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ever feel like your own public school education was lacking?


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A few days ago, I ran across a post on Fibonacci spirals in nature. (I found it through someone's blog link in her signature here. I hope she doesn't mind the repost.) I thought the video was so cool that I sent it to my parents and my two sisters.

 

My older sister has been homeschooling for twelve years. My younger sister was homeschooled, with a very rich experience. I'm the only one in the family with no homeschooling background.

 

When I sent them the video, they all said, "Oh, welcome to our world. We've known about Fibonacci spirals forever!" And then it started a whole bunch of emails about 1.618 and (1+5^0.5)/2. I'm completely lost and not very happy about it. The same thing happens when they start talking about history.

 

I went to a great public school and got very good grades, but my education doesn't come anywhere near my little sister's - or the education that my older sister and my parents received as they've taught their kids.

 

When I read the posts here, I feel that way sometimes, too. Many of the people who have been homeschooling for a while have such clear critical thinking skills.

 

Do you ever feel like your public school education was far inferior to the education you're giving your kids? Do you feel like you're catching up yourself, as you teach your kids?

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Do you ever feel like your public school education was far inferior to the education you're giving your kids? Do you feel like you're catching up yourself, as you teach your kids?

Yes, and yes.

 

TBH, I think my time would have been better spent self-educating by the time I hit middle school. I took AP and Honors courses, scored well on my SATs, was admitted to a very competitive major with a very low acceptance rate (50 spots, 800 applicants). DH and I both have advanced degrees (master's in my case, DH has a PhD). We both feel our high school education was woefully inadequate.

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Pitiful, in so many ways.

 

There are 4 teachers throughout middle/high school that truly impacted and educated me. I can name them and what they did because they poured themselves into their subject matter and gripped me at a core level. If all my teachers had been that awesome, the whole experience would have been different.

 

That said, there was so much time wasted that I wish I could go back and redeem. I saw the same thing happen with our oldest, though I was in no position to HS her through high school when I had infants underfoot. With the littles, I hope/pray to give them an amazing education--at least that's what I strive for.

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I am sorry you have to lament within your own family :(

 

But I am also glad you have family who have the experience and hope they support you at least in your choice to home school.

 

We who were PS all the way through do realize the many facets we missed out on, although my family was not even into buying books, and it would not have been a good experience for me to have been home schooled.

My mom sent my twin and I off at 4 years old to K. Every time I was sick I got a shot or pink stuff to down and get over it... many times I had to stay home alone sick and suffered deeply with several bouts of Strep throat, finally getting a Tonsilectomy. I also had Shingles in 2nd grade and chickenpox 2 times.

 

I am learning that health starts in childhood, and mother love is needed to even consider home schooling. I do lament the terrible experiences I should have been shielded from, such as drugs, porn, and bullying, as well as the lack of nutritional foods.

 

Sports was a good thing for me, as I was always active and atheletic, but again, I had a coach who influenced me in many negative ways, and hurt my fragile spirit and mind. ( She is a sick person)

 

I also remember a few great teachers who tried their best to instill a love of learning. I got bored in PS though and knew there had to be a way to cover all of that material much more quickly, so I skipped over half of my Senior year ( regrettably) and was depressed, I did not live up to my potential at all, and my parents did not value a liberal education or even seem to want me to go to college. I had to take a remedial math to cover Algebra 1 and 2 in college and made an A but no credit.

 

I also got turned off to Biology with an Atheist teacher, and realize now that the Christian teachers I had were the best and went well out of their way to open doors for me into which I only got glimpses of a classical education.

 

So, I am with you in lamenting that it could have been so much better, in many ways. I just try to learn as much as I can, and hope that our children will surpass me and most of all learn to think and love to learn, with God at the center and be in His Will.

 

One of the best speakers I have been blessed to listen to is Susan Wise Bauer. She shared the ups and downs of being home schooled, and what it is like home schooling in her life. She is so sweet, and has encouraged me to keep going, no matter what. And to do what is best for our family in all of our choices; co-ops, youth groups, family, whatever we do should be for the right reasons and best for our family.:001_smile:

 

After Schooling is a wonderful opportunity as well: I am glad there is a forum for this as well. My sister wants to home school, but has not been able to so she uses SOTW with her oldest dd: I have encouraged her to at least do this!

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There are 4 teachers throughout middle/high school that truly impacted and educated me.

 

Yes, I had teachers who had a life-changing positive impact on me, too. Not trying to bash public school teachers or the job they do! There was no way they could give me anywhere near the quality of education that my parents gave my younger sister, though.

