Homeschooling Fun!

There is one word that every homeschooling parent fears. The mere mention of this word is enough to send chills through their body as they gasp for a breath of air. It's so terrifying a word that homeschoolers cannot bear to mutter it, referring to it only as "the S word"%u2026

SOCIALIZATION

"What about socialization?"
"Aren't you concerned about their socialization?"
"But how will they learn to socialize?"

When a parent announces that they have decided to homeschool it seems the first concern on the mind of everyone told is socialization. "How will they learn to get along with others?" Socialization, however, is the primary reason parents are choosing in larger numbers than ever to homeschool. To put it bluntly, parents choosing to homeschool are parents choosing not to expose their children to the negative influences of modern-day schools and the lack of supervision that comes along. With today's terrifying rate of childhood drug addiction and alcoholism, school violence, childhood depression, and teenage pregnancy can you really blame them?

The American Heritage Dictionary (1987 Second College Edition) defines "socialize" as "To place under public ownership or control." If that's the purpose of today's school, no thank you! It's a known psychological fact that people who are exposed to violence day after day become jaded; they begin to accept this violence as normal. This is not what most parents want for their children, yet our children are being forced to live it in the one place outside of their home that should be safe, their school.

From another perspective: Where is there anything naturally social in forcing thirty eight year olds to sit in neat, alphabetical rows? What about requiring students to raise their hands to speak, not to mention asking permission to visit the restroom. This is the "real world" homeschoolers are said to be shielding their children from?

Most skeptics who befriend a homeschooling family soon find out that home is rarely where you will find them, at least not for very long. I know that certainly was the case when I was introduced to a homeschooling family while still a teenager. Homeschoolers are at the doctor's office, the post office, and talking about the weather to the grocery bagger. We're learning while serving at the nursing home and the food bank. We're shadowing reporters and butchers. We're babysitting toddlers, leading tours at the science center, and practicing new piano scales. We're interacting with hundreds of different people every day, each with a different view, faith, ethnicity%u2026life.

Which child is truly in the real world? Which is receiving the socially-appropriate interaction?