THANKS: Character of a growing girl (middle school question)

First, I want to say that describing our middle school as "inner city"
is an overstatement...our city doesn't have an "inner city" as you might
visualize one. The school is urban, it does have related drawbacks, and
I do have concerns relative to this. But it's not as bad as all that,
and I'm sorry that I overstated things.

I really am paying attention and thinking. I didn't meant to come off
argumentative, but I think I did. I'm just concerned and wanting to
do the best thing.

As folks pointed out here, there's a lot of things that make up a girl's
self-esteem, not solely school. And private school isn't going to remove
my daughter from the social issues that will come up in her middle
school years. I find that I want to protect her from the very worst of
the bad stuff; and I think school choice would figure into that some,
but probably not as much as I imagine.

Colleen is right; we'll wait to decide until it's time. Even if we
choose the private school, we won't need to apply for at least a year.
There are tons of things that can happen in the interim. I will keep my
ear to the ground and learn what I can, for now. But I do realize this
isn't something we need to make our mind up on right away. (We might
want to start saving money, though, just in case!)

Thanks for sharing your comments and perspectives. I appreciate every
single one of the responses I received.

beeswing