thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jun 10, 2011 12:20:31 GMT -5
Showing up doesn't always mean that anything productive happens.
I will say that our school harps on how many volunteers they need, but most teachers don't utilize them in the classroom. They have found that the parents that volunteer aren't skilled educators, and are most likely, helicopter parents that don't add value to the classroom. They may or may not take instruction, and usually have an opinion on how the class should go. They said it is easier to just take the full burden than to re-train a new helper every year. The volunteers at our school do a couple of special programs, and then they mostly fundraise.
My sister had a revolutionary idea. She says to raise the class size to 40 and put two teachers in every room. One can be a junior teacher - doesn't need to have a masters - maybe not even a bachelors in some scenarios. The head teacher creates the lesson plans, but then, one teacher can teach all 40 kids one subject, while the other one grades papers. Or one teacher can work with 5 kids that need help, while the other one can work with 35. The top kids can get two-on-one time to move forward. If there is a discipline action, instead of the only adult leaving the room to deal with it, one adult can handle the problem and the other one can keep the kids working on something. Numbers-wise, it could increase the teacher-to-student ratio, but the payroll amounts wouldn't shift significantly. You would probably have to redesign the classrooms to work for a group that size. It would give kids 2 adults to relate to, and decrease the problems you get when one teacher just can't get along with your student - maybe the other teacher can. I think there would be some validity in the model - but it is still highly dependent on the quality of the teachers, and now even more dependent on how well they get along with each other.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Jun 10, 2011 12:21:27 GMT -5
The money does not go with him. The money the school would have gotten for him does not go to any school.
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Clifford
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Post by Clifford on Jun 10, 2011 12:25:23 GMT -5
We are homeschooling this coming year for many of the reasons mentioned. The drawbacks that we can foresee, of course, we will take steps to prevent. What put us over the edge was my son's 4th grade experience: 18 weeks of review in math and English, unreachable teachers, poor communication from the school about anything/everything. What really did it was the power trip that each teacher seemed to take at the expense of the children. A kid talks in class, quiet lunch for all. Another kid talks, no recess for all. Teacher "just doesn't feel like it", no recess for all. Genius admin decides that the Disney Channel at lunch yields better standardized test scores than talking during lunch - silent lunch for the last 9 weeks.
Kids are kids. They talk. They squirm. So the punishment is no recess or talking lunch? So they are pent up even more? I know teachers can get frustrated (I used to teach HS myself), but shutting 10 year-olds down because you don't want to deal with the problem is not helping anyone. When was the last time you had an 8-hour meeting at work? What if you had to do that every day? What if you couldn't talk unless called upon? What if you couldn't even talk during your lunch break? Teachers are people, just like us. I would rather have my kids deal with me - at least I know for sure that I have their best interests in mind.
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Mardi Gras Audrey
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Post by Mardi Gras Audrey on Jun 10, 2011 12:26:33 GMT -5
This might be a stupid question, but if a student leaves the PS system and goes into home schooling, taking from his school X amount of dollars, where is that unused money going? It goes back to the state in most cases. The money is all pooled from all of the taxpayers so that way the ones with children aren't the only ones shouldering the burden. I think it is ~$6k-$10k per student in funding in most states. If the kid's family had to come up with that, there is no way a lot of them could (espcially in larger family...imagine a $30k tax bill because you have 5 kids... ). As such, they take the funds from the single, childless taxpayers, older retired taxpayers, and families and put them together. They then dole it out by funds per student so that all areas can get their kids educated (Neighborhoods with lots of kids are essentially subsidized by neighborhoods with no kids).
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jun 10, 2011 12:27:56 GMT -5
I was thinking more of grade school. A policeman isn't really necessary. If you are talking about high school in a rough neighborhood - yeah, maybe that would make sense.
I was in the classroom once and one kid was just being a terror, so the teacher had to physically remove him. And there we sat, in the classroom - no instructions to the kids on the way out for what to do - so they just rattled around, doing nothing.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jun 10, 2011 12:28:29 GMT -5
At least, it was definitely that way for me. In elementary school, I could read extra books and do educational things with my parents - by high school, I was so bogged down in extracurriculars that extra things ON TOP of those did not appeal at all.
