Dear David f,.

My daughter (who turns 29 this year) seemed to pass through her school years reasonably smoothly, although she didn't particularly enjoy them and was perpetually uninspired by the system.
She often says to me these days that she feels that most of the areas in which she excels and feels passionate about were those pursued in her own time outside of school hours. She was, and still is, an avid reader and writer - so I'm inclined to agree with her.

Dear Poirot,

I was fortunate enough to go to school in the United States in the 1930s during the depression. Well qualified knowledgeable people in many areas could not get jobs so they turned to teaching. I remember Doc Poland, our chemistry teaching, inspiring us by explaining valences and chemical bonds by dancing figures wearing different coloured clothes. With a few exceptions our teachers expected a lot from us, and we got a lot from them.

I have the impression that the current crop of teachers do not have the combination of knowledge and enthusiasm that those 1930s US teachers had.

In my opinion primary and secondary education in Australia is a miserable failure. The time my kids spend there is almost 100% wasted. Fortunately for me my kids are bright, and avid readers; the three R's are still the fundamental skills, and my kids probably get more of that at home than at school. Nearly all the other stuff they do at school is imo "compliance training". Thinking critically seems to be actively discouraged. My oldest child has only just started grade nine and I'm hoping here's where they begin to ramp up the science and other intellectual skills. Hitherto I fail to see any benefit from their education, and it's been a full-time job disabusing them of all the religious and sundry twaddle they're exposed to.

I would love to home school my kids. I reckon we could cover the content they do in school in a week in a day or so. Then we could go on excursions and field trips, grow veges, keep chickens (including learning to kill and clean them), go bush-walking, dancing, museums etc etc.

A nice fantasy..

Good on you for dropping out, Poirot!

There is one thing about the public school system. When it is inclusive, the chaplains can be eliminated and the teacher staff is competent and loving it is a force for bringing together children of diverse backgrounds in an atmosphere of community. It can limit we/they attitudes in our society.

This is not to criticise Poirot. If I had children of school age I might make the decision he did.

I favour improving the public school system, promoting multiculturalism and separating religion and state to lessen the effect of the we/they gestalt.

But it's an artificially contrived community. It's first purpose is to serve consumer society. I know it's difficult for most of us to question being "taught" in a classroom - it's all we know.
As Squeers said, for most children it robs them of the ability to think critically and to seek out learning independently. It is almost totally disconnected from the work-a-day world beyond the schools grounds.

We do about an hour's formal lessons a day. Of course, that isn't when his learning stops - he's then free to chase up other things.

One thing I've noticed when we get together at homeschool gatherings is the way that all the children don't separate themselves into age groups. Those of a common age do tend to converse, but the older children are more than happy to include the younger ones in any games and also to watch out for them.

Dear Poirot,

Any community is artificial in the sense that it is a human construction. We are brought together by family, by place of living, by arrangement as in school or by other means. Communities may be worhwhile or not, but they all are artificial.