I have to laugh sometimes when people ask the question. It's almost always in the midst of some social setting that would be perfectly normal for adults, although there are places people aren't used to seeing kids. But, as I mentioned before, I don't really believe in children being held back from learning the ins and outs of the adult world. I don't mean letting kids be exposed to the seedy, disgusting parts of being an adult. I don't really want to be exposed to that.
What I mean is, I think it does a child good to see what he will be doing when he grows up. Weekly shopping, banking, trips to the hardware store, you name it. The whole mundane adult world should be a familiar routine to the growing child. Why let it be a mystery?
Anyway, none of that is really the point. What the comic strip points out is that most of the people we meet have one question on their mind when they find out we homeschool. What about socialization? Presumably what they mean is, will Little Bernard make any friends shut up in the house all day? Some of the places this question is asked are: the Walmart, the library, museums, the laundromat, church, at yard sales, at family reunions or holiday gatherings. Most people that do school at home have a hard time actually staying home. During the school year we are constantly going from one project or activity to another and attending to real life in between. During the summer, when we have no scheduled classes, we are twice as busy. Why? Because for us homeschool is lifeschool.
Ask any tradesman. If you want to learn how to do something, classroom learning won't hurt, but it doesn't even begin to cover it. It's in the actual doing that real learning begins. It's no different for children. If you show them a poster of a butterfly's life-cycle, they will admire the pretty pictures. If you show them a butterfly coming out of it's chrysalis, they will wonder at it and will forever after know where butterflies come from. In the mean time, they will also know where money comes from (Dad's job), food comes from (the grocery store), clean clothes come from (laundry), clean dishes, fixed toys, newspapers, books, and so on. Everything they see every day is real. It is not just a safe, self-contained example, but real life.
The prevailing theory seems to be that children in a tradition school environment will forge long-lasting friendships that will continue and mature as the child grows into an adult. The fear is that homeschooled children will somehow be excluded from that. The truth is, only some of those school kids will have those kinds of friends. Most families move at least once during their children's education. Also, kids in school are under constant pressure to perform both from teachers and peers. This makes it a cut-throat kind of experience for many kids that impedes those friendships. Even so, it's true that most kids do have some friends after school and some of those friendships last.
Now, homeschool kids are usually very close to their siblings and families in general. Yes, that's a little weird, but is it really a bad thing for bothers and sisters to be tight? In addition to that, because of co-op groups and the like, most homeschoolers make friends across age groups as opposed to only being friends with kids their own age. I've seen my own kids playing with 'cool' teenagers and 'baby' three and four-year-olds all in the same day. And since a person wouldn't even consider homeschool if they weren't a get-involved type, these kids have the irreplaceable advantage of parents who are active and interested in their education and their life.
Parents can provide all these benefits and advantages within a traditional education, but will they be there the moment their six-year-old regales a grandmotherly stranger in the laundromat with the Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss. At least from where I'm sitting, the kids aren't having any trouble functioning in society. For the record, different isn't always bad. Isn't that what they tried to teach us in school?
lol funny make it longer
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