Parents Of Homeschoolers Deal With Socialization

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Homeschool parents are oftentimes asked about socialization. In a previous article, I have stated that this is one of the things that proponents of traditional schooling use to beat down the issue of homeschooling. However, these parents seem as though they do not understand that homeschool children are not bing kept out of society. They are simply receiving their education in a different fashion than other children their age are.

Most homeschooling parents enroll their children in what are oftentimes considered to be "extracurricular" activities. These children also have the opportunity to go on more field trips than their peers get to go on. As such, homeschool children actually have more educational opportunities than traditional school children do. These opportunities also provide children with great opportunities for socialization since herein they can interact with a wide variety of people.

Merriam Webster defines socialization as "the process by which a human being beginning at infancy acquires the habits, beliefs and accumulated knowledge of society through education and training for adult status."

As you can see, this definition does not have anything to say about school being the way in which a person is socialized. In fact, a great many of our forefathers and a lot of famous people were homeschooled. This includes people such as Thomas Edison, LeAnn Rimes, William F. Buckley Jr., Ansel Adams and Abraham Lincoln.

Most children spend 7.5 hours in a traditional school setting each day. About 6.5 of those hours are taken up by class time. This leaves exactly 1 hour, which is spent divided between lunch and walking to their next class. There is not much time for socialization in either of these events. As such, these traditional school children get the majority of their socialization while participating in after school activities.

So, why is there so much negativity when it comes to homeschool children getting socialization? The simple answer is that a lot of people do not know much about homeschooling. They do not understand that the basis of homeschooling is engaging in activities that do not take place inside of a classroom. This is how our children are able to truly explore the world that they live in as fully as possible. In this environment, both ideas and individuals are highly valued.

Of course, this argument for homeschooling may lead educators to argue that homeschoolers do not always use tests or encourage competition. This is something that homeschooling parents will agree with. However, this does not mean that these children are not competitive. After all, there have been homeschool children who have won the National Geographic Bee. But I digress...

The reason that socialization has received such a bad rap from traditional schools dates back to the 1960's. At that time, homeschooling was used to protect children with learning or mental disabilities. Instead of institutionalizing these children, many parents chose to keep them at home. Now, there is still the stigma that homeschooled children are either anti-social or that they are simply unable to function outside of their home.

Thankfully many homeschool groups are working with the media to dispel this rumor. They are trying to show that homeschooled children are not anti-social. Combined with the fact that homeschooled children are winning more and more national competitions, it will only take some time before parents realize just how great homeschooling really is.