As someone who moved from the states to Europe and just had a kid a few weeks ago, I'm really curious what people have to say. The schools where I live (Ireland) are reasonably well-regarded but there's a lot of pressure to baptise your kid to get them preferential placement, and I still find myself looking at Finland with some envy. I _hated_ school when I was young (actually I hated it when I was older too...), and still think homework is completely unnecessary.