School pride

I think there needs to be some sort of etiquette guide printed for people who move from one school district to another, to guide them in sharing their enthusiasm for their new educational set-up without trashing the old one in the presence of those who still attend. My daughter's friend moved, mid-school-year, to another town about 15 minutes away, with smaller schools that his parents have been very happy with. Very, very happy. So happy that, every time we see them, they have to tell us that the schools are so much better than the schools in our town, they're so glad they got their kids out of our terrible overcrowded bad-programmed schools. And that's fine -- I'm happy for them, really -- except my kids are still going to those schools, and we're actually pretty happy with those programs, and would sort of rather not have them dissed so resoundingly. It seems like bad etiquette on my part to say, "Hey, I don't know what's wrong with your kids, but my kids are doing just fine in our schools!" -- but at the same time, isn't it bad etiquette for someone to run down the schools my kids are attending without at least first ascertaining that I hate them, too? I can carp about special-ed glitches and short-sighted policies and imperfections with the best of them, but I gripe because I love, you know?