i'm in college now, so i chose "other" on the poll, but i was homeschooled for several years and went to a magnet public school for my last three years. i could write an essay on the pros and cons of homeschooling, but i'll spare you all and sum it up a bit.
homeschooling is not for everyone. it was fine for me because i'm pretty self-disciplined. my younger brother is not, and homeschooling was pretty much disasterous for him. he needed structure and interaction, and has very poor social skills now.
the other thing is that there are certain things that you just can't be taught in homeschooling. there are reasons why most high schools have different teachers for each subject. because you need speciallized people in order to be taught properly. no offense to my parents, but they just couldn't teach me math or science past the sixth grade because they just weren't qualified. there's only so much you can glean from books and internet. much of learning is experience, and homeschooled kids are often lacking in this respect.
on the other hand, i'm grateful for my homeschooling because it reinforced my self-discipline. with no one to compete with, i had to do my work for MYSELF and no one else. self-motivation is a powerful studying tool.
also, being away from other people for so long made me very observant of their behavior. i never got into any real trouble in high school because i was always looking before i leapt. i watched others to see how i should react in certain situations instead of behaving without thinking first. this kept me from doing things rashly.
of course, not everyone would respond the same way. both the lack of competition and the watching-others thing could be very dangerous to some people. which is why homeschooling isn't for everyone, and should be approached with caution.
well, looks like i practically wrote an essay anyway, didn't i?