Did you spend 13 years (K to 12) in public education? What did you get from it?

I learned about diversity before diversity was a buzz word. I learned to accept people on their merits and work ethic vice the color of their skin, where they went to church, or their gender. I learned that not everyone makes the team and at some sports you just suck and it ain't your thing....suck it up buttercup. I learned through sports that it was always better to stay in shape than to try to get back in shape because if you let yourself go, my football coaches ensured you got back where you belonged...drill sergeants had nothing on them...it wasn't regulated for pansies back then like it is now where you can only practice for so long and have to take so many breaks. Take you pads off get doused with water to cool down, throw up if you had to and get back at it...perseverance until the job got done...that's why we won...never give up attitude. Drill sergeants had nothing on my coaches, so boot camp and ROTC summer training were too easy. Back then you were educated and "schooled" and there is a difference. Teachers could teach the books and also how to live...and their hands weren't tied like they are today.
With all that being said, my daughter goes to private school because the education she would be getting in the private schools here is substandard at best and I am being generous. Her school is not exclusive. If you can pay the tuition, you can come on in. But I don't want her to be common core, I want her to stand out at college. By placing her where she is, she is getting a lot of the same lessons I learned growing up.

I think if you can read well enough to answer the question, the answer is self explanatory...

There was no public kindergarten when I was in school. However many church groups had private kindergartens which were open to anyone. I could read, spell, print and do simple arithmetic before I started the first grade as could most of the kids that I knew. Growing up in an almost totally middleclass small town it was just considered normal for kids to go to college and most did. There was a college almost across the street from the high school. Most of our teachers were middle aged women who started teaching when their own children were grown. Unlike today there was only one kind of diploma which was what is now called the college track or college prep diploma. There was no general diploma or certificate of attendance like many schools have now. Everyone took English, math, sciences, history, civics, a foreign language etc. Normally you could take one elective each semester. I took typing two years and a couple of shop classes. There was also no such thing as "social promotions". If you failed you failed and that was frowned upon by both adults and your peers. P.E. was also required for all students. If any of our teachers had any kind of political agenda I am not aware of it. That didn't start until the late sixties. Another interesting thing from those days is that everyone had to take 9 weeks of driver's education which was taught by the P.E. teachers in the 9th grade even if you already had a license which could be obtained at age 14 if you could convince a judge that you had a need. I had one.
In general we got a pretty good education in those days.

CPT Jack Durish Nope K-8 was spent in Parochial schools

I'm fairly certain I got more out of my K-12 education than the kids today do. As a USAF Recruiter in the late 1970s, I observed issues with high school graduates in California that were not able to pass the ASVAB tests. In the past 20 years as an employer, I could see clearly the lack of what used to be basic knowledge for a HS grad during interviews and on-the-job.

A few years ago, I stumbled across an interesting book by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt whose premise is the 'dumbing down' of American kids was a deliberate scheme. A free, unabridged copy of this book is available here: http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/

I graduated in 78. I think I was served well. I had the misfortune of thinking I was smarter than my teachers, and having a mother who encouraged my over-inflated opinion of myself. I wasn't a bad kid, but I'm sure that teachers were not glad to have me walk into their classroom. I considered the teacher student relationship an adversarial relationship. Thank God I had a Dad that put the clamps on me. His advice to the teachers was to bury me in extra assignments when I got out of line, and he vowed to make me do them. I wasn't smarter, I had a chip the size of an elephant on my shoulder and I would die before I let them beat me academically. By the 2nd semester of my junior year I was attending high school half days and taking classes at the University of Arizona the other half.

CPT Jack Durish I received a good education in public schools. The Marine Corps and College rounded out what I needed to know.