[XutvJet]

The folks I personally know that were homeschooled are some of the brightest, most personable people I know. Homeschooling doesn't mean you won't have a social life. It's just a little more difficult to find it, but a good parent will figure it out for their child. All the parents I know that homeschooled were very good and involved parents.

We live in a good school district in the southwest suburbs of Kansas City. My wife and I attended the same school district my children attend/attended (not the same schools though). There are some not so great teachers, but overall, the elementary, middle, and high school teachers have been average to excellent. Our kiddos are excellent students (4.0+ and taking AP courses) and my wife has always been quite involved with school through PTA, sports, etc. It certainly helps us get a feel for who's a good teacher, teacher opinions, who's who at the school, etc.

Being in KS, Christianity is STRONG and very large and wealthy Catholic schools are EVERYWHERE. Many kids go to them even though they live in excellent school districts. I was raised Catholic and we could afford to send our kids to those schools, but for us, the private schools are just too damn white and many of the rules are downright silly. We want our kids to go schools where there are other races and a wide range of income levels. The private school kids tend to live a pretty sheltered life being surrounded by lots of privileged white kids except for maybe a handful of black boys there on a sports scholarships (at least that's the case in Kansas City). I certainly don't think they're more well behaved because the private school kids tend to be pretty freaking wild (hardcore drugs, sex, heavy partying) as they have the money and many have parents that are uninvolved, oblivious, and/or lax. It was that way when I was growing up and it's that way now. It's not to say that stuff doesn't happen at our public schools (my wife and I certainly did our share), but at private schools, it's another level of wild.

I get going to a private school if you live in a crap school district, but I certainly don't think you're getting as much as being advertised, much less the cost. As a parent, it is part of your job to help them with school and it is your child's job to take it seriously and do their best. Many parents put way too much pressure on schools and teachers when often times it's the disconnected/lax/uninvolved parents that are the problem. If your kid is a shithead, there's a strong likelihood you're the reason why.