I just read an online discussion regarding homeschooling. In response to the question "Do you think homeschooling is good for children? Would you homeschool your children? Why or why not?" one individual responded that while she (or he, I'm not sure) knows that homeschooled students do well academically, and she knows that there are opportunities for homeschooled children to socialize, she would not homeschool her child because "the experience is just not the same as going to school".
Okay, excuse me for sounding like an obnoxious kid here, but I can't help thinking "Well, DUH!"
The experience is NOT the same, and that is a BIG part of the reason that my husband and I have chosen to educate our children at home. Those who constantly scream that homeschooled kids need to go to school to learn social skills are ridiculous. Walking everywhere in a line, responding automatically to whistles or classroom lights being turned on and off, and being told that you must study only what 30 other children born within a year of you are studying is NOT learning social skills! If anything, it's learning SOCIALIST skills! LOL!
Lets think rationally here for a moment. People tell me all the time that I should send my kids to school so that they can experience "the real world'. That makes me laugh. Why? Because in the real world, every job I've ever held, I worked with people of various ages~NEVER did I work ONLY with people who were born within a year of me. In the real world, I"m expected to complete projects and accomplish tasks on my own, not with a "commander" standing over me every second. In the real world, I can eat lunch because I"m hungry, not because some bell sounded. I can go to the restroom when I need to go, and I don't have to ask permission, thereby sharing with everyone else in the room what I need permission for.
In the real world, if I am "bullied" by someone, I can leave that establishment and do business elsewhere, or I can begin looking for another job so that I can leave that one as soon as possible. I am not forced to continue to see the bully day after day, with my only option being to report the bullying to teachers who have little or no authority to put a stop to it. In the real world, I learned to get along with people of all ages, not to make fun of the "little kids" or pick on the "freshmen".
Homeschooling is not the same experience as attending traditional school? You're darn right it's not, and thank goodness for that!!
