schools are a great place to learn all kinds of life skills. math, English and how to get along with people you don't like, competitiveness, that there are people with more and with less then yourself.
I don't think education should finish when the school bell rings for the day and luckily a lot of parents don't.
Parents and teachers that can work closely together is an ideal system. flexible and supportive.

you can't get through life without bad experiences. but school can offer a lot of great ones.

living at the moment, where wrote learning is still the formula and high school starts at 7am and finishes at 9 pm, and its not doing the ave person any extra good. I sure appreciate our school system where there is a lot of freedom and choice.