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My parents have very weak critical thinking skills. Had I been home schooled, it's unlikely I would ever have even attended college. When I once asked my father to read and edit a thesis paper I wrote for my sophomore English class, he just got a confused look on his face, and said, "It sounds like you're repeating yourself." Dad, it's called building an argument, and reinforcing it point-by-point. :glare:

 

FTMP, I had good teachers in ps, and so I left with pretty strong critical thinking skills, which I've sharpened as I've gotten older and continued to read and learn.

 

So, in my case, no hs'ing would have resulted in a significantly weaker education for myself, mostly because my parents have never been given to intellectual pursuits or curiosity. If that had not been the case though, it would have been nice to have received an education that was non-institutionalized.

 

The one thing I have had to relearn, and reshape, are my ideals about education: what it should encompass, what it should look it, how it should function. This hs'ing journey has done much to teach me my blind spots in regards to how I've been programmed about the form of school. Because I was educated k-12, my whole paradigm of education has been predicated upon the uniform standards of x many students, receiving x amount of instruction, for x many hours a day, in an industrial building, with x many rooms and teachers, etc.

 

You know, I'm very thankful for the education I received, because it opened the doors for my own continuing self-education, which is a life-long process. But, I'm also extremely grateful for the opportunity to hs our son, whose education does not need to be constrained to such a passive mode of learning.

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A few days ago, I ran across a post on Fibonacci spirals in nature. (I found it through someone's blog link in her signature here. I hope she doesn't mind the repost.) I thought the video was so cool that I sent it to my parents and my two sisters.

 

 

That was me. :) I don't mind! :)

 

Do you ever feel like your public school education was far inferior to the education you're giving your kids? Do you feel like you're catching up yourself, as you teach your kids?

 

Sometimes. I don't think anyone's education could ever be considered "complete" whether public or private or homeschool or what, the world is too big and complex not to end up with a few holes no matter what. I was lucky enough to be in an experimental challenge program in public elementary school, which was great, but unfortunately it doesn't exist any more in this same district, for my kids. On good days I feel like I am able to recapture some of the best parts of that program. On great days I feel like I'm giving my kids something the best public school program could never hope to emulate. On bad days, it seems like I've forgotten everything I ever learned and the kids already know more than I ever will. Don't ask which one is today...

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Sometimes. I don't think anyone's education could ever be considered "complete" whether public or private or homeschool or what, the world is too big and complex not to end up with a few holes no matter what .

 

Precisely, my dear Watson. :) It is, or should be, a lifelong process, as I said. Though your sisters may have one up on you in this area, I'm confident that you have your own areas of expertise and knowledge, in which they would have deficiencies and gaps.

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Yes and I went to a good public high school. It was geared towards AP exams and SATs, which aren't a good measure of education. Because it is institutional, I think public schooling presents education as a discrete set of years; once you are finished with formal schooling, your knowledge base is complete. This could never be and is not reality. A lifetime of study could probably only begin to tap the amount of learning available.

 

I'm hoping through homeschooling I'm able to teach my children that education doesn't end in highschool, college or graduate school; it is a life-long process. Whenever my kids have a question and I don't know the answer, our first course is look it up on the internet, go to the library to check out books, and research more when we come up with additional questions.

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Yes. The longer I homeschool, the more I realize how much of my education actually occurred at home in casual discussions about everything interesting. I had some good teachers, but they didn't know what to do with me most of the time. My high school severely lacked advanced academics. I skipped my senior year primarily because there was nothing worthwhile left for me to take.

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That's why I homeschool and have moved more towards allowing my dd to follow her interests. I think I learned far more from my free reading than I ever did in class, in part because I chose it and wanted to master it. It's so much easier now with the internet. My kids can learn about any subject whenever it peaks their interest.

 

I did have some wonderful teachers, but they didn't make up for the daily grind of mind-numbing boredom. I hope I'll be able to find b&m or online classes with teachers that inspire dd so that she'll have that experience, but I wouldn't encourage her to enroll full time.

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Oh, you bet. My kids' elementary education, especially In history is superior to my high school education. we were reading SoTW yesterday, John Locke's ideas of life, health, possessions, etc. and I'm just getting chills thinking about how these ideas are what our country was founded on and I'd never even heard of Locke until I was an adult, but my kids are learning it as 3rd graders. Of course ds's only comment was,"I'm a robot, I eat grease!" which completely took the wind out of my sails, but still... I'm laying a foundation and this will not be the only time they study this stuff.

