a. Public School
b. Private School
c. Religious School
d. Home School

Stumped? Here’s a hint: the word is only 150 years old in the United States (can’t speak for other countries). School as we know it today is a product of the Prussian military state and was really designed to dumb people down into following orders (if you work in a corporate environment, you might recognize this feeling).

I think that school robs us of the most valuable creative resource on earth, time.

I opted for home schooling if my parents were able to provide everything needed. But my parents weren’t educated people and they don’t know what is home schooling is. For them, able to send me to school i.e public school is consider something very good enough because that is what they can afford.

In my country, during my school time, i.e. + - 20 years back so as today, eventhough there are many private school, school was 100% managed by goverment and half of the cost was by government. This makes the fees cheaper than private school & perhaps home schooling. So, that’s the only option my parents have to enabling their daughter educated. That’s the reason why I ended up in public school.

Though I not condemn public school, like I said earlier, if my parents are able to home schooling me, I will choose that.

As bad experience is school, I am sure everyone will have one. As for my self, during 5th grade, I was being slapped by my teacher because I am not finishing my homework. It is Maths subject. But as an 11 years old girl and just moving to that school for 5 months, I don’t know anyone much and I don’t even close to any teacher.

I admit that I am not very bright in Maths but what makes me regrets & dissapointed with that incident is that not because I get slap because I don’t do my homework. But for some other reason . The teacher said it is the reason but another teacher and some other classmate said the teacher got angry with me because I was slapping one of my classmate.

Nah.. dont get excited… I know maybe you people would think I am a bad girl or bullying. But NO! the fact is that the classmate is the one who disturb me 1st. He is consider as a clever student by that teacher though everyone knows that he is very naughty. Because of that, none of the teacher will stop what he is doing. Being a new girl, I dont know that fact & because I cannot stand him who always bullying me & disturb me, one day I slap him back after he pull my ponytail (I had a long hair those days). If comparing our size that time, I am the smallest in the class.

I guess he’s complaining about that incident to that teacher & guess what, the incident that I got slap by the teacher is not immediately after the incident I fight back the boy. But, it is during that teacher class i.e Maths class.

Being naive & new & also no one I can tell the incident, I just keep quiet. I don’t even tell my parents. But the scar from that incident makes me hated Maths subject & also that school. I was determine to go to boarding school doesn’t matter if it is a good or not as long as it is a boarding school. It is beacuse those days, boarding school is a hot things & anyone who are able to entered will be consider a clever student.

Gosh! I really can’t forget that teacher & that incident though I don’t know where is she about now. It is because it makes me feel very down & I became an introvert & no self confidence for a very long time.

Overall, it was a pleasant experience.

The politically correct, of course, are going to tell you that the public and private education systems can offer so much more, and perhaps — and that’s a big perhaps — that was the case “back in the day,” especially when class sizes were smaller and teachers were better. Now, though, there are so many methods and ways to teach children at home or in smaller groups, as you said, according to their level, not their age.

Having experienced the public, private, and homeschool teaching styles in several states, I know which one was better for me personally. Being eighteen now and able to look back on the time I had at home under my mother’s teaching, I realize that I was a lot better off then and now. I moved at my pace, which was a faster pace than what the public or private education systems worked, and I was able to actually get the sleep and food that I needed as a child. I also have a much better personality in public. I thought I might mention that, considering so many who don’t know a thing about homeschooling are convinced we are all nerdy, uptight, and introverted people. At least I know how to act decently in public; public and private school certainly never tried to teach my formalities. Thank God my parents did.

When I ended up going to public school in fifth and sixth grade, I was so bored. They couldn’t believe that I had had an eleventh grade reading level since I was eight-years-old (despite printed, physical proof of that with national standardized testing which put me in the top 2% of the nation when it came to reading and my age), so they immediately started me at the fourth-grade reading level. They were convinced that I could not possibly be even up to par with my peers, much less lightyears ahead. My peers were not much better, as they were sure that I couldn’t have possibly spent my time learning at home, when I could have lived deadbeat lifestyles, like many of them were.

When I told my parents this, they spoke to the teachers and principal of my school. These books based on “reading level” were ones I was required to read and take tests on to “improve” my reading skills. Sadly, I was so bored with the childish content that I would only skim the books and then do poorly on the 10-question electronic tests.

My parents, when contesting this absurd behavior, managed compromise; the school allowed me to read at one grade level above my own — grade six. When I had read all the books of interest in that grade, they began to let me move up, but only then.

Like in your mother’s situation, this just goes to show how ignorant the public (and many private, in my experience) education institutions can be, even while maintaining their arrogance!

I stayed in public education for middle school and my first two years of high school due to friendships more than anything. My last two years of high school, I opted to switch to independent study. Why? Because I got sick of the extracurricular B.S. that gets shoved down one’s throat in public schools (they sort of forget the objective of learning amongst all the football games). I also got sick of the baby daycare that existed in the school for all the unwed, teen mothers; also sickening was the fact that these knocked-up (usually more than once, at that) girls could go in an hour a day to see their children and get a full class credit. They could do this every year. This, while my 4.0 got knocked down by a psychology teacher who just didn’t like me. That’s not a huge issue to me, but there seems to be a problem in the balance there.

I agree with you on the fact that the administrators should be paid less and the teachers paid more, but I also think, too, that the teachers should go through more rigorous training, especially those who teach upper grades and are supposed to have some general skill and focus to the specific classes they teach. In the state I reside in, teachers can teach up to three years without a license (it’s supposed to be for while they’re pursuing their license); this is because there is such a shortage in teachers vs. students. Classes are overcrowded; sex, drugs, and violence runs rampant.

Naturally, it is unlikely, though not entirely impossible, that an unlicensed, poorly-skilled teacher is going to be able to handle a class of 30 students who want to act like animals. Moreover, how can people of that nature teach children well? And most assuredly, how can they try to tell us that more personalized learning institutions of small, more focused groups, be that at home or somewhere else, aren’t as good as what they can “provide?” It’s infuriating.

I think you all of have over-inflated egos and a distorted perception of your childhood. I bet everyone where you work is stupid too, and you’re smarter than your boss, and all the drivers around you suck, and…

You are all ego-maniacs, the centers of your own little sad pathetic worlds. Learn how to interact, maybe you could have developed important skills by HELPING the students that weren’t as advanced as you. Alternatively, you could always test out of any grade in the US with parental consent and move on to the next grade.

Classes were considered “crowded” anyway, but by and large the teachers (most of whom had been teaching for many years) recognized intelligence in students and did not try to perpetrate on me many of the braindead punishments many people describe.

I don’t know why this is, but I have a feeling it was more related to school and class size (most of my classes were below 20 students) and teacher pay (many of my teachers being around for so long were making $80k plus) and *not* teaching methods.

Still, I’ve noticed a MARKED difference between my outlook on life and my ability to communicate with others and that of those I have met who were home schooled. I had a roomate in college that was home schooled, and (although this wasn’t the only differentiating factor) he seemed to have an odd perceptions on responsibility (read: almost none).

The fact of the matter remains, the US schooling system was designed to make factory workers, not academics. The academic’s rise to the top and get to go to college, where this is (was) more fostered than in high school. Public School in the US teaches you the “values” of timeliness and discipline; not mathematics and literature. If you don’t believe me (but you probably do), ask yourself how many detentions and suspencions are handed out because of some disciplenary issue (being late to class, skipping class, etc) and how many are due to an academic issue: even in my school, nobody cares if you get a C or a D, but when you don’t show up to class, you’re parents are called.