Sometimes, in discussions about homeschooling, there is a tendency to pick on on the shortcomings of public schools while overlooking the strengths. It’s easy to forget that public schools also have success stories, some of them as amazing as the one in the original post on this thread. It’s also easy to overlook that the majority of us in this country were educated at public schools (or private schools), and we are productive, law-abiding citizens, considered successful in our own way. Schools work for the vast majority of the population.
American public schools saved me, and put me on the path out of poverty. I attended them from kindergarten all the way through college. My kids have likewise also benefited from excellent, rigorous public schools that not only taught them facts about the world, but also the ways of the world – in a manner that I am unable to duplicate at home. Even the trials and tribulations they go through have been valuable life lessons. My children are going through the normal teenage drama as I write. I forget how awful high school is until I’m reminded that I went through it, and I survived and was better for it. So will they.
My kids are not special-needs or Einstein-level geniuses so public schools have been a gift to us. I do not wish for more.