Former public-schooler's insight.

You know, I'm finding a reason to learn while I'm doing this homeschool thing. Even math is becoming exciting to me. My reason? God wants me to explore His creation and learn about it so that I can function in it. It makes sense if you have any kind of theistic view that isn't atheism. So, I comfortably take my stand with my reason that I learn. Most of the books I read are Christ-centered, and give me motivation for doing work. It's sad though, because in public school, that's not quite the case.
What I discovered about public school is that, because there is no theistic belief, they have no reason to learn. I used to hear these words, verbatim, from many of my public school peers: "What's the point of learning this?"
Then the teacher says, "It will help you in college."
The student then asks "Why do we need it in college? I'm not aiming to: be a mathematician, scientist, author, travel to France etc..."
The conversation ends when the teacher says (no longer verbatim) "Just memorize it today, and regurgitate it tomorrow on the test so I can prove to my boss that I told you something he/she wanted me to."
What's the problem here? The kids aren't interested because they have no reason to be.
Me? I hate math. I struggle with it, and I'm terrible at grasping mathematical concepts, but I want to learn it. Why? Because the God who created it fascinates me, and so, math fascinates me. The public school kids, unless they, themselves are Christian, have no reason to learn it. Simply because even in highschool, they have a pretty good idea that if there is no god, and their lives are finite that they'll just end up going to college, being successful, maybe, then dying. Whether they acknowlege it or not, they know it's true. They have no reason to learn simply because the only reason to do so is no longer allowed in school. God is no longer allowed in school. It's sad, but true. What will fix it? Good question...