That's odd. I (proudly) went to public school and can think for myself, too. The public school bashing on FR is really lame and old, to say the least, akin to liberals screaming that they have superior skills and talents because they went to Harvard or Yale. But, hey, at least they are private colleges!
You got me on that one.
Let me rephrase, if I may. I also went to public school and like to believe I can think for myself.
The school she went to is small & highly regarded. I should have said "better than most schools - private or public". Harvard / Yale pretty much shoots down the private/public generalization.
As far as the "thinking for herself" portion, what I was saying was that because she can think for herself, she was equipped to handle the inevitable liberal propaganda which seems to occur at nearly all colleges to some degree. Anyway, our goal was to teach her to think for herself & not rely on any school to do that. And I believe we were successful. When she and I disagree, if I hope to prevail, I have to really earn it.
The public school bashing on FR is really lame and old,
Public school get bashed here because like all socialist programs it costs too much and because it has been taken over by proselytizers of marxism and sodomy.
I couldn't agree with you more.
But accurate. :-)
Some of us who went to public schooll went at a time when there was not as much left wing indoctrication as is going on now.
Public Schools have really become a nightmare for conservative thought and academic independence. They are failures in so many ways.
Amen, brother. 12 years of public school here. I think the kids who get the most out of public schools are the ones ho have what I'll call (because I don't know an official term) "supplemental homeschooling."
My parents monitored my homework, but that was just the beginning -- there were always books around for more reading on the topics that interested me, and before, during and after dinner we'd discuss what I was currently studying. No quick "so what did you learn today," but a conversation to draw out that I really understood the lesson and could -- and this is a key that so many students don't get in school -- connect it to what I'd learned last week, last month, last year. Some nights it was practically a colloquium.
My mom was back in college, and my dad is a prison counselor, so those talks often wandered off into prison policy, psychology, or anthropology (Mom's major) plus the usual current events and politics, which then linked back to what I'd learned in history or social studies, or even English. School wasn't just something I did for a few hours a day -- it was woven into my life. And it was a good preparation for college, where I would learn a lot in study groups and wide-ranging all-night dorm room conversations.
To make a long story short (too late), parental involvement makes all the difference. One of the advantages (though certainly not the only one) of private schools is that they have a self-selected population of students whose parents place a high value on learning. That involvement isn't a binary all-or-nothing deal; it isn't a choice between homeschooling and handing over a kid's education to the teachers altogether.