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Oh yes! Forget the kids, I have learnt so much already - and my oldest only just started 2nd grade.

 

I was pretty much top of all my classes, but I had zero grammar, zero science (BFSU has even taught my sciency DH some things!), only procedural math, pathetic literature - who gets to a university literature lecture not having ever heard the names Homer, Dante, Virgil, Milton? I did. The only history was Australian history, I have no idea about the rest of the world! Quite pathetic.

 

I have to be careful to remember that hsing is not just about me :D But yes, I'm so thankful (and jealous) that my children have this opportunity.

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Not really. (But I did not go to school in the US).

It was a bit deficient in history - after all, I went to ps in a communist country with very biased history teachings - but I learned a lot of history on my own.

On the plus side, I was taught math and sciences very very well. I studied two foreign languages for ten and eight years, respectively, and achieved fluency (one of them is English).

All in all, I am pretty happy with the public school education I received. There will always be holes. Mine have been easy to fill by myself.

I would be very content if I could give my children the same level of education I received in school.

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Absolutely. It was a near total waste of my time. It is why I am homeschooling today.

Same here.

:iagree: I couldn't do long division without a calculator until I homeschooled. And I was a science geek who almost has a BS and I worked in a lab!

I am finding gaps like this all the time in my own knowledge!

 

If I had just been left to my own devices, I would have learned way more than I did being in ps. As it was, I had to fight what seemed like a full-blown legal battle with my school district just to enter an early college program.

:glare:

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Do you ever feel like your public school education was far inferior to the education you're giving your kids? Do you feel like you're catching up yourself, as you teach your kids?

 

Only on days ending in "y." ;)

 

Yes, I went through a "good" school system, or whatever it was that passed for "good" at the time. I can honestly say that there were only four teachers who really, truly taught anything or actually cared about their students. The rest were just there to hand out tests and pick up paychecks. :glare:

 

On the bright side, I am really enjoying learning now, and filling in all of the horrendous gaps in my education! Dd is always amazed whenever dh (who went through the same school system) and I say "Nope. We didn't learn that until college!"

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I think my writing skills were weak coming out of high school. But perhaps they were weak compared to where I THINK they should have been.

 

While I think there are some subjects in which I could have had more depth, overall I feel the education I received was good. No school (public, private, homeschool) can cover everything with everything child. I did learn how to learn and how to find answers that I needed and that's more important than amassing random facts.

 

My oldest ds is now a senior at the same high school I attended. The standards are much higher today. I was on the advanced track in the olden days. The advanced track today is very intense. My ds's writing skills are way beyond the level I had at his age. He doesn't know everything (he just thinks he does), but he certainly knows how to learn on his own anything not covered by his teachers.

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I learned my critical thinking skills in college and later in the workforce.

 

Mine were learned all in the workforce, thanks to working under a fantastic university division head. My college work wasn't much better than high school, but that was due mostly to a poor choice of majors.

 

There's a big difference between the type of learning that happens when attempting to cover all the bases (as in my school experiences) and the type that happens when focusing intensely on one applied topic (as in my job). Critical thinking skills developed for me when I was involved in intensely focused, applied learning. (Or maybe I was just more motivated or understood better why it mattered.)

 

On the other hand, maybe this was the way it was supposed to work. I did learn how to learn, and the process isn't done yet. It's just that now I want to learn different topics, and I'm bummed that I haven't learned them already! :)

Edited by mudboots
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Yes...

 

I was a National Honor Society student, graduated in 1987 (#10 in a class of 200+), got great SAT scores and a "full ride" scholarship. Graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration -- also w/ Honors. I was hired by a well-known bank before graduation as a Branch Manager. I worked for them for 7 years -- taking every available course they would send me to. I thought I was doing alright...until I started homeschooling. ;)

 

Everyday I learn something while teaching my children and wonder, "Why didn't I already know that?"

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I was theoretically in advanced classes, at a special pull out school and all that nonsense but I can't remember a single thing I learned other than math, and that very poorly. My own education was a waste of time. My kids were watching Looney Tunes (the old one) and I realized I probably learned more culture from those cartoons than I ever did at school.

 

Even with failures over the years my children are better educated and my youngest is the best of all because I have had all these years to catch up. I keep thinking if I could start over today I would do a much better job. I just need to get my hands on some - ahem - willing victims. ;)

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Definitely.

 

I had, maybe, 5 teachers who were true teachers, in my 13 years of public (and private) school.

