Yes and no. I went to public schools. I had good teachers. It was beneficial, but there is only so much time for everything and ideally you don't want to offend people, so some books aren't included. My love of reading has broadened my horizons and this has made a difference. A lot of people don't like to read or won't read and this is limiting. Some people will read, but then only read the TV version of books, or books intended to be entertaining. Most people won't read research for recreation and this is a problem in my opinion. This also can't be corrected by public schools. It's not their responsibility.
The other problem is that the carrot keeps moving farther away. What I mean by this can be illustrated by a story in the bible. Jacob worked for his uncle Laban for seven years to marry Rachel. When he worked seven years for Rachel, Laban made an excuse that his second daughter shouldn't get married before the first and gave him Leah instead. Jacob still wanted to marry Rachel so Laban sad he would have to work another seven years for her. So he did, but the point is that the goal kept moving farther out of reach and the terms that were agreed on would change without warning that would keep him from reaching his goal and getting the reward for his labor.
This is what the public school system does that bothers me. The system doesn't want you to succeed. It wants you to keep chasing something elusive but impossible to grasp. This is the problem, but it's not the school system that is limiting a person's education. It is the person's lack of self-discipline that is limiting their education. However, even with self-discipline, the system doesn't want you to succeed. You will learn this bitter truth when self-discipline and lots of effort still leave you hearing that you will have to work another 7 years for what you really want.
