But I learned how to play the game and, let’s be honest, once you figure that out, school isn’t all that hard.

You don’t actually have to learn much, or truly understand any difficult concepts, if you figure out how to take tests and can write a decent enough essay to make somebody laugh.

And this!

I would search for true, deeper understanding some day when I had more time, when I didn’t have to hurry and learn all the superficial stuff for the exams.

Seriously, the TIME I WASTED when I had no home to take care of, no children to raise. The things I could have been stuffing my head with, when instead I was merely patting myself on the back for getting an excellent mark on an essay written on a book I didn’t read that I didn’t want to read and that I felt I didn’t like.

Rachel, I’ll be anxiously awaiting your post!

Tony, I wish someone had told me that while I was still in school!

I know there are some who get through without becoming totally resistant to whatever the teachers wanted you to learn (my sister was one, my husband too, mostly), but it’s so hard to avoid with the way the system is set up.

I’ve heard good things about that book. I’ve read and loved a few articles by John Taylor Gatto and his book, Dumbing Us Down is on my to-read list.

I just read a great book this week called “Weapons of Mass Instruction.” It’s a teacher of 30 years who finally realized that he was doing more harm than good in the classroom. You might like it.

Take care!

But yeah. I’m right there with you on the whole educational experience. I think about all those years wasted in classrooms where I intentionally avoided learning, instead jumping through the hoops and earning straight “A”s so that my future wouldn’t be ruined. And now here I am, a college graduate, and I still really know so little about the world, its history, its cultures, how it works, etc, etc, etc. My husband, on the other hand, was more or less “unschooled,” and harbors a vast store of knowledge about pretty much everything.

I still struggle a little with homeschooling, however, and have been–for months now–mentally composing my own post about its pros and cons; why I consider it for my children, why I might not do it. I’ll have to get going on that. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences, though. I look forward to reading part III.