For over fifty years, public-school officials and politicians have tried one education fad after another. They have all failed. Children should not be turned into victims and educational guinea pigs by public-school authorities. Here's why public schools can waste 12 years of your childrens lives and destroy their love of learning:

1. These schools teach children to read with the whole-language method, which cripples childrens ability to read. That is why after 12 years, millions of graduating high-school students have poor reading skills, and some students can barely read their own diplomas.

2. Public schools teach the new or fuzzy math which can cripple a childs ability to do math and destroy their self-confidence. A child who is afraid of math wont have the confidence to pursue a career in science, computers, or engineering, thereby cutting them off from these rewarding careers.

3. Because these schools cripple childrens ability to read, they must force children to read dumbed-down textbooks in English, History, and many other subjects. These textbooks are geared to the slowest learners in the class and water-down the subject matter. These dumbed-down courses therefore waste childrens time.

4. Most teaching in public-schools consists of students having to memorize facts from dumbed-down textbooks, only to regurgitate these same facts on dumbed-down tests. John Holt, in his book, How Children Fail points out that most students forget the facts they memorized within a few weeks after the test. So most children learn little from their classes except how to cram their heads with useless facts which they soon forget. This goes on for 12 years.

5. Public schools force children to study subjects they hate, cant do, will never use in their lives, or which bore them. For example, many schools force students to study geometry and trigonometry, French or another foreign language, or world history. Children should be studying subjects they love and are good at. When they have to study subjects that bore them, the only thing children learn is to hate learning.

6. Ben Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Edison, and Mark Twain all went to a formal grammar school for less than two years. All were home-schooled by their parents or self-taught after they learned to read. Author John Gatto, in his book Dumbing Us Down said that most children can learn to read, write, and do basic arithmetic in only 100 hours of intense study. Yet our public schools keep children locked up for 12 years, yet can barely teach them to read.

7. Once children learn to read and write well within two years of intense study, they dont need a public school at all. With their parents help and guidance, they can direct their own studies and education at home. Over a million children do this right now-its called homeschooling.

8. Public schools are a government-controlled monopoly. Bad schools dont close down because compulsory taxes prop them up. Incompetent or mediocre teachers arent fired because tenure laws protect them. Thats why public schools will never improve and will always waste childrens precious time.

9. A study by the National Education Commissiion on Time and Learning found that middle-school and high-school children spent on average only about 50 percent of their school day on core "academic" subjects. The rest of their time is spent on classes about sex-education, personal safety, family life, consumer affairs, AIDS and drug prevention, save-the-environment, multiculturalism studies, "cooperative-learning" projects, study halls, electives, homeroom, counseling, sports activities, or pep rallies (high school).

If parents value their childrens time, passion for learning, and future success in life, then they should consider taking their children out of public school, permanently.