As far as schools are concerned, there are three kinds of safety: physical, emotional, and intellectual. Excellence demands all three, while "good enough" schools are simply physically safe. How can parents and others determine whether a school is physically safe? It's always good to find out how many students were suspended at a particular school, and why. Ask school officials, but if they're reluctant, search out student-advocacy groups. Talk to students. Ask them about the places in school where they feel unsafe, and check them out. Bathrooms are a good place to start, because if some kids are being bothered, there's a good chance there will be graffiti that singles out kids in a mean or threatening way. Parents should keep an eye out for stuff that smacks of sexual harassment, because schools now have a legal responsibility to protect students from sexual harassment by their peers. Excellent schools and excellent teachers try to instill a sense of purpose, so that the students understand why they're learning in the first place. That?s a very different mentality from learning a skill or learning a piece of the curriculum in order to pass a test or receive an award like an A, getting into college, or not making parents angry. The simple, common-sense test of school safety for parents, whether it?s physical, emotional, or intellectuals: "Listen to the children." They will tell, perhaps not directly, but by their behavior, whether they feel safe at school. They may often want to stay in bed in the morning, or they'll have mysterious stomachaches, or they?ll have lots of unexplained absences. Those are "illnesses" that a visit to the doctor cannot cure, but a visit to the school might.