We ended up spending the summer schooling her son ourselves so that he had a chance of being on course with his peers next year because he was in a class with 6 children who should not have been there. Thankfully, though our diligence, he is slightly above grade level in most things and a grade above in everything else; so, we’re no longer truly worried. But, we still worry that he’ll be put in the class with those same kids this year.

On top of that, my mother is a teacher in a private school, and even there she runs into this problem. The second a child has an IEP, they are untouchable. Our society is so focused on making everyone feel equal that we jeopardize the safety, comfort, and abilities of those who are stuck with the people who require the most attention.

Half way through first grade in public school, I noticed a very serious change in the way he acted. He was withdrawn, tired, irritable. He was not behaving the same in familiar social settings, and cried a LOT. He just wasn’t happy being around only children his age all day.

It has been a year now. He initiates many of his own lessons out of his natural innate curiosity, reads better than some children older than he is, is excelling at all of his basic subjects, and is preparing to start learning new languages and some work on the computer with linux.

My son is 7.

His biggest problem? Boredom. Because the teacher had to handle students that just aren’t suited for a regular classroom, she was unable to bring her curriculum forward to keep the majority of the children in the class from saying, “Hey, we KNOW this! We want more!”

My son’s best friends are junior high students. He is, in fact, unique in that he has shown a precocious level of social skill compared to his age group. He has thoughtful, pointed discussions with adults. He even works when he can convince someone to hire him for jobs suited to his size and ability, and loves the learning process that comes with hands-on education.

The problem we found with public school for our son is that he’s a very direct, physical learner. He reads signs and newspapers, rather than short books and worksheets. He loves to build things that demonstrate the laws of physics, rather than reading theory out of a book. Schools are unable to do this, because they have to cater to too wide a group of learning types, and it quickly becomes unaffordable.

As far as socialization goes, children tend to learn from those they see. Parents have always been the instructors of behavior. School isn’t the place where children are raised, and socialization still remains in the realm of parenting.

I’m puzzled whenever the socialization is brought up in relation to homeschooling. Why would homeschooled children be handicapped in terms of socialization?

Children that are sheltered and kept apart from their community might have problems adapting once they get older, but why would that be assumed of homeschoolers?

My children probably have a wider base of acquaintances than most kids their age, or even many adults.

The socialization that occurs in public school bears very little resemblance to what adult society does (or should) look like. People who believe otherwise either don’t remember school very well or are still behaving like children.

The issue being addressed in the article is about how impossible proper socialization (learning to deal with people) was becoming in these classes. So whether you think kids need to be in school for socializing (talking in class, not allowed) or socialization (learning to deal with people, not working), in either case it’s hardly any better than homeschooling.

And do you honestly believe homeschoolers spend all day with their parents, or are you really this confused? Even if they spend a LOT of time with their parents, if they are good models of social behaviour then the kids are learning socialization skills (rather than learning and imitating 20 to 30 same aged, equally immature peers). If there are multiple siblings, then there are conflicts to resolve, and lots of opportunities for play with peers.

But homeschoolers are not stuck at home with just their families anyway. We are not in the habit of locking our children in closets to keep them away from the world. Rather, we are out in the REAL world, not in an isolated classroom with the same 30 children for 7-8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 40 weeks a year. Our homeschooled children interact with people of all ages and backgrounds in a wide variety of situations, as we go out and run errands, visit museums, chat with neighbours, go to different activities, and play with friends.

That’s pretty much the DEFINITION of socialization — learning to socialize and get along with a wide variety of people in REAL situations, not stuck in only the one artificial paradigm of the classroom. Kids in public schools learn the socialization rules of the classroom and the playground, based on cliques and peer pressure and materialistic quests for popularity… not the socialization rules of the community, the world at large, the varied landscape of social situations that mature people interact with every day.

“socialize” in this context means “talk during class”. “socialization” means “learn how to deal with people”. You are basing your argument on conflating two very different words with the same root.

homeschool kids spend all day with their parents. that’s pretty much the opposite of socialization, REGARDLESS OF HOW MUCH TALKING HAPPENS.

I love the photo at the top–among other things, “No daydreaming”

Tell that to Edison, or Einstein or any writer ever.

“Do not use your mind in creative ways during class time!”

Nice…