[Avodah] Public school or non-Orthodox day school?

[Ilana Sober]

In a community school with O participation, or even in a C school,
there will be other kids who keep Shabbat and Kashrut, and there may
be a policy requiring birthday parties to observe these halachot.
School will be closed on yom tov. Fun events like carnivals, major
trips, etc will not be scheduled on Shabbat.

My brother and I grew up in a very observant C family and attended
non-Jewish schools (public through grade 6, then private). There were
huge social nisyonot - parties and trips on Shabbat, no meeting
friends at McDonalds, major restrictions on HS extracurriculars
(sports, drama, debate, etc all involved Shabbat commitments). Also,
especially by HS, missing 2 days every week for four weeks at the
beginning of the year definitely did not help our grades. I was good
at school and not the most socially adept kid anyway and I was a bit
of a non-conformist, so I did ok - although by grade 12 I was really,
really struggling. My brother, who was always much more popular and
peer-oriented, dropped observance sometime around junior high.

- Ilana

-- 
Note that this is my NEW email address. The old one will be
deactivated in August. Please update your address book.