We don't get much relief in that department. My wife and I home school our oldest son and the younger one is two.
We are looking into doing this ourselves, as well...
I put a very high value on meaningful education. Part of an important education to me is just general behavior, maybe its my bias but I see children that attend government schools as more uncontrollable and overall less educated.
I agree that many kids that attend government schools are uncontrollable and overall, less educated. BUT, there are many factors for this and none of them are the fault of the education system.
First... parenting. Kids are taught to behave, initially by their parents. It is unfair and illogical to say that kids in school are bad so the school is bad. Schools work with what they get, and if they get kids that reflect society, that is, kids from broken homes and kids that are not learning positive behavior since their parents don't understand how to parent positive behavior, then that is what the schools is stuck with.
Second...peer groups. They learn and adapt more to this group than any other, and there is nothing that any adult can really do to alter their lack of desire to conform if this has not already been instilled by the parents.
Third... media. MTV. IPODS. Cell phones... they are under a barrage of information, and this is not really that healthy at all.
I simply feel that people bash Education and Educators without looking at the roots of the issues. As if a teacher that sees students for a few hours a day really has a chance at altering the kids behavior. It can happens. It does happen. But it is not the teachers job, for one. Their job is to teach curriculum, not behavior. But instead, parents don't parent and kids have to learn parenting/behavior lessons from teachers, many of which are not psychologically adept at behavior management.
I think that the high school diploma is overrated for sure, they need to structure it in a specific direction in my opinion.
Yeah. the Diploma is a joke. It is good for nothing, really. Even an AA doesn't merit much, if it ever really did. Any person that can't get a high-school diploma has truly and utterly failed themselves...