But is that the public school systems' fault that your schedule was overloaded that there was no time for outside things?
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telephus44
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Post by telephus44 on Jun 10, 2011 12:29:32 GMT -5
I'm like you Firebird in terms of how I did in school. My thought process about PS though it isn't ABOUT me getting the bestest most awesomest personalized education. PS is there to make sure every child, including me, gets a basic education. If I get more than that, that is awesome, but it isn't there to personally cater to me. If I want that I'll do what the rich have always done and seek it out and pay for it. Just like the overschooling thread people with the money have ALWAYS had access to the bestest and betterest stuff for their kids. PS was to make sure evey child at least learned the basics. For most of history most of the general populace could barely write their own names, let alone read or do math. PS ensures every child can at least read and do math. The rest is up to me as a parent. If I want DD to have more than the basics then it is my job to step up to the plate and see it out for her. To expect public schools, IMO, to challenge her in the way that I personally think she needs to be challenged isn't their job. That's just me though. I expect DD to be educated in public schools but I just think people are starting to get delusions of granduer over how much exactly they expect the public school system to do. PS is not my daughter's parent. It's my job to make sure she grows into a, hopefully, fairly well rounded adult. If I can do that thru homeschooling/private schooling/unschooling/charter schooling/overschooling then I can, but I am not going to bitch that the public schools can't do my job for me. Before someone jumps on me I DO think public education is lacking in some of the basics, like science for instance and there does need to be some restructuring, but in general I think public education does it's job, IMO, just fine. It's up to me as the PARENT to do the rest. I agree with this 100%. Not every school is going to be able to provide a personalized education that's the best for every child. That's the parent's job. You hear people complain about schools stepping on parental rights (by dictating what your child can eat for lunch, or take for medication, or teaching sex ed), but you can't honestly expect them on the other hand to give your child their 100% best devoted personalized educational plan. Going back to your personal experience with PS Firebird, I would argue that if you were bored and not leaning anything, that it would be your parent's responsibility to solve that (whether that's teaching you multi-variable calculus at night or signing you up for art classes or whatever) and not the school's.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jun 10, 2011 12:31:03 GMT -5
So, now we are back to the thirty-five thousand dollars in tutoring?
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jun 10, 2011 12:34:17 GMT -5
To me PS is designed to teach to the majority in a way that the majority understands. It is to make sure that EVERYONE's child has access to basic education.
I get that my child might learn geometry better by building birdhouses, but then I feel it is MY job to either reinforce the teacher's lessons that way at home or to find a school that teaches geometry building birdhouses.
I don't feel it is fair though to turn around and bitch that the public school is shitty and not teaching my kid math. No it is not teaching math the way YOU want math to be taught.
Your child would probably have still learned math the traditional way, may not have liked it and might have struggled a bit but the point is he LEARNED it.
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on Jun 10, 2011 12:34:52 GMT -5
But is that the public school systems' fault that your schedule was overloaded that there was no time for outside things?
Kind of, since they were the ones harping on all of the things I "needed" to be doing besides going to class in order to get into a good college.
But your point is taken. I mean, there's always summer.
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on Jun 10, 2011 12:36:27 GMT -5
Going back to your personal experience with PS Firebird, I would argue that if you were bored and not leaning anything, that it would be your parent's responsibility to solve that (whether that's teaching you multi-variable calculus at night or signing you up for art classes or whatever) and not the school's.
If you read my whole post (that's not meant to be snarky, I know it was long) I said exactly that in the last paragraph. I don't blame the PS system because they did a GOOD JOB with me, I was one of their success stories. It's just that I think I would have excelled more in a more self-directed environment. For me, I believe it would have been superior - and I say that as one of the PS "successes."
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Jun 10, 2011 12:37:43 GMT -5
Kind of, since they were the ones harping on all of the things I "needed" in order to get into a good college. Whoa now. They were probably right. Colleges do like to see extra curriculars, volunteer stuff, etc. You personally might have enjoyed learning nothing but math and computer programming or whatever, but that doesn't mean the school lied to you about what would best help your chances of getting into a good college.
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on Jun 10, 2011 12:40:52 GMT -5
Whoa now. They were probably right. Colleges do like to see extra curriculars, volunteer stuff, etc. You personally might have enjoyed learning nothing but math and computer programming or whatever, but that doesn't mean the school lied to you about what would best help your chances of getting into a good college.
