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 What about
Socialization?
 Will
My Home School Child be a Social Outcast?
Many parents as well as students are
often concerned about the Socialization factor when considering
home schooling. Parents sometimes feel their children might miss
out on the social contact or interaction between students in a
traditional school setting. However, some see the possibly
detrimental side to today's public school system. So many
children find themselves and their studies actually suffering
due to social complications that would not exist in a home
school setting.
Socialization: The S Word
My objection to the social life of almost all schools . . . is
that it is for the most part mean-spirited, competitive,
ruthless, snobbish, conformist, consumerist, fickle, heartless,
and often cruel. Most children come out of school with far less
self-esteem, less sense of their own identity, dignity, and
worth, than they had when they went in.
John Holt, in Growing Without Schooling
Being out in the world engenders in children a sense of reality.
They see what goes on all day in the business of life, and where
they fit in. They see how adults manage day-to-day details and
long-range plans, and they learn to handle and accept the
balance of success and failure, of struggle and recreation.
Children recognize their value to the community as they do their
part to contribute, and they understand the role of the
community in their own lives, as a resource and support. Perhaps
of most importance are the opportunities simply to spend time
with people of all ages, experience, and points of view. One
fascinating aspect of the society described in The Continuum
Concept is that the children, included from infancy in the
business of the village, have a smooth transition into adulthood
without what has come to be accepted as the universal truth of
adolescence: rebellion.
The vast majority of children are segregated in school by age
(leaving aside the obvious fact that by virtue of their
geographical location and economic background, they are also
usually segregated by race, culture, or class). They spend a
large proportion of their waking time learning from, competing
with, and being compared to each other, jockeying for position
among their peers and approval from their teachers. The
pressures to fit in and to succeed are very powerful to children
and when the seal of approval comes from outside the child and
not from his or her own sense of achievement, an important
element of self-trust, of knowing inside when something is right
or true or good or valuable, may be
compromised.
The other regrettable byproduct of this system is the Us versus
Them mentality it fosters. Think about it. There are the cool
kids and there are the dweebs, dorks, and losers. And the brains
- sometimes by choice, sometimes by proclamation, are rarely
part of the in-crowd. It's our class against their class, and
the students versus the teacher. The big kids versus the little
kids. And, of course, kids versus parents. This lays some pretty
effective groundwork for an worldview attitude of my beliefs
versus theirs, my people versus yours.
-- Victoria Wright, The Mining Company (Summary)
Worried About Social Activities?
If you're considering homeschooling but are worried about your
child's social development, you'll soon find that your community
is full of resources where homeschooled children interact with
other kids. Just for starters, there's the YMCA or YWCA, local
community centers and sports teams, Boys & Girls Clubs, church
or synagogue groups, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Camp Fire, and
coordinated activities with other homeschooled kids.
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