Amadorable

Do our kids spend enough time learning while in school? Based on my own experience and discussing this with other parents, I've come to the conclusion that many kids spend more time on fashion accessories, gadgets and gizmos, and trying to stay up with the latest trends than they do on the educational materials.

I think that public education is about 80 percent socializing the kids into a community of their peers, and maybe 20 percent actually learning something. Whether that socializing is positive thing is up for debate.

We homeschooled for the past 11 years and I feel that our actual learning percentage was quite a bit higher than public school. We did have to make an effort to get the kid socialized, but I feel that our son is socialized to a broader segment of society, both age and culturally, as a result of homeschooling.

With much trepidation, our son started college a couple weeks ago, and has fitted into that social strata quite well, and informs me that he learns something new every day (!)