Agreed. "Fault" is not the word I would use. The fact that I wasn't doing independent learning in high school is my own fault and no one else's. I was just trying to point out that one of the reasons I wasn't reading Faulkner on the side anymore is because I was incredibly busy with drama and student government and all that other crap that I needed to be doing just as much as my classes.
And ironically, in a self-directed learning environment I probably could have spent about half the time I was spending in school on those classes with the same result.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jun 10, 2011 12:44:51 GMT -5
And ironically, in a self-directed learning environment I probably could have spent about half the time I was spending in school on those classes with the same result
I won't argue against that, I've felt the same way even in some of my college classes.
I just don't think it's fair to expect public schools to tailor themselves to how I learn and if they don't that means they are "failing" me in my education.
To me if I graduate knowing the "three R's" then public school has pretty much done its job.
Is it nice if I get more than that, heck yes, but I've never viewed public school as being REQUIRED to give me all that and a bag of chips.
If homeschooling or whatever works better for you or your kid knock yourselves out.
I just personally feel that it is not right to browbeat the public school system for not being something it was never meant to be to begin with.
Now there are probably some school systems that don't even do their basic job, just as there are homeschooling parents that don't do their "job".
But that doesn't mean the entire system (either one) is a piece of shit.
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Mardi Gras Audrey
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Post by Mardi Gras Audrey on Jun 10, 2011 12:45:20 GMT -5
To me PS is designed to teach to the majority in a way that the majority understands. It is to make sure that EVERYONE's child has access to basic education. I get that my child might learn geometry better by building birdhouses, but then I feel it is MY job to either reinforce the teacher's lessons that way at home or to find a school that teaches geometry building birdhouses. I don't feel it is fair though to turn around and bitch that the public school is shitty and not teaching my kid math. No it is not teaching math the way YOU want math to be taught. Your child would probably have still learned math the traditional way, may not have liked it and might have struggled a bit but the point is he LEARNED it. ITA... I don't have kids yet but I think I would want them to go to PS to get a baseline of knowledge/experience and I can add to that outside of class. I went to private and PS and I thought I got a better experience at the PS. I, too, was one of those kids that sailed through elem and high school, not studying much. Sometimes the teacher would have me help tutor the other kids that weren't getting it as quickly. Was that making me the most academic I could be? No, but it did help reinforce my knowledge of the subject and it also gave me experience in explaining things to people who learn in different ways. This has helped me a lot when I was in the working world and was training other people (Sometimes formally training, sometimes not). I will say that the teachers we had in PS did come up with some very creative ways to learn stuff. I still remember key points from 7th grade history, freshman biology, high school chemistry, and other classes. It has helped me a lot in college even though it has been over 16 years since I took those classes. I think homeschool would have allowed me an opportunity to learn more things at a faster pace but I was a very shy kid so I know I wouldn't have sought out social activities. PS gave me an environment to play and make friends that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. It also gave me a common experience that I can relate to other people (even those who didn't go to the same schools). Because our state teaches the same thing at the various grade levels, if I mention certain types of classes, people will remember what they did and we discuss. We had a good diversity in our PS and I don't think that I would have gotten that homeschooling. The socioeconomic diversity was especially important. It helped me meet people from across the stratum and see what their lives were like.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2011 12:45:42 GMT -5
Going back to your personal experience with PS Firebird, I would argue that if you were bored and not leaning anything, that it would be your parent's responsibility to solve that (whether that's teaching you multi-variable calculus at night or signing you up for art classes or whatever) and not the school's. I remember l-o-n-g reading classes in grade school where we took turns reading aloud. For some kids, it was a slow and painful process. So naturally I read ahead and by the time it was my turn I had no clue where I was supposed to start. Yes, it was good for me to learn some patience and tolerance, but it was a monumental waste of my time that I could have spent learning something new. And my parents couldn't do a thing about it as long as I was stuck in that classroom.
