I have learned to enjoy reading and writing despite my public school background. (Perhaps my poor grammar and poor writing style betray my poor education). Ultimately, I blame myself for being such an unambitious and uninterested kid. However, I am unwilling to ignore the lack of intellectual stimulation offered in my K-12 experiences. Most of my time was spent pretending to pay attention to the ramblings of a teacher repeating for the third time a concept one can learn from watching a cartoon.

I deeply regret how unashamedly my teachers and I squandered my mind for the majority of my childhood. On looking back at my public school education I can think of having learned three things which made a difference.

First, I learned that socialization is the most important function of a child's education. I learned how to avoid getting beat up, navigate hallways of tense race riots, and suffer well intended teachers being accused of discrimination and prejudice. These skills have proven invaluable in my career. After all who isn't surrounded by violent, direction less, teenage riff raff? Well, now that I ask the question, I guess I'm not. It still belongs in my list because having only learned two things wouldn't be a list. I guess advocates of public school believed that this particular skill would come in handy if I ever were sent to jail. Why wouldn't I be vising there someday? My peers socializing me were prison bound so it made good sense to prepare me for that possibility as well.

Public school socialized me with society's worst. I am amazed when I hear someone try to persuade a home school advocate that public school does a better job with socialization than its alternatives. Stop and consider your own public school experience. You might not have dealt with base race violence but was prom, football, or cheer leading "real life socialization"? The only people I know that think the stereotypical public school social experiences have value are football coaches and cheer leading instructors. They are also the only adults I know that believe in Santa Clause.

The second thing public school taught me was that being good meant doing mundane tasks repeatedly until the slowest kid in the class grasped a concept. It was weird how many of these kids were given desks. I think the second most advanced concept that I faced in elementary school was trying to understand "how in the hell were my classmates flunking?". The most advanced concept that I kept asking myself and to this day don't have an answer is: "I thought this kid flunked last year why is he in my class again?". "Great" I thought. "I know how to sit still and repeat mundane tasks. This year is going to be a sinch".

The third thing public school taught me was the Periodic Table. My mind sincerely opened to the concept. The concept that all of the millions of things are a combination of a hundred or so rudimentary ingredients captured my imagination. I did lousy in Chemistry that year. I believe that my Chemistry grades suffered once I actually learned something because of my training in repeating mundane tasks. I can remember trying to stare blankly into space and clear my mind (just like they taught me for so many years) but that darn Periodic Table just kept scrolling through my head saying "haven't you wondered what ingredients make up sheet rock, or wood, or flower petals?". I knew all of the answers to where things came from had something to do with this Table and it severely limited my ability to do what public school had been training me to do. It was hard to stare blankly after that and my grades suffered until graduation because of it.