"Be Careful What you Wish For"

The saying 'be careful what you wish for' is so true.  I wanted to so badly to move away from where Mark and I grew up (and am glad that we did and would not move back to that area) however moving to the USA I see now was a big mistake.  Sorry, American friends, don't take it personally.  I think the people are great, it's just the schools that I regret that my kids had to go to. It breaks my heart that my kids didn't get the experiences at school that I had growing up and that they would have had if we had stayed in Ontario. In Ontario they would have attended kindergarten to grade 8 with the same 50-60 students (at one school not changing schools twice) so they would have known everyone in their classes every year and had close friends. They would have had time before school, mid morning, after lunch and mid afternoon to go outside and get some fresh air and socialize.  The teachers, vice principal, and principal would have known their names and faces. Sports wouldn't have been the main focus and neither would Standard Test Scores. The immense size of the school population here, the lack of down time for the kids during the day, the focus on conforming, the lack of attention to bullying are a few of the things that were hard to deal with. If I was a kid I would not want to be going to school in the USA.