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swasat
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Post by swasat on Jun 10, 2011 12:46:14 GMT -5
I'm like you Firebird in terms of how I did in school. My thought process about PS though it isn't ABOUT me getting the bestest most awesomest personalized education. PS is there to make sure every child, including me, gets a basic education. If I get more than that, that is awesome, but it isn't there to personally cater to me. If I want that I'll do what the rich have always done and seek it out and pay for it. Just like the overschooling thread people with the money have ALWAYS had access to the bestest and betterest stuff for their kids. PS was to make sure evey child at least learned the basics. For most of history most of the general populace could barely write their own names, let alone read or do math. PS ensures every child can at least read and do math. The rest is up to me as a parent. If I want DD to have more than the basics then it is my job to step up to the plate and see it out for her. To expect public schools, IMO, to challenge her in the way that I personally think she needs to be challenged isn't their job. That's just me though. I expect DD to be educated in public schools but I just think people are starting to get delusions of granduer over how much exactly they expect the public school system to do. PS is not my daughter's parent. It's my job to make sure she grows into a, hopefully, fairly well rounded adult. If I can do that thru homeschooling/private schooling/unschooling/charter schooling/overschooling then I can, but I am not going to bitch that the public schools can't do my job for me. Before someone jumps on me I DO think public education is lacking in some of the basics, like science for instance and there does need to be some restructuring, but in general I think public education does it's job, IMO, just fine. It's up to me as the PARENT to do the rest. BINGO!!! Thanks dramaq for putting it so eloquently. Thats what I have been harping about since yesterday but I couldn't say it as well.
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on Jun 10, 2011 12:49:58 GMT -5
To me if I graduate knowing the "three R's" then public school has pretty much done its job.
Is it nice if I get more than that, heck yes, but I've never viewed public school as being REQUIRED to give me all that and a bag of chips.
If homeschooling or whatever works better for you or your kid knock yourselves out.
I just personally feel that it is not right to browbeat the public school system for not being something it was never meant to be to begin with.
I totally agree with this (although I somewhat take issue with its "one size fits all" approach as being considered adequate, since it works fine for kids like me and HORRIBLY for certain other kinds of kids).
But yeah, I'm not arguing that we should expect self-directed learning from PS. Public school, by definition, is slow to change anyway. If you want better for your kid you are MUCH better off customizing their education offline than trying to change the system itself.
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Jun 10, 2011 12:50:59 GMT -5
And ironically, in a self-directed learning environment I probably could have spent about half the time I was spending in school on those classes with the same result. No kidding. I'm convinced that I learned absolutely nothing in middle school except how to waste time and avoid being bullied.
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Mardi Gras Audrey
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Post by Mardi Gras Audrey on Jun 10, 2011 12:51:11 GMT -5
I remember l-o-n-g reading classes in grade school where we took turns reading aloud. For some kids, it was a slow and painful process. So naturally I read ahead and by the time it was my turn I had no clue where I was supposed to start. Yes, it was good for me to learn some patience and tolerance, but it was a monumental waste of my time that I could have spent learning something new. And my parents couldn't do a thing about it as long as I was stuck in that classroom. I remember those too. It's sad that you didn't have a teacher that let you do other things. My teachers were all really good about letting me read other things, do other actvities, etc as long as I was quiet and not disturbing people. I remember in high school, I had several classes where I would sit on the floor, barefoot, eating while listening to the teacher. Did she care? No, as long as I wasn't messing up the other kids' learning. Maybe I got lucky that I had teachers that would trust you to take care of yourself and give you some freedom once they figured out that you weren't going to be a discipline problem.
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on Jun 10, 2011 12:52:34 GMT -5
I remember l-o-n-g reading classes in grade school where we took turns reading aloud. For some kids, it was a slow and painful process. So naturally I read ahead and by the time it was my turn I had no clue where I was supposed to start. Yes, it was good for me to learn some patience and tolerance, but it was a monumental waste of my time that I could have spent learning something new. And my parents couldn't do a thing about it as long as I was stuck in that classroom.
OMG the worst was reading plays out loud. I was in drama and I always had a fairly big part (or the lead) to read so I couldn't really space out but when a kid that wasn't so good with reading got stuck in a long monologue, it was downright painful.
I'm not suggesting I shouldn't have had to go through that, necessarily, or that I was somehow better than the slow readers but reading is one of those areas that is difficult to teach in PS. It's wildly unfair to the kids who are way above or way below a certain level to have to go at the grade-level speed. You're either bored out of your skull or completely lost.
