Dear Sienna Elyse,
So, I’ve been doing some research lately. I wanted to know the states and countries with the best scholastic systems. Of course, we’re talking K-12 at this point. When you go to college, we’ll figure out where we’re moving to then!
As of this year, these are the States with the best grades and scholastic ratings:
1. Maryland
2. Massachusetts
3. New York
4. Virginia
5. New Jersey
6. Ohio
7. Pennsylvania
8. Georgia
9. West Virginia
10. Arkansas
Now, I’m not sure I want to live up North simply because it gets quite cold, but perhaps it’s not miserable, I don’t know. So the first one, I, quite frankly, really don’t know that much about. I’ve never read a book that took place in Maryland and I don’t hear much about it. Same for Massachusetts. Now, New York could be an option, but it’s complicated. See, I would not raise a child in New York City, and I don’t know about rural New York. The city may have culture and interesting things that can broaden your horizons, but it’s simply not a place to raise a child. And the rest doesn’t seem like it would have enough insight into the rest of the world – but what city really does? Hmmm. I suppose with access to New York City, you could live a fairly crime-free life with frequent visits for the better “insights” part. But seriously, do we really want to be driving into and out of New York? I think not.
After New York, it’s not really worth moving there to get a less than 3rd place school system. I mean, you can get the B- grades in the State I’m in now that the other States on the list hold. So no point continuing on down that list.
Which means we go international. The top ten countries as of 2010 are:
1. South Korea
2. Finland
3. Canada
4. New Zealand
5. Japan
6. Australia
7. Netherlands
8. Belgium
9. Norway
10. Estonia
Now, the countries I’ve been considering are US, France and the UK. Those are 17th, 21st and 11th, respectively – none of them are on this list of top 10! We’re certainly not moving to South Korea. Finland may not be the worst idea - apparently, aside from top scholastics, they were ranked as one of the world’s most peaceful, competitive and livable countries. Problem is, I don’t speak Finnish. Also, it’s a very cold country. Not that I’m against it, but I don’t know about -20°F in winter. That might be a bit much. Also, they may have a lot of their own culture, but how much access do they have to other cultures? It also seems that they have a very old population with people not having children much. So there could be economic and other issues eventually. Perhaps Canada, but I feel that they are quite cut off from the rest of the world.
So then I looked at best countries to live in--not factoring in schools—and guess which one was at the top? It was France! Apparently, it ranks as the top for many things quite regularly (like culture, healthcare, infrastructure, etc.). Of course, I found another “top ten” and it had Vancouver, Canada at the top. Another list of “Happiest Countries” had Denmark at the top. Interestingly, all of these lists have had Luxembourg on them somewhere between 2 and 10. Apparently, it is the world’s richest country and also consumes the most alcohol in the world per citizen…then again, they have a small population, so maybe that number is a bit skewed.
Then I looked at unemployment rates for US, France and UK – 7.2, 7.5 and 5.5, respectively. As a point of interest, Luxembourg is at 4.7! New Zealand (#4 on the scholastic chart) is 4.0. While that is not bad, I certainly feel that New Zealand is quite cut off from the rest of the world and if we didn’t have a lot of money for travel, we would not get a good sense of the "bigger picture."
I was talking to one of your aunts about all this and I did mention that the UK has a better school system than France and US. And we thought that, actually, if we lived in France, the K-12 system would give you a good enough education, perhaps supplemented at home, and then we’d be close enough for you to go to Cambridge or Oxford when you go to college. So you’ll be able to get away from your mother in your college years, but you’d still be only a train ride away! Ha. Naturally, I adore London, so I can’t promise that I won’t come live there with you when you start going to college. But I guess we can discuss that when it comes up.
Well, I certainly want to do more research and math on these things. You know, if a country is at the 2 spot in schools, 4 in best place to live and 3 in healthcare, then what does it average out to vs other countries and their ratings? We shall see!
Love you,
Your mom
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