Your last sentence is exactly how you fix it - as parents, you are responsible for each child's education. We have, at times, homeschooled each child, and also sent each of them to school, exactly because of the issues you and the other comment raised.
They went to kindergarten to learn how to listen to people other than their parents and make friends. My social daughter came home for 6 months, then went right back to public school. My introverted and shy son came home for 2 years, and is going back to school this coming year because we're not doing well at teaching him... we see our failures there, and don't want to exaggerate them any more. Plus, he wants more friends, too. We expect they will probably all skip jr. high, as they will be old enough to learn on their own, and the social scene is just painful at the age, and then I'll leave it to them if they want to do the high school experience, or just get a GED and move on to other adventures in their teens.
There also are online teacher-led schools in most states now. Both private and public There are home schooling groups that meet together so each parent can teach a groups of kids in their areas of expertise. There are online curriculum you can purchase, and hard copy curriculum.
On short, there are choices. Many, many choices.
As parents, we need to help our children find the path that is right for each one of them, and it is a more complex decision than a one-time choice to either home school or attend the public schools. As in most things, a middle ground is often a better, if more complex, answer.
> I'll leave it to them if they want to do the high school experience
This is incredibly valuable, I think. The option to leave a toxic environment.
My best years in public education were the year I broke my knees and was deemed unfit to attend class for the second half of the year - necessitating a three day a week visit from my science teacher to give me an hour of tutelage. Not being around my insanely hostile 8th grade peers got me a semester of straight As and I got the highest score in the class on the algebra one final without even being there.
The other best year was 12th grade, when I took 4 AP courses and study halls. I'd be with good instructors, small class sizes, and peers who were as motivated to succeed as I was. Even honors programs are the domains of parents shoving their kids into the classes through brute force of aggravation with the principal - they just don't want to hear that their kids do not want that, they need their kids to be in honors classes. And they end up ruining those classes for any teacher that gives a damn and for the kids who are there of their own will.
The only important thing to take away is that even an 18 year old is making incredibly short sighted mistakes. If I ever have kids, they would need to consistently want to either reenter school or leave it to make such a switch of their own volition. It has to be a decision not only made over the long term but its ramifications need to be absorbed over such a term.
I would almost certainly never throw them through the public school imagination crusher, unless I had incredible faith in the school. I'd rather go bankrupt hiring private tutors and getting them peer exposure at recreation centers and extracurriculars.
They went to kindergarten to learn how to listen to people other than their parents and make friends. My social daughter came home for 6 months, then went right back to public school. My introverted and shy son came home for 2 years, and is going back to school this coming year because we're not doing well at teaching him... we see our failures there, and don't want to exaggerate them any more. Plus, he wants more friends, too. We expect they will probably all skip jr. high, as they will be old enough to learn on their own, and the social scene is just painful at the age, and then I'll leave it to them if they want to do the high school experience, or just get a GED and move on to other adventures in their teens.
There also are online teacher-led schools in most states now. Both private and public There are home schooling groups that meet together so each parent can teach a groups of kids in their areas of expertise. There are online curriculum you can purchase, and hard copy curriculum.
On short, there are choices. Many, many choices.
As parents, we need to help our children find the path that is right for each one of them, and it is a more complex decision than a one-time choice to either home school or attend the public schools. As in most things, a middle ground is often a better, if more complex, answer.