durham_lad

Kids are surprisingly resilient at that age. Our 2 were aged 5 and 6 when we moved to Houston and had absolutely no problem at all in switching schools. They are both in their 30's now in excellent jobs, having been through the education system including university degrees in Computer Science. One still lives in the Houston area the other lives in California (Santa Monica).

Be prepared that the education your children receive in one or two areas may differ to your own beliefs. For example in grades 7 and 8 our son was taught creationism but at that age it was easy to tell him to do enough to pass any tests but that he could continue believing that the theory of evolution is a more likely alternative.

Recently Texas has changed their history books so that the KKK and Jim Crow laws on forced segregation are not mentioned, and that Africans were brought to America as workers for the plantations rather than as slaves.


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/op...tory.html?_r=0

Pulaski

On an H-2A, followed by a green card presumably?

HTF does just writing slavery out of the history books help anyone? ..... And how do teachers keep a straight face when telling children that "Africans were brought to America as workers"?

durham_lad

At the YMCA we go to in Texas we often talk to some retired teacher friends and they also can't believe it.

Tanja87

Oh wow, that is really quite something! Can't believe they just changed the history books...!
Thank you for the reassurance about the kids as well. I think it's just not "ideal" to take them out of school and moving half way across the globe after just one year but I'm sure they'd be ok. They are still quite young and adaptable I guess... Either way it's completely out of our hands as it depends on my husband's work and if and when they'd want him over there. We will see! For now we'll try to get out there all together on his next business trip and try and find out as much as possible while we're there. Any tips on things worth seeing while out there for 1-2 weeks?

Pulaski

If only it stopped at history. Wait until you see what they've done to the science textbooks.

Tanja87

Oh no! What happened there then?! Surely you can't change science?!! It's science!!

Wintersong

Well, that depends on your definition of science and whether or not it includes invisible sky fairies.

petitefrancaise

or creationism

Pulaski

Right, so based on the assumption that anything called a "theory" is unproven and subject to challenge (which it is, but only by a better theory), a number of states mandate that equal time be devoted to studying "creation science" and "intelligent design" as is given to studying the theory of evolution!

Out of this utter fiasco came the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Pastafarian Church (actually created in response to the teaching curriculum in Kansas, IIRC), created exactly to point out the ridiculousness of the situation. It's sad that things have gone this far.

Tanja87

Oh my word, are you guys serious?! That's is.... An unusual approach! (How diplomatic am I?!) Well I hope at least by the time they teach that, the kids are old enough so mummy and daddy can help them "handle" these teachings appropriately...

Wintersong

The son of a friend of mine, at an elementary school in Virginia, was taught that rain was "Jesus' tears" during a lesson on the water cycle.

Pulaski

We're often accused of being facetious or flippant, but unusually, on this occasion, yes, we're serious.

Jerseygirl

Canveydave

As an answer to the original question.....

We left Texas a month ago. It is a big place and Dallas is very different to Houston, where we lived. We have now moved to Orlando.

The area we lived in had brilliant public schools, despite the comments in this thread. Our 5 year old came on leaps and bounds during his year in the Katy Public Schools system.

The cost of living was great, we were substantially better off in terms of available money, lifestyle and time.

Someone said that Texas had a fascination with guns and was one of only a few open carry states. 31 out of the 50 states are open carry. In the 6 months we lived there whilst it was open carry I saw one gun.

Texas gets a fair amount of stick on here I've found. "Too hot", "Backwards", "Gun's" etc. I have also noticed this comes almost exclusively from people who have never lived there.

My experience was wholly positive and if I could leave Orlando tomorrow and head back to Texas I would.

Pulaski

The guns in Texas thing is a myth. Texas has an only average rate of gun ownership (for the US), and was one of the few states where open carry was NOT legal - I believe open carry was legalized in Texas on January 1, 2016.