Morning, Amy! You, an *underdog*? Ha!!!
I can relate to the denominational school thing: my first three wretched years in school were spent in Catholic school in NYC. And while I certainly must have learned enough of value while there, the religion itself is heavily pushed(obviously)and it was very obsessive and repressive: boys and girls segregated, uniforms to be worn. Might have gotten stuck there for life, except their occasional corporate punishment(slaps on hands with leather, and in my case, a lay teacher actually slapping my face for dotting an 'i' too flamboyantly)convinced my parents this was not going to work, so to public schools my sister and I went, and stayed....
I know a few teens who are 'privately schooled,' and this has drawbacks of its own. It isn't so much that the kids don't get an education--in fact, one young lady I know is extremely intelligent and perceptive for her age--rather, by isolating the kids away from the social fabric of high school, it seems to me they're lonelier than your average teen. A shame, because interaction with others is essential during those years. I'm sure many of these private schoolings are due to the reduced quality of public schools--
at least that's a good excuse for doing it, provided you have the income and time to invest in doing it yourself for your kids. Yet in either milieu, you don't really learn much about the world outside and how to navigate through it effectively. Not that I enjoyed high school--I was a classic reluctant student who just trudged his way through--but I did learn what I need to know, and have spent the rest of my life since forgetting the useless parts. I guess that's what we all do.
ED
