See also risks@bad(or top)学区]US

Many immigrants think the majority of U.S. primary/middle schools (those rated below 8) are unacceptable compared to their home country’s standard. I tend to feel the average school is good enough.

On the other hand, I feel the U.S. youth culture is dangerously loose. This culture poses more threat than the academic standard.

Q: When considering U.S. relocatino, what’s the #1 risk to boy?
A: perhaps drugs (sex, youth gangs) in U.S. but in such environments, the bigger risk to the family is my health and stable marriage. As a parenting coach said, if a kid has mom + dad together, then any risk would be mitigated.

Q: How do we define “bad influence” in and outside my son’s school?

I want my son engaged, i.e. to put in consistent effort on something, possibly non-academic. Bad influence are harmful:

• studying is silly and not cool
• racism
• bullying

Many of these could be present in Singapore schools, but I’m not worried, because I’m familiar with the environment — known risk. If I were to move to China I might worry about bullying.

Q: is it possible for a middle school to have mediocre rating, presumably due to academic, but positive learning environment? (Jack, you were skeptical….)

I don’t want to miss out a reasonably “positive” school due to its low rating like 7/10.

Based on my homemade theory shown below, I *guess* a 7/10 school will likely have half the students not serious about studies.

Q: Is it possible that a large proportion of these fellow students could be a positive influence, or at least no bad influence?

There will still be some small population of students who are serious academically. They can resist the bad influence even at that tender age.

Look at the American colleagues in our office or any office. I bet they didn’t all go to a middle schools rated 8..9..10. (This rating is not so accurate across states.) Did they get bad influence? Possibly, but they survived fine. If I myself were a 11 year old and go through a 7/10 middle school, I think I will experience but survive the bad influence.

There’s also bad influence in the very top high schools — drugs and sex…. My high school in Beijing was a top 5 school among hundreds of high schools and regularly receives foreign government ministers as a show-case school. The reputation was the #1 “most strict” high school in Beijing. But friends told me I was the only male student who never smoked. There were lots of porn, and some petty thefts. Lots of bullying and bloody fights. How many students survived the bad influence? Well, looks like 100%. At high school level, we kind of knew good and bad. We were almost young adults.

If my son doesn’t cope well in a middle school, I’m prepared to move. If we rent then move will be easier.