ever feel like your own public school education was lacking?

[Ester Maria]

No education can possibly be "complete", so sure, there were gaps left and huge areas of human knowledge and experience unaddressed, and perhaps many useful mental connections overlooked, BUT, on the whole, I got a very good education.

 

I have been studying classical languages since middle school (and intensely in the last five years of my education, in lycee), reading literary masterpieces in two modern foreign languages, had a chronological study of history and art history, a basic science education (mostly concentrated around three - I think? - years of physics in high school, with the rest of natural sciences mostly integrated), integrated math (which did not go as in depth as it "should" have because we were a classical, not a scientific school, but it still covered basic notions of calculus, in spite of very few hours weekly allotted for it), and a very, very good education in literature. My school was strictly academic on the high school level. There was no finishing ANY stage of education without a comprehensive exam of some kind, and no graduation without a graduation thesis defended in front of the commission and all that jazz.

With my friends from school I often went to theatre, opera, etc. Although we were teens like all other teens and often cut school, caused problems, and went out, we were still growing into a "cultured" bunch.

 

My parents still thought my education was severely lacking. :tongue_smilie:

[Joyofsixreboot]

My education k-8 was fine. Not classical but I had some very good teachers who fostered my curiosity. High school was a waste of time. The more I teach my kids the more I realize how much I picked up on my own and not through formal classes.

[prairiebird]

My public school education was horrific other than my French classes from 5-8th and my high school English track. (That was excellent.) But everything else? :lol::lol: I learned more from museum visits about science than at school, math was terrible, and we did American history from a white protestant perspective from the early 1400 (went right from Columbus to the pre-Revolution era) to early Civil War all skimming over and over and over again. We never even touched anything after the Civil War, and we never talked about other countries except Spain and England.

 

I think what homeschooling has taught me most is that it's okay to learn things on your own. I was firmly in the mindset previously that learning wasn't valid unless it was in a classroom setting. So if I wanted to learn about WW 2, I would have to look for a college course on WW 2. Now, I don't think that way. I fully understand how others raised like me still might.

[Susan in TN]

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?

 

In many ways I had a very good public education - they insisted that we learn to write! There were definite holes, but if I'm honest with myself, my kids will have many holes in their hs'ed education as well - probably just not the ones I'm most concerned about ;).

 

As my oldest gets more and more focused on what he loves, some subjects will simply not be covered in the most rigorous manner possible. We won't abandon science, but he won't be doing more than the diploma/college entrance requires. I'm OK with that.

[Heather in Neverland]

The overwhelming majority of my high school education was a huge waste of time.

[stripe]

I feel like my college education was lacking too.

 

And that includes feeling like those who came in with a skill were the only ones who graduated with it. That line in one of C Mason's books along those lines really hit a nerve.

 

I had a few hard classes in HS but could have learned much more.

[lilacii]

I always feel this way. I think that is one of the many reasons I desire to homeschool; I want to learn so much that I was not taught...

[Photo Ninja]

Overall, I think I learned more by hsing than I learned in school, especially in history, science and literature. I was taught to write, though. I entered college with strong writing skills, something I think was unique when compared to other students. I was taught to write a 5 paragraph essay in 6th grade, then required to write regular essays, reports and research projects multiple times a year after that. I am grateful for the two teachers who taught me to write (others didn't teach writing, but expected it to be done). But for other subjects, even though I had an excellent history teacher for two years, I learn more by hsing.

[Bluegoat]

Yes. I was in an enriched program in jr high and had some great teachers there, but there was something fundamental missing - a sort of vision of what education was for I think was the main thing. Classes seemed to be largely random in the liberal arts which were my main area of interest - even at that age I could tell they were mostly attempts to push one political view or another.

 

Elementary school had the major effect of convincing me to totally ignore formal education for many years.