Independent Study and Home School

I discovered watching my two step kids and my son from my first marriage from 1980 to 1985 that home schooling on independent study is remarkable in what it can do to kids lives. At the time we were living a sort of Swiss family Robinson kind of lifestyle in Mt. Shasta where we had bought 2 1/2 acres of very beautiful remote lands in a forest at around 4000 feet in elevation with a spring on the lands for water that was running at the time. So, this was an off the grid experience with a wood stove for staying warm without electricity and using candles and kerosene lamps by Alladin

http://aladdinlamps.com/

For the brightest light use the really tall ones where the glass comes up quite a ways. However, they do smell like kerosene so you have to get used to the smell if you are going to light your rooms this way.

What I'm trying mostly to get at here is when your kids are interested in studying something on their own what they love to study educates them. For example, my son at the time was dyslexic and I didn't know this in 1980 yet when he was 5. I didn't know this until he was in junior high. But, he was intellectually brilliant in Science and math always. It was just spelling and English Composition that was difficult for him. So, he basically taught himself to read by studying "Dungeons and Dragons" books with pictures in them that he asked me to buy for him. He would walk up to me and say, 'What is this a picture of and i would tell him and show him the word and this is actually how he learned to read by associating pictures of dragons and things like this with the words spelled correctly. Now he has taken an IQ test and his IQ is at around 150 which is a genius level and he is teaching English and is married with a son. But, it was a long road to this stage in life. His favorite thing in his teens and 20s was building computers that were custom made by him. He still likes to do this as a hobby. And so his interest in Dungeons and Dragons led to him buying computers and building computers too. And he is still teaching me new stuff every time I talk to him regarding computers and networking because he went in this direction before he got his degree in nursing and then decided to teach English as a Foreign language instead for now.

I always told him seeing people die and all the blood he wasn't going to be happy with because even though he is a very healing presence as a person I thought it would change him in ways that wouldn't be good. Since I have always seen him as a good candidate as a teacher or College professor it is good to see what I see playing out because he is much happier doing this than he would be in doing something else I know at least for now.

But, the point here is home schooling and independent study can be helpful in making your kids be self starters in life and in creating a better life long term for themselves rather than teaching them to be victims by leaving them in public schools which tend to psychologically and physically make victims of children by public schools intrinsic nature.

Is public school better than nothing?

I'm not sure how to answer that question because it completely depends upon the person because there are always three kinds of people.

1. people who are going to succeed no matter what.
2. people who are going to succeed if you give them enough support.
3. people who won't succeed no matter what you or they do.

And there are about 1/3 of people that fall into each category.

So, basically only number 1 or 2 have a chance at success at a public school.

And number 3 won't make it no matter what you or they do in life.

But, this is just human evolution in play on planet earth unfortunately ongoing.