Yeah, I've been reading the online book at this site:
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/
and realized how much I had internalized a bunch of bad ideas - not surprising, I guess, since I had never really been exposed to others. One of those values I had internalized is this concept of "intelligence", and that the ability to learn is decided by it. Logical thinking and problem solving are a big part of what IQ tests test for, and they are skills that can be developed, but almost always they require a foundation in the 3 Rs.
When I think back to all the years I spent in public school, I'm amazed by how little I learned in all those years. And a lot of what I learned about history and geography I learned too early, when I had no use for it or context in which to understand it. Meanwhile I could have been developing my skills in math and science, which I had a natural aptitude for. If I had kids (unfortunately it's looking less and less likely I ever will), I really don't think I would choose to send them to public skools. Seems like about the best you can hope for with public schools is that the kids won't come up totally screwed-up. Sure, I learned enough to go to university and prosper in the work world, but I could have done so very much more in that time.
And that's the sad part - of all those wasted years, how much more productively you could have spent them if you had known better and had been able to skip compuslory schooling.
Ah well - homeschoolers are spreading the word.
Another reading suggestion - Ivan Illyich, "Deschooling Society". Yes, I know he was a 60s radical communist but he was one of the first to promote the "we don't need professionals to run our lives" message. The book is short and a very good read; however you will have to ignore some leftist tripe to get to the nuggets.