So here in Canada (at least on the Prairies) we're lucky enough to have Catholic school as a publicly funded option. There would be no additional cost to me.

The thing is my kid is doing great for now (grade 4) and I've taught her a ton of science, engineering and math from my own knowledge. She's bright and engaged... At home. But the standard school system is trying their best to change that.

In her class at school they are still counting blocks and doing 2-digit addition. And they need to do that, because there are kids in her class who can't count. And can't read! In grade 4!

The teachers say she's top of the class easily, but how do they quantify that, just that she seems smart? There is no scoring, no grades, no discipline. It's nothing like school when I was young. There's this little shit in her class that likes to scream so they gave everyone else earmuffs to use when he does. He's not disabled or anything mind you - just a spoiled disruptive little shit.

It's a trash environment that's hard on smart kids. I taught her how to box and also how nice girls only ever hurt someone by accident. So far she's knocked out a kid who likes to push little girls down the stairs and took another bully's teeth out. She told me "but they were gonna fall out anyways. It was an accident!" Good job, kid.

More parents have been pulling their smart kids for the Catholic school and she lost 2 of her best friends there this year. Most of the other kids left aren't really decent company... They are dumb as a load of rocks honestly. The selection pressure to the Catholic system and to private schools has taken its toll.

So I went to visit the Catholic school to see what it was like and it was night and day. The kids were all lean, healthy looking and bright eyed. No fat kids. No scrubs. No screaming brats. No tablets or phones, at recess everyone was playing sports and games and laughing and smiling. Looks like the kind of company I want my daughter to grow up with, honestly.

The principal was horrified to hear my stories from public school and promised that they teach kids individually with extra projects and enrichment for kids who are ahead. Which is great because often my daughter tells me she wants to just stay on the farm with me "Because there's no point in going to school, I'll learn more working with you"

They have sports, they have clubs, everything from knitting and choir to lockpicking and hacking. They have a full band program and an entire supply of loaner instruments! A huge and well kept library full of mostly secular books. All the stuff that a school should have, but mostly it's what it doesn't have that I'm interested in. Otherwise she's going to fall off the rails and spend her highschool days like I did - bored to death and getting into drugs, drinking and causing trouble.

My wife teaches at a local college and is very concerned that the quality of incoming students seems to drop every year and yet their attitudes get more and more entitled. The Catholic district has won industry awards for their mentorship and job placement programs, the public district... Well... They don't even have them.