Experience over theory
I bounced around schools as a kid a lot. I came across students in public schools, private schools, and home schooling. Kids homeschooled their whole lives were far less extroverted. It is common for parents to think they foster social skills. However this can only be done by exposure to as wide a variety as possible of people, personalities, dispositions, attitudes, etc etc. Public schools are the best. Hands down. However, not all districts have quality public schools, which is one of our nation's biggest problems. Not all children will thrive under the same formula obviously, but public schools provide the easiest chance for a large exposure to different types of people. Even if homeschooled children socialize with other homeschooled children, that does not compare. The fact is, 99%+ of students are in public schools. Think about it; when you finally release your homeschooled child into the wild, their lack of exposure relative to the vast majority of their peers will make them stand out, feel isolated, turn to drugs, or otherwise develop psychological disorders.Private schools have the same effect. They are indeed social networks, but mostly isolated from the public background. There are psycho-social borders to be crossed when leaving a private school, and the transition is very stressful. There are no studies done for this, but from my experience, home-schooled and private-schooled children have a greater tendency to develop psychological disorders. What good is an education if you can't use it properly?
sonofwill September 17, 2008 4:09PM
Sonofwill must suffer from an inferiority complex from being bounced around public schools as a kid. I can see how his public school education taught him "tolerance" and "critical thinking skills" right off the bat.
I read your post, thought about my extroverted homeschooled children and laughed.
ReplyDeletePardon my ignorance, but isn't introversion vs. extroversion a personality issue? I don't think it's affected by one's education.
ReplyDeleteEveryone is born with a predisposition toward a personality type.
ReplyDeleteSo you are absolutely right education has nothing to do with a child being introverted or extroverted.
Where to start on that ignorant mess of a comment? Well, let's start with the fact that only 85% of students attend government-run schools, not >99%. Where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, it's around 70%.
ReplyDeleteSecond, research has shown that government-run schools are actually MORE segregated than private schools. Around 40% of African-American children in the U.S. attend government-run schools that are >90% African-American. The percentage of African-American students here in CA who attend a highly segregated school is a whopping 87%!
Only 14% of white students attend a government-run school where at least three different races make up at least one-tenth each of the student population (for example, a school that's 80% white, 10% African-American, and 10% Asian would qualify).
I was very UN-prepared by the government-run school I attended for interacting with individuals with a different background. "Diversity" at my school consisted of 2 African-Americans, 2 Mormons, and 1 Jew, all of whom came from affluent families where both parents were highly educated white-collar professionals. Everybody else was either a WASP or a Catholic of European descent, again from affluent families.
My own kids are exposed to FAR more diversity within our local homeschooling community than what I experienced growing up. I didn't know any Latinos, Asians, Arabs, Hindus, Buddhists, or Muslims but my kids do.