What About Socialization?

From Homeschooling: Take a Deep Breath--You Can Do This! by Terrie Lynn Bittner

You are going to get so tired of this question. Everyone, absolutely everyone, asks you about what we fondly call the “S-word.” School, naturally, is only a place we send our children to get socialized. (If the purpose of schooling is to socialize, we must wonder if we really mean it is to be brainwashed.) Everyone knows that only people who go to school have friends and learn how to interact with others.

Right. Do you go to school? If not, do you have friends? If you do go to school, is that the only place you meet people? Do your preschoolers have friends even if they don’t go to preschool? Children traditionally hang out with the children in their neighborhood, and if you are lucky, there will be children in your neighborhood. If not, you’ll take them someplace where there are children.

Since you are going to be asked this more times than even your best math student can count, you might as well write out an answer and memorize it. One answer will be plenty at first. Later, you will probably develop a number of answers and which one you give will depend on your mood:

Scholarly: “Recent studies done on homeschoolers show that when observers are asked to watch a group of children play together and choose the homeschoolers, they are unable to do so.” (There is always a study to prove everything. I’m sure you’ll find one that suits your mood.)

Clueless: “Socialization? Oh yes, that’s one of the main reasons we want to homeschool. You’re right, what children learn in schools from other children these days is just awful, isn’t it?”

Sarcastic: “Oh, I know, I’m depriving him of the chance to be so bullied he becomes a school shooter and of the chance to make fun of children with disabilities and to learn thirty-seven insults to use on his siblings. We won’t even discuss the fun of being hazed. If his academics weren’t so important, I wouldn’t dream of depriving him of such glorious opportunities.”

Let’s get this over with: “We don’t believe that a fifth grade boy is the best person to teach social skills to a fifth grade boy. It’s as unnatural for a child to spend his entire day with only thirty-seven children who are the same age, and mostly the same race and economic status, as it would be for you to spend your time only with people your own age. We feel the best way to teach our child socialization is to expose him to a wide range of people in a wide range of situations.” (This is the usual answer.)

This article about socialization is excerpted from Terrie Bittner's book, Homeschooling: Take a Deep Breath--You Can do This!