That was definitely not my public school experience. I've had loads of issues but without public school I probably would be so extremely depressed and anxious, I'm not sure I'd be here today. I wouldn't have lots of important friendships, I wouldn't have my fiancé, and I'd have missed out on lots of experiences that I find were fundamental to shaping who I am now.

And despite all that, school was still really hard on me. I had a bunch of mean teachers, subjects I was miserable at and would cry about (Foreign language French still haunts my dreams...) and of course I was bullied as well for being kind of a weirdo. :) I wouldn't trade it for homeschooling. I know that if I didn't have those experiences at school, I would probably have different experiences that would have shaped me differently. But in the end, I'm still glad I went through all that though.

There are some skills taught in that realm. From personal experience, I have learned to recognize trouble by gait and eyes alone. I get that people get different experiences, but I could have done without that knowledge.

Teachers holding classroom votes where everyone counted equally is foundational to my contempt for universal suffrage.