No, your parents were not typical. I never knew any parents who treated their kids like that.
Millions of parents homeschool every year and do a very successful job at it.
Before public school as they stand today were established, parents were the primary educators of children and throughout history have produced some very brilliant people.
“Before public school as they stand today were established, parents were the primary educators of children and throughout history have produced some very brilliant people.”
Actually, in all the biographies I’ve read of those brilliant people, they had tutors. Not something your average parent could afford. They were also, mostly, from the monied class.
China had an interesting teaching model going until last month. They had two of the largest online teaching establishments in the world. (Closed down by the government to prevent outside access to knowledge and events not controlled by the government.) They had the tools and ability to teach any child anything and I think that’s the way to go.
The problem with the school system is, as the Japanese saying goes, “the nail that stands up gets hammered down.” Meaning, a kid who is really exceptional is forced into mediocrity because the teacher has no time to keep such a child engaged. This is why those children with tutors were able to outshine the others of their generations. They were allowed to shine. Our present system is amazingly dumbed down. The slowest student sets the pace and all children are “mainstreamed” whether it’s appropriate or not.
An associate of mine tried home schooling his kids. The younger boy took a full time off-books job and did his work at night. He graduated 18 months early. The older boy failed miserably and is back in school, but behind. Of the two kids, the younger boy is amazingly bright. The older boy is huge, muscular and...uhm...not as bright. So, success depends a lot on the material you start with. I know this is sacrilege in a culture where all children are above average, but home schooling (or, any schooling, really) is not the way to go for some children.