The debate between those in favor and against home-schooling can get pretty emotional.
Especially I think in the United States where home schooling is actually a pretty viable and totally legal option. I have been lucky with schools...I went to a really good private school in Washington DC for 6th and 7th grade. and then I went to Harvard later.
The rest of the time I was in public schools.
I noticed a clear difference. In private or liberal arts settings they actually teach you how to think critically and make up your own mind about things, at least they are supposed to and the good ones get it right.
Which is crucial in order to nurture people's creativity.
It may be better for government if you are an employee in a big company because then you pay more tax. You need to be pretty creative to be self employed or start a business.
Anyway, that kind of outlines the two sides of the debate.
I don't think it is black and white as it is often portrayed to be, because some countries like Finland I believe have free education but it does not have the effect at all of having everyone think the same.
Kind of like free Montessori!
And then in the United States, I think many people would argue that private schools also teach students to think very similar under the guise of nurturing free-thinking and critical individuals. Not on purpose, it just happens after a while because of group-thinking.
I'm not in favor of mandatory ANYTHING.
I agree - a lot of the parents in SA still have this thing of thinking that if a child is homeschooled they do not do anything - BIG misconception. I think it depends on the child. Some flourish in main stream schools and some from home schooling
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I think it depends what the individual makes of it. Both can work.