In all honesty, I have never had real complaints with my education until I got into high school. Like many of you previously stated, I, too, was taught largely by my family. Being the youngest of 5, I always had the competitive spirit in me to further my education in whatever direction I could. If my sister could whistle, I would find out how to whistle; if my brother could spell "encyclopedia", I would spell "encyclopedia"; if my sister could do an american twist serve, I would teach myself how to do an american twist serve.
My parents always tried to take us on the most educational trips possible. A summer trip to London was filled with tours of churches, art museums, and historical locations; weekends spent in Chicago are always at least equal parts shopping and touring museums (though more often it is lopsided in favor of the museums) - and each of us read every. last. placard. in whatever museum we were in.
Pre school and kindergarten? Let's face it. I was 5 years old or less. The average human memory actually starts around the age of 5 or 6, anything "remembered" before then is simply your own recollection of what those older than you have told you. I don't remember a darn thing. I'm sure it was grand.
In grade school (K-8), I attended the local parochial school at my parish. Understand, when we learned about the formation of the earth, science and religion classes were still entirely separate - in science class, Darwin was King and in religion class, God's word was law. In our other classes, we were pushed to excel and to be as creative as possible (obviously, within moral boundaries).
High school is also local but public. My own four years have been quite the wild ride, in terms of setup, mind you. Our new administration has been making changes right and left - adding block scheduling, eliminating honors classes, eliminating weighted grades, adding an IB diploma programme, eliminating nearly all tech-ed classes and independent study programs, etc etc.
I've had numerous carbunkles in my own schedule (just try explaining to colleges that you really will have taken 4 years of one language by the time college begins...even though you can only account for 2.5 credits worth of classes instead of 4). My freshman year, block scheduling enabled me to enter a junior-level science class, and sophomore level english and math classes - while holding me back with what can best be described as a banal "global studies" class.
My two beefs, however, are this. 1) force kids to be creative. honestly. in grade school, if we copied a vocabulary definition word-for-word from the textbook on a worksheet or even a test, it was automatically marked incorrect. we had to show our own proficiency in subject matter by, first and foremost, showing our understanding of the material. i cannot even begin to tell you how many vocabulary tests i have "failed" because, though i used a correct definition, it was not the verbatim definition found in the text. and yes, showing comprehension is a means of being creative. if you feel that you don't know enough words to create an alternate definition, think up another way to show your understanding.
2) don't penalize the extremities. by extremeties, i actually am referring to the smart kids. i make no apologies for what i say. please, just take it at face value and don't overanalyze it. my school system in particular has been quite annoying on this point - since the instillation of these new programs at OHS, the focus has started to go towards helping the kids that seriously do not care for the material at hand. i understand, this is a noble effort, but if said students do not feel compelled to work, why should we make them do so?
an idea that i have heard proposed before, and with more frequency now, is making high school more like college. no, not forcing kids to specialize; most kids have no idea where they want to go or what they want to do - heck, all i know is that i want to go into medicine, as for how and when, i don't know. i mean that high school students should, however, be forced to purchase their own books and materials. yes, there will always be the kid that can "buy his way" into whatever class, but for those students that aren't so blessed, they need to make careful decisions and take responsibility for their own actions. this was something that independent study classes allowed students to do. they could invest in their own education, learn about material that mattered to them, and work at their own pace. now, our only options are attending the small local colleges for classes on the high school's bill (which, with today's gas prices, is still very expensive) or going all in and taking an online course (no gas expense, but the high school won't fund it either).
Sure, I rant about my high school a lot. And after how I've gotten it handed to me, of course I feel justified to do so
But in all honesty, I wouldn't have taken the option of going to a private or parochial school for these past four years. I could have gone a lot of different ways in those schools - I never would have joined a robotics team, I never would have been able to teach myself 3rd semester Calculus, I never would have met so many different students from so many different backgrounds just within my own school. Besides, high school is what you make of it - the administration can only do so much to block your way if it really is a worthy cause
