculum programs?

Realistic and big question for the parents. (The write-up on 2-scenarios has more to say about specific solutions, but here I focus on the parent’s attitude.)

A: I tend to feel that he could catch up later academically. No hurry to beat the benchmarks. Many people rise up on the benchmarks in late high school. In college, there’s no standardized benchmark.

A: I have always felt Singapore and China are too focused on book knowledge as measured on standardized benchmarks. Now, if my son is learning meaningful things but falls behind on those benchmarks, I have reason to feel relieved that those challenging benchmarks are not so very important in the U.S. system.

In reality, I believe at the middle/elementary level, grades are mostly due to effort — by the student or by the parents’ push, rather than talent. I know for a fact the at middle/elementary level, U.S. peers on average do not put in the same level of effort as Asian immigrant parents, so my son is unlikely to fall behind unless in a super-competitive school. If he puts in more effort than his classmates but still falls behind, then parents need to accept and be extra-supportive.

A related question:

Q2: is it possible for an academically mediocre school to provide a conducive learning environment?
A: I tend to believe yes. As explained in the PE/SE/SA post, Academic rating depends mostly on parent’s push. If the average parental effort in families of the school population is mediocre, then the conducive learning environment will not produce a top academic result.

Conducive/positive/motivating environment does not mean competitive; academic rating is competitive. Parent’s push is arms race.

I believe my view is radically different from most Chinese parents… Peer pressure. I may yield to it, but I hope I have the backbone to withstand the peer pressure.

“Conducive” is more specific than “positive”.