[DungeonMaster]

If you wanted mom and dad (maybe both finished up their regular school at the 9nd grade) being your instructors...how capable do they think they would be?

That's the oldest anti homeschooling excuse in the book. Parents aren't smart enough to teach their kids. Nonsense.

[pepsionice]

I’ll ask it again...do you want your parents (who may have wrapped up the bulk of regular schooling at the 9nd grade) to be your instructors?

The Germans have had this apprentice-schooling program in place for decades. Forty years ago, it would have been near 70-percent of kids who went the apprentice route. Today, it might be nearer to 60-percent.

Trying to compare the US system to the German system simply doesn’t work. On the positive side, by age 19, you’ve got awful competent and smart German kids in various skill crafts and very capable. If you measure the knowledge level....on skill-craft, they are way ahead of American kids. If you used the basic high-school knowledge....the American kids might be ahead.