How Public Education Failed Me.

I was a straight A student (except for math) until Junior High. I was the kid that didn't have to try at all to get good grades. It was all so easy. I read well and early. My clearest memories from grade school are waiting in utter boredom while the class was reading aloud together. I had read the page by myself 3 or 4 times by the time everyone caught up.

The only thing that ever challenged me was Math. Because it challenged me and I was not used to being challenged I thought it was too hard for me. The hodge-podge way of teaching match didn't help matters at all. One year division has remainders the next year there are decimal points and the next year remainders again. The rules are always changing. None of it was logical and none of it had any practical application. After addition and subtraction math is taught as an abstract. As an adult I learned that math doesn't have to be taught that way and that it does actually make sense and have a purpose if you take the time to explain it and throw away the textbooks.

Once I hit Junior High there were a few more challenges I still got decent grades but I did not exert my self any more than I had before. My Math grades plummeted ending with my only D in my last math class ever, the irony of it is it was a geometry class and I actually liked geometry and I tried very hard. My English, Social Science and art grades were stellar and my science grades good enough.

What I remember most about High School was feeling that it was a gigantic waste of time. I was reading To Kill A Mocking Bird for the 3rd time in 5 years and discussing the same tired themes and symbolism over and over again. I was just putting in time, doing busy work until I graduated and could start to really learning in college.

There was no time for reading or learning on my own time. I left the house for Early Morning Seminary at 6:30 am and I didn't get home from Speech team practice and play rehearsals until 9 pm.

I was a young, energetic, smart girl who wanted to learn but I was restrained by a system that said I had to be in school for 12 years before I could actually learn. I wanted to do great things but I was chained. I could have gotten more out of my education and it is no one's fault but my own that I didn't tackle chemistry, philosophy and the great literature of the world in my spare time, but no one told me I SHOULD or COULD but everyone told me I needed to be in High School discussing Boo Radley for the umpteenth time.

Later, as a parent, I learned about education, how learning actually happens and that the desire I had to learn and the passion I threw into my extra curricular activities are a natural, normal part of human development. That is why it is the prime time to be in the middle of a scholar phase and to really, really learn, the time to be doing great things. It is not the time to be staring at the clock waiting for the bell because you are done with your work and have nothing left to do in class. We as a society are squandering the energy and desire and ability of our youth to achieve their true potential.

This is how public education failed me; it robbed me of the precious years full of youthful energy and passion to learn and wasted my time with tedium. It failed to challenge me, it failed to meet my needs. I was lucky, school came easily to me. My husband who was in my High School class had a very similar experience, the least effort possible delivered more than acceptable results. But I often wonder about those on the other side of the spectrum, the ones who put forth all they could and their best wasn't good enough. Those children for whom school is confusing, who don't know what the teacher wants from them, who have their self worth crushed every day.

I homeschool my children because I refuse to crush their young minds in a system that does not work for them just as I refuse to chain my children to prevent them from soaring.

Join Samurai Mom at SamuraiMom.com as she continues her education.