[quote=scaredycat]i have advanced degrees but put way more emphasis on fitness for my kids than on grades. I actually would prefer to see them excel physically than intellectually, at least through their teens. that’s not how i was raised but it’s what i’ve come to believe — a very fit and strong kid is going to be a lot more equipped for life than a kid like me with top S.A.T. scores. [/quote]

Send them to Catholic school and they can excel physically AND academically. The defensive unit on my high school football team counted seven Academic All-Americans (me included). All of us went on to college and my high school had a collegiate placement rate in the high 90th percentile and was a feeder school for Stanford, Cal (UC Berkeley) and the Ivies.

Private, Catholic and parochial schools have been doing outstanding work educating and preparing students for life for decades. For what the state is paying per student to educate high schoolers, you could send these same students to Uni, St. Augustine or Mater Dei. It’s a sick friggin’ joke and we’re paying for it.