In Germany, I understand that they go to school all year long, they do get vacations three times a year, so it's not like they're dogging those kids outright, and they have some of the best scores in all of Europe, if not ranking pretty good in the world. I'll put to you another way: If you can afford private school, then do it and be happy about it. If you can't afford it, tough shit. Either you do home schooling if you can deal with the stress of it, or suck it up and grow a pair and send your kids to public school. To me those kids learn more in the real world than they ever would in a private school. Public school has it's issues, no doubt about that, but they will learn how to real world works and deal with personal issues as they get older and more experience how to handle it. Those kids will be more responsible to others and to their selves in the long run...