I went to a large elementary school, a large junior high, and a large high school - also, the best in the city (at the time). I thought my education was pretty good through elementary school, although, my mom is a first grade teacher, so learning how to read by the time I was 4 and a half probably helped...
My problems with the education system have to do with all the standardized testing. My mom has to test her class 6 times a year - SIX! These 6 year oldes who don't even know how to read have to take a test a MONTH after school starts. It's ridiculous. The entire public education system in Texas is geared towards standardized tests. Thus, the kids learn how to fudge through the test rather than actually LEARNING the material they need to know! Way to go Dubya!
*huffs* This is a topic that makes me MAD. Anyways... Seriously, you learn how to eliminate answers, that "the longer answer is usually the correct one" if you have NO clue, and you learn a formula for writing a paper. So, rather than learning how to write a GOOD, well-thought out paper, you get cardboard cutouts of the same thing from thousands of students. I NEVER learned how to write a good opening paragraph, and it's hurt a LOT since I've gone to college. I honestly do NOT know how to research well, how to organize, etc. The topics given to us are so open ended and shallow, it doesn't matter how you divide up your paragraphs.
The other issue I have with MY schools in particular is that the wealthier, popular kids are ALWAYS favored. I remember hearing ONE kid's name over the morning annoucements who ALWAYS won the art aware, and another kid's name who ALWAYS won another one... and then at the awards assembly at the end of the year, the same FOUR (most popular) kids were ALWAYS given the "star student" awards. It doesn't matter, honestly. It doesn't mean a thing, but it's depressing for a kid to always hear the same names being associated with "the best." FOr me, it always send across the message, "These kids are brats and I dont' like them, but everyone is ALWAYS going to think they are better than me, so I shouldn't even try."
In junior high, all of my teachers but TWO (my eighth grade math teacher and my history teacher) were sour and made students feel like idiots. If you didn't know how to write an introductory paragraph, you were a fool. You were never offered one on one time with the teacher.
In high school, the honors teachers favored girls over the boys, and always favored the students that spoke more often. They took every opportunity they had to make you HATE the subject they were teaching. Out of all my classes, (8 each semester, each year for three years and 6 each semester, each year for one year), I had four classes that I actually enjoyed. As in, I always looked forward to attending. My Chemistry class was actually taught by a man who KNEW his stuff, had his degree in it, and LOVED teaching it. Absolutely LOVED it. My Physics class was taught by a man who knew his subject was horribly difficult, and adjusted his grading system so if you did all the extra credit, came in for help, and tried your best, you couldn't get lower than an 80. He was also working on his PhD. My Philsophy teacher had his PhD. My Calculus teacher just plain loved teaching - she didn't have to do it to get by, she did it because she loved it. Three of those classes were AP - Chemistry, Physics, and Calculus. They taught us the SUBJECT, rather than the test. I did badly in all my AP exams (2's) where the teacher taught us the test (just History and Government), but did excellent (3's and 4's) on the tests where the teacher taught us the subject (Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, Economics).
So based on a lot of what I've heard from my friends, my mom, and from my own observations, our public schools are filled with teachers who don't enjoy their job, are teaching subjects that they never got their degrees in (i.e. my Algebra II teacher had her degree in English), or who just don't care about their students (my Junior English teacher loved telling us we were stupid).
So when I have kids, they're going to be homeschooled or the teachers are going to be closely monitored.