Reply #2: Math was what I was behind in when I made my escape

[Warpy]

from Catholic school. Thank goodness I made my escape early, fifth grade. There were only so many ways to peddle the line of religious bullshit in math, so it got short shrift.

My mother remarked about the change in me when I started public school, too, that I was suddenly a more interesting kid to talk to.

I'm not surprised that public schools do a better job. The main thing wrong with them is that most of them are too big, too centralized. Some kids do get lost and there is a critical mass of bullies to make other kids miserable. Smaller schools (or just breaking up the megaschools into smaller cohorts) plus taking bullying seriously from kindergarten on would solve those problems.

Public schools are really the best we have if we're not wealthy enough to afford fancy prep schools in New England. They've been doing this stuff for a very long time and the only agenda is education, not proselytizing, so they do a very good job at it.