 

Luckily, I had very educated parents, and I feel that somewhat compensated.

 

One of the things I love the most about homeschooling is that I get to (re)learn all this really cool stuff in a fun way,

with my awesomely bright son.

 

(He's already more advanced in math than I am - but that's dh's and Khan Academy's faults)

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Mine was mostly top-notch.

 

They didn't teach Latin though, so I had to pick that up.

 

Most of my history classes were so-so. A relative was head of the history department, so I couldn't have her or the teachers who were her dear friends. So I always got the new teachers, or the visiting teachers.

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Absolutely. Both DH and I feel that homeschooling has allowed our children to have a much better education than either of us received. I just took what I was handed and had no inclination to learn outside of school. DH was a self-educated person, always studying outside of school to learn the things he was interested in learning. He said if it wasn't for his love of reading and learning, he would probably not have done as well on the SAT or in college.

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My public school education was not a classical education, but I learned how to learn. Furthermore, my PS education did not kill my desire to learn, either. How can I say it was terrible?

In short, it wasn't a classical education, but I think it was good.

I am very glad to be giving my children a classical education. I love learning what they are learning--world history, Latin, spelling rules, etc. :001_smile:

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Yup. Here are 2 examples:

 

Quebec had a conscription crisis in WWII. That is all I learned about WWII.

 

I thought Animal Farm was a literal story about animals revoting - I did not realise it had anything to do with the Russian Revolution and communism until my son read it this year.

 

I did learn to write an essay in high school (more than I can say for my DH) and my math was fairly strong - everything else was a total wash. With the exception of math, I could have learned everything I learned in high school in about 1/2 the time.

Edited by kathymuggle
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There's no question that my public school education was inferior, and I was in the gifted program.

 

I have practically no knowledge of history. My 10 and 12 year old kids have already passed me in grammar and history, DS10 is learning math that I can't do. I have two younger kids, as well, and am no longer able to keep up with the older two kids' studies. I hope to learn with the younger two what I'm missing.

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Yes, I had teachers who had a life-changing positive impact on me, too. Not trying to bash public school teachers or the job they do! There was no way they could give me anywhere near the quality of education that my parents gave my younger sister, though.

 

:iagree:

 

I don't want to bash PS teachers, either. Some of them do pour their hearts into their work and treat it like a calling. But nothing beats one-on-one with a heavy dose of love.

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Yes!!!!!

 

Sadly, I feel like I have learned more this year teaching my Dd K than I did most of my own PS education. I am really glad I had a few years of catch up work when I was homeschooled myself (7-10th) but I still feel extremely lacking in knowledge in most academic areas. I am excited of the chance to be able to redo my own education through my kids. 12 school years to go and I have a feeling it will be an eye opening ride!;)

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I must have gotten really lucky because there's not much in the way of classical education that I missed. I was placed into an advanced track and basically stayed with the same group of kids from 1st grade through high school. There's even a Facebook group for alums from my cohort and to a man/woman, everyone acknowledges the singular nature of our experiences. Among my graduating cohort of 40 or so (some kids came in/moved out), I think I counted 4 doctors, 5 lawyers, and multiple graduate degree-holders.

 

We read all the major European and American classics. We studied grammar and sentence diagramming (BLECH!!). We worked logic puzzles and, eventually, studied rhetoric. We studied latin roots in elementary and middle school with formal Latin classes offered in high school. We participated in national Odyssey of the Mind competitions and one team member placed 3rd at the national spelling bee. We had access to both IB and AP classes including european history, government and politics, physics and AB/BC calculus. Yes, we even did geometry proofs...real ones. Foreign language started in grade 6 and continued through high school. Our HSs (we had several to choose from in the district but most chose the same one) had pools so swimming was required. The Wordly Wise vocab. books were actually part of my daily English homework. My teachers were old, crusty, seasoned vets and they worked our little tooshies to the bone!

:001_huh:

 

 

I have an extremely vivid memory of my 6th grade teacher requiring us to choose a lengthy novel on which to write a book report. I chose Steven King's It. I was going through a horror phase or something. Anyway, she made me write a paper explaining how that book qualified as 'literature' before she would let me write the darned book report! It took me years to figure out I'd been played. :lol: I was too excited about winning the battle over book choice to notice that I'd lost the workload war! I don't think they make teachers like this anymore.

 

I have learned some new math methods by teaching SM that are really neat and interesting but the traditional algorithms clicked for me the first time through.

Edited by Sneezyone
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