My experience, in my area, in the schools that I and my older children have attended, is that school is basically a baby sitting service where education is the game they play and if the kids learned anything of use, it was at the price of the joy of learning it. If you "give up" on public education and think of that time as wasted, then your children's education depends entirely on what you and your family, friends, and the kids themselves are able to teach. That is homeschooling. It doesn't have to be instead of regular school, it should be in addition to regular school. My younger kids now attend a school a few hours a week where they take classes that require a group, such as acting, cultures, and art. The rest of the time, they work at home from computer based tutorials or from books and worksheets with assistance from my wife (primarily) and I. My daughter has been asked (at the age of 13) to take the PSAT based on her amazingly high scores on the standardized tests. This is a program to help bright young people to prepare for college, and college level tests, years before they go. She will be able to take the test again after high school and her scores this time will only help to make a reputation for her school. E.g. "our *middle school* students scored xxx on the PSAT". My son, who is dyslexic, has progressed 3 full grade levels in reading this past year. We expect him to be reading at grade level by the first of next year. In the mean time, he explains to people how to make a flip flop and other interesting things that I, with the assistance of the internet, have taught him. Public schools don't teach digital logic. Public schools, with few exceptions, do not have facilities or programs for working with exceptional or bright students. And they have few facilities for helping students with disabilities, while still teaching them in the areas where their abilities are above normal. If my son was in public school, he would be forced to read "See Dick chase Jane" and he would hate it. In home school, he is *motivated* to read Digital Logic Circuits by Sol Libs because we found a simulator and let him hook things up: http://techref.massmind.org/techref/logic/tutorial.htm If you realize that your children's education is YOUR responsibility, you will do what you can to make up for the time they waste in public school, even if you do not have the ability to use that time. Take the time you DO have and put it to use teaching them to love learning about the subjects they have an interest in. -- James. -----Original Message----- From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of Vitaliy Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 22:41 To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. Subject: Re: [OT] Using vouchers toimprovethequalityofschools(was:Educationreform) James Newton wrote: > Vitaliy, is homeschooling not possible for you? Or homeschooling in > addition > to the public waste of time... To be honest, I haven't really considered it. Do you mean staying at home and teaching myself, or hiring a tutor? Neither one seems feasible at this time. -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist