I would say private schools. But I guess that's because I enjoyed my experience so extremely. XD I've been to public, private and international schools though. I loved my international school experience, but I still highly recommend private schools. Cuz then you get a feel of the place as well as [hopefully] less risk of gang fights and the like that you would normally get in public schools! International school are great, but then I find that there's not much of a feel for the place, and more likely than not, you start to form a bubble around yourself and blocking out everyone who's not from the school.

local Chinese Kindergarten/preschool for three years. (age 3,4, and 6)
Swedish Kindergarten for one year (age 5)
1st - 3rd grade: half day homeschool, half day local chinese school.
4th grade: local Swedish school.
5th gr: homeschool
6 and 7th gr: Online school
8th gr: local Swedish school.
9th gr: American System International School in Thailand
10th gr: international school in thailand but IB system.

and im going to continue with 11th & 12th grade at the IB school. :)

Pyromethious: IS in Manila, Philippines? That's my alma mater!

Amen sista :)

I go to a local school in Italy, I think going to local schools is good, because you integrate in the local culture.

While I'm probably jaded to a degree, I'll always recomend International Schools if you can manage it. My last one was British/American based, but the majority of the students were of African/Asian/European decent. Home schooling can be ok I suppose, but my teachers overseas often had multiple masters in the subjects they taught so they had much more to draw on. Local schools are fine so long as the Country they are located is focused on keeping education important. I've heard that year round schools produce amazing results, but I've never been. Environment wise, I enjoyed IS hands down! Especially the IS in Manila, Philippines.

International school was an interesting kind of place to grow up for sure. Many different people(a suprising amount from countries near the host country) though. I went to an American international school in China as an "English man"and ended up being neither. Its great and confusing all at the same time. I now have a new way to answer the question "where are you from"- I say: "International!"

I went to public school all the way through, also supplemented with homeschooling to keep up my English. Japanese public school for 10 years (including preschool), American public school for 3 years, Scottish public school for 1 year, ended up in American college. I think it's the best way to truly integrate with the culture- international schools have their own culture and don't really ever come to truly understand the local culture.

I didn't do alternative education because I couldn't afford international school, or the likes, it was simply better to do home schooling. Even got my diploma and all.

I think "school" is a cop-out. Keeps you from growing up from doing the things you really want to do.

I was home-schooled until I was 11, except for a month here or there, and then I went to a private school, but only because I got free schooling as a teacher's offspring (they put that on the billing, teacher's offspring)

Go read "The Teenage Liberation Handbook: Inernational Edition" and I'm in it. 'Nuff said.

I went to a local public elementary school K-8, then local public international school 9-12. Looking back on it, it was quite unusual to get such a great international AND us-accredited high school education, and although we all complained about how much of a pain the IB program was, I think we got the best of both worlds.

I really wish that I'd gone to a United World College though, I found out about them in 11th grade, which was too late to apply, since I was already in IB.
Did anyone else do IB?

Well since you all have a lit here is my list:

Kindergarten: sep-Feb Heidelburg public kindergarten (local)
Kindergarten: Feb- June Montasorie school (NM) (private)
1st grade Zuni Elementary School (New Mexico) (Local)
2nd - till December Zuni (NM)
2nd - Jan Poing Grundschulle , Poing Germany (Local)
3rd- Poing
4th- Poing
5th - Wanborough Primary School (Wanborough, UK) (Local)
6th-Ridgeway Secondary school (Swindon, UK) (local)
7th-Bavarian International school (Heimhausen, Germany)
8th- BIS
1/2 9th - BIS
other 1/2 9 : Southridge High school (OR)
10-12 SRHS (OR)

Unis:
sep 07- present Oberlin College Conservatory, (OH)

The International school was by far the easiest transition to make. Local school in europe were tough, but a great learning experience and US public high school was by far the most difficult place to be. But It all depends on age really.

Kindergarten: Medicine Lake Lutheran Academy, Minnesota, USA
1st grade: public school in Minnesota, USA
2nd grade: part public school in Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico, part Mexican tutor, part American homeschool. (Yeah... that was a confusing year.)
3rd grade: American School of Aguascalientes (Mexico)
4th grade: American School of Aguascalientes
5th grade: American School of Aguascalientes
6th grade: homeschool
7th grade: homeschool
8th grade: Medicine Lake Lutheran Academy
9th grade: homeschool
10th grade: homeschool
11th grade: homeschooled myself
12th grade: homeschooled myself
13th grade: homeschooled myself

Homeschool was the best! We were still involved in classes and extra-curricular activities and we still had friends, but we no longer had to deal with a whole new school system every time we moved! Also, we could travel without falling behind. It's not for everyone, but in general I am highly in favor of it based on my own experience.

Why thirteen grades, you ask? I stayed home an extra year for a few different reasons, and I just continued to study. I told everyone I was in "thirteenth grade."

Haha I haven't been to too many countries,but I think when it comes to schooling I am very experienced. I have attended hardcore local Chinese schools(they are evil, don't ask), a bunch of typical North American local public schools, they are often very multicultural lol (yah the ones with jock, nerds, preps, wannabes, emos, like the ones in Mean Girls and any other silly teen movies), A classic IGCSE British system International school (They were so freaking conservative, there were way too many Asians who can't speak English at all in it that the school was basically divided into the Asian troop and the western troop, that was interesting cuz I was caught in the middle...unlike most ppl who chose a side, oh yah the school was so conservative and christian they didn't even let us celebrate Halloween 0_0), An all girl private school where you can either board or live at home, (Where I am at right now, this is by far the most interesting school I have attended because it quadriple tasks as prestigious preppy girl school, boarding school, art school and American school, it's in Canada and follows the Canadian curriculum, but once we get into grade 11 we have the choice of Advanced Placement, which basically puts you into an American system. It provides boarding but really, 10% of all student body are boarders, we all go to school together, but the boarding society and the daygirl society can make so huge a difference that they don't act like they go to the same school. It's can even take the role of art school because they provide amazing art programs, music, dance, drama, photograpphy, film, literature, computer art, multimedia...u name it. Although it's not the focus of the school, it's strong enough that it can definitely be considered as one of the major art schools in Canada. So for me, I have being both a boarder and a daygirl, chosen the AP program and take lots of art courses. This one school feels like 4 different schools). Plus it also feels like a university because everyone must use laptop, we have houses instead of forms/classes.
I just wanna say I love my experience, and I am so glad I've tried every type of school. I wish I could go also try the grammar school in England or France too. but I think being integrated into a huge variety of schools may change you even more drastically than going to a huge number of countries. Because those of us who attend international schools realize...most of them are IB or just reli reli similar, ppl can stay in the same system for the whole time no matter where they go.
I just never got homeschooled but many ppl I noe did. However I think homeschooling is definitely not sumthing I want to do because I don't want to waste a single minute in any place I live in, I don't want to stay home, let me go to school,any school is better than no schoo, I want to understand and know as many people as I possibly can. That's the greatest thing about moving around.

I went to whatever school had the best reputation in the city my dad was moved to. In a couple places they were parochial Christian schools (Episcopalian in one & I don't know which denomination the other one was) & the other ones were Int'l Schools.

I too love the IS system... so much so that that's where I teach now :) Now I get to hop around the world teaching global nomads... & I make sure all of them know they are global nomads :)

Stef :)

My parents tried putting me in the local Omani school for preschool when I was about three. Very hyperactive toddler in a system that requires sitting still for 45 minutes at a time. Add to that the fact that I didn't speak Arabic. Yeah, didn't work at all. I ended up going to an international school from K3-8th grade, then we moved back to America. I begged my parents to homeschool me, but no dice. Got stuck in American public schools for high school. I LOVED my international school though, got to know so many people from so many different places. The one thing I regret was that the Arabic program was lousy, so I know very little Arabic, and I've lost most of it... such a wasted opportunity.

I went to a local Czech school and a local American school. So until 8th grade it was public schools for me. In high school I went to really tiny international/American schools. I didnt really find that the international/American schools really worked that well in integrating the local culture, something which I regretted. Also didnt really enjoy my experience, but probably the main reason is because they were so small. If I could do it again, I would have gone to local high schools, even though language and other things were an issue and I didnt feel like struggling through learning a new system.

I went to local schools both times I lived abroad. And for me, it was a great experience.

I believe it's one of the reasons why I abosrbed british culture so much - I had the same life that the local kids had. Everyone was also very nice to me and my family (school, neighbours, etc). I was very happy there.

So for me, a local school can be a very good experience.

i was just thinking about this the other day. i went to international school all the way, with a 4 year stint in a british system enlgish medium primary school in botswana, but it was quite international too. but the most mono-cultural school i had ever been to.

my high school is my favrourite school to date. the founder of the school started it during aparthied south africa, he built in swaziland so that south africans who did want their children in a multiracial environment could send their kids there. so the very principle of the school when it was built was one of a mix of cultures, races, nationlities and such. since a lot of brown folks couldn't afford it and a lot of white folks didn't want their kids there, it became the favourite school of southern african freedom fighters. mandela's kids and grandkids went there, sisulu, tambo, samora machal's kids, seretse khama's kids (if the names don't look familiar, these are the first presidents (and there fore mostly big time freedom fighters)of a few southern african countries)

anywho, it then because a united wold college, a sisterhood of IB colleges that have the same mandate of appreciating multiculturalism, as well as being socially aware, promotion of community service and awareness of the environment.

this school is LOADED with tcks. it is a boarding school and when i was there, out of the 500 or so students, about 300 or more boarded, i would say at least 70 percent of the students were tcks. it was great because being tck was the norm. i felt perfectly normal being from one country but having grown up all somewhere else, unable to speak my 'mother tongue' most of my friends were in the same predicament.

so i am a big fan of the international school and have a special place in my heart of UWCs, i'd reccommend them to anyone out there!

Local schools till I was 9, then international school. I think intl school kids are a very specific subset of TCKs because it has a culture and social set of its own.

gr 1-4 homeschooled
gr 5 Sept-Dec public school
gr 5 Jan-June, gr 7 private school
gr 8, 10 Sept-Nov missionary kid school (not boarding)
gr 10 Nov-Dec correspondence
gr 10 Jan-Mar Christian school
gr 10 April-June taught myself
gr 11 Sept-Dec taught myself
gr 11 Jan-May boarding school, but taught myself
gr 11 (Mom didn't want me grad'ing when I had just turned 16, so she made me do gr 11 over again) boarding school
gr 12 public school

this between two different countries and about 10 different towns... post-secondary were only two schools

I think each person's experience will be different based on location, personality, class dynamics, teacher, etc. I also think each person's needs will be different. I hated my Christian school experience (hence the 3-month stint), but my sister loved it. I also didn't so much like the boarding school experience, but most of the people I know who went to boarding school absolutely LOVED it. I think a lot of my experiences were cuz I skipped so many grades and was a little out of my age group etc etc

I was only there for 3/4 of 8th grade.

I was there 10 years before you...'84-'85. Wow, I feel old...I graduated high school in 1989.

Whoa, I went to BFA too, cool. Were you only there for the one year? I was there end of'94, then '95, '96,'98 and graduated '99

From kindergarten to finishing undergrad, I attended 14 different schools.

K-Austrian kindergarten
1-3- Vienna International School
4-Pleasant Hill Elementary (IL)
5-Lowell Elementary (IL)
Pleasant Hill Elementary (IL)
German School (Istanbul, Turkey)
Homeschool
6-7- Istanbul Community School (TR)
8- Black Forest Academy (Germany)
Franklin Middle School (IL)
9- Wheaton North High School (IL)
10-12- Wheaton Central High School (IL)

College
1st year- Bodenseehof Bible School (Germany)
2nd year- College of DuPage (IL)
3rd year- Indiana Wesleyan Uni. (IN)

In Vienna, when I was five, my parents wanted my older brother and I to attend local school. However, when I did the pre-testing, even though my tests were fine, the administrators told my parents I was "too little to carry the heavy books"...I'm a very small person, even now, at about 5'0"...never did experience that growth spurt...

So my parents were extremely mad, and took us to VIS (then the British School), which cost tons of money and things were a bit rough financially, my parents being missionaries and all. I really enjoyed the experience at VIS and at ICS, since the students were all from different backgrounds and moved around like crazy, like me.

German school in Turkey was a disaster, since my family had been in the US for a year and a half, and I'd "forgotten" much of my German. Then, I got scarlet fever, and the administrators told my parents not to bother bringing me back...hence the "homeschooling" (my mom making us write research papers).

Anyway, I loved my boarding school the best, the dorm atmosphere and community. Being a missionary kid, it was comforting to have the value system the school had as well as the people who truly understood the moving around bit. Obviously, not perfect, but a great experience.

I went to public school (1 year). It was so awful that I never went back :(. I also went to international school (2 years). That was great. I'd do it again in a minute. I'm homeschooled now (7 years!!). It's also awesome.

hmm...I think you're right.

We mostly met our friends in school didn't we? So our memories of our friends are inevitably linked to the schools we went to.

What I did not like was having to go to Japanese school on Saturday and during my summer holidays.

My parents were too ambitious about trying to get me to keep my Japanese identity and education and it just made me hate Japan even more because the teachers were really awful and I didn't have enough time off from school. I think I didn't know how to cope with so much work and just let the ball drop instead of going nuts trying to get it all done.

I mean who's going to worry about learning French when you're already going nuts trying to keep your Japanese in order?

I think in the end this compromised my main education at the international school and that was not a good thing.

I studied in two different international schools (one Indian, one American), and all my memories associated with my international 'American' schooling is by far some of my favorite. :) The school effectively combined all aspects of its host culture (Indonesian), its dominant culture (American), and its international cultures (too many to name!) to really develop some great students! Of course I'm biased since I am talking about MY school, but seriously, it was a wonderful environment for personal and educational development for all the students in their formative years.

I LOVED school! Always loved it :) I went to international schools all my life (well besides high school, I don't really consider that an "international school" although they've made every attempt to be one).

I think a big difference between international schools and local schools (at least in my experience and to my knowledge) is the creativity in teaching. A true international school (again according to my experience and knowledge) is one that can very well incorporate various different types of teaching systems and make it work. Also the emphasis on critical thinking.

In my last "real" international schooling, the school made an effort to make sure the kids at least know their mother tongue. Which is probably why I can keep up with my Mandarin almost like a native speaker (we went through the whole Taiwanese Chinese lit system...it was brutal! But I guess I am glad I went through it haha!) in terms of education.

Also I feel that there are more "fun" involved in learning than just learning for the sake of learning. I have heard stories of how local schools (in Asia at least) are set up and I realized how lucky I am to not have to kill myself from all the memorizing, the test taking and the heavy backpack at the age of 10!

This school I am talking about was original established by the UN. I am not sure if they are still related to UN. It takes after the international British schooling system, but not entirely.