For the record, I was homeschooled from birth and ironically, I also ran several different schools in South Korea that were all Montessori curriculum, certified by the Montessori society. It's pretty fun stuff but in the US, I think it's almost the same thing as homeschooling.
I take it you never went to traditional schools then, either public or private? Just curious, feel free to ignore if you don't want to dig too far into your educational background.
It's all pretty much public information. I've been talking about it openly across the internet ever since I came to Korea.
I have signed up and completed a few online programs for higher education but I've never attended a brick and mortar school though no.
I find that if done right, it's perfect for people like me who already knew what they wanted to do since 11 years old (I don't need college at ALL, I need graduate school), but that my parents didn't do it right and unlike Zhou who learned mostly from Wikipedia, all I had was IRC. ;_;
I consider myself 10 years late/behind on most traditional subjects yet 100 years ahead on most of the real world applicable skills (because I wasn't brainwashed).
So you've never had the experience of having to ask permission to use the bathroom. Very nice.
About what percentage of your studies were "general purpose" or "universally desirable" beyond basic arithmetic and reading? I'm imagining classic literature or a book or two on logic. Or were reading, writing, and arithmetic it?
Of the remaining % of your studies that were aimed at specific end goals (metallurgic studies, as an example) was there a great deal of learning/studying/researching before you actually started getting involved in those areas... the "doing," as it were. I'm guessing some things you simply dropped and moved past.
(I understand I'm still using "schooling-oriented" terms that may not be accurate... it's quite possible you rarely spent a day just reading and focusing on "studies." It's the best I can do not having a firm understanding of it though, so my apologies.)