Whether you are home schooling your child yourself, or in an online school, the question will inevitably come up about their socialization. You may hear this from relatives, friends or acquaintances. You may also have these nagging doubts yourself.
Socialization is a broad term. By this, does one mean that the student will not be exposed to diverse cultures, and nationalities? The implication here is that the home schooled student may not be prepared to cope with democracy in this country.
Dr. Brian Ray of the NHERI (National Home Education Research Institute) in 2003 studied the question of civic involvement of adults who had been home schooled. He found that twice as many home schooled adults were involved in civic organizations as public schooled adults. It was also found that 76% of home schoolers voted in the last 5 years compared to 35% of those not home schooled.
It seems to me that the larger question is the type of socialization that occurs in public school vs. home school. The development of social skills is mostly dependent on with whom one spends most of his time. In public school, this time is spent with same-age peers. Those taught at home are influenced by family members, clergy, and in controlled groups by coaches, dance teachers, and scout leaders.
The problem with peer dominated socialization is that children and teens are strongly influenced to "fit in" and be accepted by the other kids. This can be a dangerous form of pressure. Your child may become defiant to adults, use drugs or alcohol, join a gang, commit acts of violence and many other dysfunctional activities. Even with solid moral values at home, the child my ignore his conscience and put himself in danger.
Public schools attempt to counter these pressures by teaching children sexual health, "stranger danger", and "just say no to drugs". When the role models for behavior are other peers, and pressure is THAT powerful, these lectures will fall on deaf ears.
For high school aged kids, dating becomes an area of stress in traditional schools. Who is dating the athlete or cheerleader? The popularity of a teen's date for the dance is massively important. The social hierarchy among teens can become all encompassing. Then there is the pressure to be sexually active. This can lead to extremely mixed up values for our teens who are experiencing physical changes at the same time.
Parents should realize that a peer dominated social environment is temporary and abnormal, and will not resemble the complexity of life in our society after public school. In fact, the home schooled student with diverse activities, is living in a much more realistic social environment than the public schooled student.