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on Jun 10, 2011 12:54:20 GMT -5
DramaQ, you should read The Bell Curve, if you haven't already. I think you would really like it.
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973beachbum
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Post by 973beachbum on Jun 10, 2011 12:58:22 GMT -5
The money does not go with him. The money the school would have gotten for him does not go to any school. I understand that it doesn't go with him, but would the money the school would have gotten for him just be put back into some general fund? Sorry, Zib, I don't understand how this works. Never mind Audrey just answered. Lone the answer to this is it depends. ;D In my district something like 90% of the school's budget comes from local property owners paying their school tax bill. The other $10% is partly paid by the state and partly by the Fed gov and a small amount is from grants. So if a student is pulled out of the public school and goes to a private school or is homeschooled the district would still get to keep most of the money. They would only lose the small portion the state and fed kicks in that is per pupil. But if they go to a charter school the district must hand over 90% of what it would have had to spend on a per pupil basis. Now I agree that if I switch from buying stuff at Walmart to buying it as CVS I obviously don't keep sending Walmart money. But the bad part is if a school has 800 students and 20 go to a charter school it isn't likely that the PS can actually get rid of staff or expenses. Most likely the students are spread out amongst different grades and things like books are not bought every year. Not to mention that fixed costs like utilities, doesn't change at all, regardless of how many kids are in a building. This is easy for me to think about though. My local district is the one that people buy expensive houses in so that their kids can go to it. If I was in a city with a bad one and the state paying a much bigger portion of my districts expenses it could very well be a matter of the districts life or death if enough students went to a charter school from it.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jun 10, 2011 13:05:15 GMT -5
I know the book and discussed it a lot in psychology/sociology class but I haven't actually read it. I don't disagree that our school systems couldn't do with a make-over, I just think that when you look at it historically our schools are expected to do more than they ever have before and yet people (in general) bitch that the schools STILL aren't doing enougb because they won't teach Johnny math by letting him build birdhouses. It's great that there are other options out their to explore. Just my viewpoint is that it is up to me as the parent to find them, not expect public school to go out of its way to create them for me. It does sometimes happen, I was given the honor's English term paper to complete because I got stuck in regular English class due to College Credit Spanish being the same time as HE. I wanted to take CC Spanish so I wouldn't have to do it in college, I already had one year of CC Spanish out of the way and needed just one more. I wanted to put a bullet in my brain in regular English class, but I don't blame the public school system for that. It's job is to teach me, which it did. It just did it in a really pain inducing way. My teacher was the same teacher that taught honor's English though so she put me thru my paces using those guidelines and assignments. I also until DD was born, had my nose buried in a book at every opportunity. So even though regular english was brutal I had my escapes. Which is what I plan on doing for DD. Course who knows what "schooling" will be by the time DD is old enough to attend.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2011 13:07:15 GMT -5
I remember those too. It's sad that you didn't have a teacher that let you do other things. My teachers were all really good about letting me read other things, do other actvities, etc as long as I was quiet and not disturbing people. What saved me in first grade was that I was in a combined first/second grade and when I finished whatever "seatwork" had been assigned, I'd listen to what she was teaching the second-graders. We also had a shelf of books we were allowed to read. The teacher nearly dropped her teeth the first time she figured out I was actually reading and not just looking at pictures. I suppose the teacher's union would scream at teaching 45 first and second graders, but she was a nun and nuns don't have unions.
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973beachbum
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Post by 973beachbum on Jun 10, 2011 13:11:14 GMT -5
I remember those too. It's sad that you didn't have a teacher that let you do other things. My teachers were all really good about letting me read other things, do other actvities, etc as long as I was quiet and not disturbing people. What saved me in first grade was that I was in a combined first/second grade and when I finished whatever "seatwork" had been assigned, I'd listen to what she was teaching the second-graders. We also had a shelf of books we were allowed to read. The teacher nearly dropped her teeth the first time she figured out I was actually reading and not just looking at pictures. I suppose the teacher's union would scream at teaching 45 first and second graders, but she was a nun and nuns don't have unions. No they answer to a higher authority.
