My dad told me that he did the right thing as a parent not to push my sister and I to work extra hard towards top schools and university. He referred to his decisions (and his underlying attitudes) in the 1980’s China. He had the view that academic benchmark was overrated. He has the backbone. By the way, he did know the top universities well and taught in a few of them. His peers are mostly university professors.

Q: If I choose a location with clean safe streets but mediocre middle school with conducive learning environment -> private high school, will I feel inferiority and 对不起 my kids?

I think the inferiority is a personal pain but I ought to manage that as a second priority.

The parental duty to provide the best for my kids is a more serious, more real question. Answer is a decisive NO because

• silly to care so much about school rating, when our chosen school provides conducive/positive learning environment. See http://wp.me/p6r24r-2e7
• The rich provides more financially for their kids, but I did a good job too. See https://tanbinvest.dreamhosters.com/2017/06/16/some-can-provide-more4their-kidsbut-i-have-done-a-good-job/
• See more pointers in https://tanbinvest.dreamhosters.com/2017/07/14/mountpressureu-s-home-budget/