I've seen homeschooling work for some kids and fail for others, same goes for public schools. The likelihood of success obviously depends on a lot of circumstances. Are the parent's responsible, capable, and motivated enough to take on the role of teacher? Does the kid already have a developed social life that he will be able to maintain? Does the kid want to be home-schooled or are the parents forcing him out of the public school system?

I grew up going to public schools but my parents pulled my brother out of the public school system after he was expelled from two of them for dealing. Their complaints weren't with the integrity of public education, they were simply trying to keep him away from the groups that pulled him into that mess. It was too late for him at that point, he had already given up on his education and the act of home-schooling him was seen as nothing more than an authoritarian attack on his social life. He rebelled hard, ran away from home, couch surfed with other dealers for years, got chased out of the province, couch surfed with new dealers, got busted, and now he's stuck in the prison/poverty cycle.

For my future children I would be inclined to try the public school system first, see how it goes, stick with it if it works, or consider an alternative option (including home-schooling) if it doesn't.

I'd rather try a charter/private school first since they seem to get the best results. I have nothing against home schooling in terms of education (obviously dependent on who's doing the teaching) but it's the social aspect that would concern me.

Anybody here spend any significant time in the private school system? I've always wondered if there really is any difference between public and private schools in terms of typical teenage social challenges (mysterious powders and pills passed around at parties, being pressured into trespassing/vandalizing on the way to or from school, being pressured to shoplift etc etc). I'd imagine the generations that grew up with the internet are all exposed to the same teenage culture now, regardless of whether or not your parents try to hide you from it with a private school. How were the parties in private school?

I spent a term and a half in a private school. I hated it and was eventually expelled. There's are big differences between private and public schools (those I attended at any rate). The kids at private school were snobby, did as they were told, there was no drinking, no smoking, no fighting, no trouble making of any kind. Maybe I'm just more comfortable with common rabble, with scum :laughing:, but it felt really unnatural to me, more like trained dogs than curious teenagers.

I went to a military boarding school for two years.

Well it was a boarding school where we couldn't leave except on weekends, and even then the only place to go was a small part of a ****burg redneck town with a ridiculously high STD rate. We weren't allowed to wear civilian clothes, we could go inside each other's rooms, and some of us had rank and could tell the others what to do. So I'd say it was different.

I did shoplift some Astroglide once though.

I don't know how, but somehow we couldn't get any network tv signals in our school, so the only tv we could watch was the school's basic cable, which was like TNT, Discovery Channel... CNN (?), and maybe another couple channels no one wants to watch. Our internet was also kinda restricted, we couldn't have cell phones, no cars, and we were there 24/7 for 9 months out of a year (and I'm including vacation time).

So while we weren't entirely ignorant of the outside world we did have this weird bubble culture. We were pretty much the center of each other's lives, and everyone else was off in "the real world". We even developed our own slang.

lol wut parties?

I had to go to a private school that specializes in helping kids with learning disabilities for most of my elementary years. So... things were not in any way normal in that school.

*snort*

*sniff*

I went to a Christian academy the first 3 years of school. Hearing stories from my friends who went up to 8th grade, I'm so glad I left when I did.

Your parents must have really ****ing hated you.