[quote=Aecetia]Ditto what Allan says about Catholic schools. It is the academic rigorousness, not the religion. They do not teach to the slowest. The slowest can be tutored. They are not bogged down in political correctness either. Religion is not the point. It is academic discipline.[/quote]
Aecetia: I was Jesuit educated from kindergarten through 12th grade (including eight wonderful years in a seminary school). I asked one of the priests, Fr. John Bitterman, SJ (PhD in Divinity, law degree from Yale), why the Jesuits ran the best learning institutions in the Church.
He said that the Jesuits, as a former heretical order, learned quickly where the power and money was (the schools and universities) and took them over.
You not only experience academic rigor and critical thinking/analysis, you get a good dose of Machiavellian scheming and Byzantine treachery for good measure, too.