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telephus44
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Post by telephus44 on Jun 10, 2011 13:11:22 GMT -5
Going back to your personal experience with PS Firebird, I would argue that if you were bored and not leaning anything, that it would be your parent's responsibility to solve that (whether that's teaching you multi-variable calculus at night or signing you up for art classes or whatever) and not the school's. If you read my whole post (that's not meant to be snarky, I know it was long) I said exactly that in the last paragraph. I don't blame the PS system because they did a GOOD JOB with me, I was one of their success stories. It's just that I think I would have excelled more in a more self-directed environment. For me, I believe it would have been superior - and I say that as one of the PS "successes." I did read the whole post, and honestly, that part had me scratching my head. You were really bored and learned nothing, that makes you a PS success story? I think I decided after a few minutes reflection that you were being sarcastic. Just because you graduated with high honors and were smarter and scored better on tests than most of your class doesn't make you a successful student. If you're bored and not learning, then you are an unsuccessful student. Maybe you would be a home-schooling success story.
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Plain Old Petunia
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Post by Plain Old Petunia on Jun 10, 2011 13:12:37 GMT -5
<< don't disagree that our school systems couldn't do with a make-over, I just think that when you look at it historically our schools are expected to do more than they ever have before and yet people (in general) bitch that the schools STILL aren't doing enougb because they won't teach Johnny math by letting him build birdhouses. >>
Absolutely. IMO, the way to fix public schools is to get the federal government out, get the state government out, get the local beaurocrats out, and get the educators back in. Let teachers do their jobs and stop mandating that they spend all of their class time teaching to standardized tests.
Children are people and people are individuals. Let's stop pretending that we can make a "once size fits every child in America" curriculum and force everyone to fit the mode.
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Mardi Gras Audrey
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Post by Mardi Gras Audrey on Jun 10, 2011 13:14:28 GMT -5
What saved me in first grade was that I was in a combined first/second grade and when I finished whatever "seatwork" had been assigned, I'd listen to what she was teaching the second-graders. We also had a shelf of books we were allowed to read. The teacher nearly dropped her teeth the first time she figured out I was actually reading and not just looking at pictures. I suppose the teacher's union would scream at teaching 45 first and second graders, but she was a nun and nuns don't have unions. Athena, they have mixed classes in PS too. I was in a mixed class in 4th grade (4th/5th) and my brother was in a mixed one in 5th grade (5th/6th). The teachers did an outstanding job teaching to both. I am not exactly sure how they picked which kids would be in the class from the higher grade. It seemed like they had some kids who needed a little extra help with the previous year (but weren't so bad that they failed) and some that were advanced and were good at learning on their own. The teacher was very good about finding stuff for each level, though as well as for the various levels we had on the fourth grade side. The unions now might say no.... the teacher should be paid twice for teaching two classes.... ;D
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Firebird
Senior Associate
Joined: Dec 29, 2010 12:55:06 GMT -5
Posts: 12,452
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Post by Firebird on Jun 10, 2011 13:15:22 GMT -5
I did read the whole post, and honestly, that part had me scratching my head. You were really bored and learned nothing, that makes you a PS success story? I think I decided after a few minutes reflection that you were being sarcastic. Just because you graduated with high honors and were smarter and scored better on tests than most of your class doesn't make you a successful student. If you're bored and not learning, then you are an unsuccessful student.
But I don't agree with that, and that was kind of my entire point. It is, from my perspective, COMPLETELY possible to be a PS success story and still an under-challenged, under-educated student.
I wasn't being at all sarcastic. Public school did what it was designed to do with me, and it did it well (and saying I learned "nothing" is probably a little unfair, which I also noted - one clearly cannot expect to do well at university after learning literally nothing in high school). It got me through school on time, it got me into college, it provided me the fundamentals to do WELL in college - what else, exactly, is PS supposed to accomplish? If it did that for every student in it, we'd be writing sonnets to the PS system.
But it wasn't a challenge. My real learning took place when I left school. That was my point. I feel like in that respect, homeschool could have brought out the best in me.
Now, perhaps homeschool wouldn't have provided the fundamentals that PS did. Who knows? They both have their good and bad points. I'm not bashing that PS system - at least I'm not trying to - but I do think it's possible to come through it successfully and not feel like you got that much out of it.
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