homeschooling lead to social deficiency?

jack jackson

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I have been approached by numerous people who say that homeschooling leads to a decreased ability for the child to interact properly with other children. Is there any substance to this accusation?
 

erinmarie

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jack jackson said:
I have been approached by numerous people who say that homeschooling leads to a decreased ability for the child to interact properly with other children. Is there any substance to this accusation?

No.
 

Nathon Detroit

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jack jackson said:
I have been approached by numerous people who say that homeschooling leads to a decreased ability for the child to interact properly with other children. Is there any substance to this accusation?
I think there is a degree of truth to that.

In my opinion, it's an excellent trade-off from the alternative.
 
if a homeschooled kid has poor social skills it's not beecause he went to homeschool, it's due to other reasons. Homeschooling isn't going to automatically make someone socially inept. Most of them have plenty of other social outlets, I've got a cousin who never stepped foot inside a public school and is perfectly normal.
 

jack jackson

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Knight said:
I think there is a degree of truth to that.

In my opinion, it's an excellent trade-off from the alternative.
The alternatives: bullying, shootings, unsafe schools, kids picking on other kids, inadequate teachers....yes those are bad alternatives.

erinmarie, can you provide more of an answer? I'm interested in more thoughts here.

Thanks.
 

Nathon Detroit

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jack jackson said:
The alternatives: bullying, shootings, unsafe schools, kids picking on other kids, inadequate teachers....yes those are bad alternatives.
.
Don't leave out....
  • Berating girls
  • Drugs and alcohol
  • Sex, Pregnancy and abortion
 

jack jackson

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Knight said:
Don't leave out....
  • Berating girls
  • Drugs and alcohol
  • Sex, Pregnancy and abortion
Also true. Sometimes those problems arise outside of school, even inside the family.

So, how is the social deficiency spawned by homeschooling to be combatted?
 

The Berean

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jack jackson said:
Also true. Sometimes those problems arise outside of school, even inside the family.

So, how is the social deficiency spawned by homeschooling to be combatted?
Most home schooled kids I know are involved is various "after-school" activities, like Boy/Girl Scouts, sports, piano, choir, volunteer work, etc.
 

Nathon Detroit

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jack jackson said:
Also true. Sometimes those problems arise outside of school, even inside the family.

So, how is the social deficiency spawned by homeschooling to be combatted?
We require that our children participate in a team sport or group activity outside the home.

My two oldest sons play competitive ice hockey.

My oldest daughter plays ice hockey and attends youth group weekly.

My next oldest daughter starts ice hockey on Sunday and is also in Dance class and VBS (this week).

And my other two daughters are still a bit young for these types of things.
 

ebenz47037

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jack jackson said:
I have been approached by numerous people who say that homeschooling leads to a decreased ability for the child to interact properly with other children. Is there any substance to this accusation?

IMHO, we're trading the bad things that you and Knight mentioned for the ability of our children to be able to socialize with any age group as opposed to just their own age group, as well.
 

ebenz47037

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jack jackson said:
Also true. Sometimes those problems arise outside of school, even inside the family.

So, how is the social deficiency spawned by homeschooling to be combatted?

There is no deficiency. My daughter, not only socializes with friends her own age, but she can talk to anyone with confidence.
 

Nathon Detroit

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ebenz47037 said:
IMHO, we're trading the bad things that you and Knight mentioned for the ability of our children to be able to socialize with any age group as opposed to just their own age group, as well.
Excellent point. :up:

Which is why we call social skills "skills".

When we want our kids to learn to play piano do we send then off with a bunch of other kids and hope that they will learn to play piano from the other kids?

Yet, that seems to be the modern day philosophy for teaching kids social skills. People send their kids off to school hoping that they will pick up social skills. Well I have news for ya . . . your kids WILL LEARN social skills, BAD social skills!!!! :shocked:

Yet, homeschooled children certainly do need to practice their social skills therefore the external activities outside the house.
 

ebenz47037

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Knight said:
Excellent point. :up:

Which is why we call social skills "skills".

When we want our kids to learn to play piano do we send then off with a bunch of other kids and hope that they will learn to play piano from the other kids?

Yet, that seems to be the modern day philosophy for teaching kids social skills. People send their kids off to school hoping that they will pick up social skills. Well I have news for ya . . . your kids WILL LEARN social skills, BAD social skills!!!! :shocked:

Yet, homeschooled children certainly do need to practice their social skills therefore the external activities outside the house.

:BRAVO: Points for that! :chuckle:
 
I think a lot of what you have to say about public schools is kind of over-done, I mean it's not like kids go to public schools to get loaded and have sex. That stuff happens after school, and just because a kid is in church or youth group doens' tmean they won't be inovolved with that, I know plenty of kids who are regular with youth group and still go out and party and drink etc. There's always goign to be bad kids at public schools, but there's also going to be good kids who hang out together. I think if a parent has done their job, then there shouldn't be too big of a problem going to a public school.

And girls will be berated by guys no matter where you go. It's not public schools, it's the culture and nature of people. And if you're really trying to protect your children from the influence of other people, then you'd have to cut off interaction with other people completely, there's going to be a negative influence just about anytime you interact with another person.
 

ebenz47037

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beefalobilly said:
I think a lot of what you have to say about public schools is kind of over-done, I mean it's not like kids go to public schools to get loaded and have sex. That stuff happens after school, and just because a kid is in church or youth group doens' tmean they won't be inovolved with that, I know plenty of kids who are regular with youth group and still go out and party and drink etc. There's always goign to be bad kids at public schools, but there's also going to be good kids who hang out together. I think if a parent has done their job, then there shouldn't be too big of a problem going to a public school.

And girls will be berated by guys no matter where you go. It's not public schools, it's the culture and nature of people. And if you're really trying to protect your children from the influence of other people, then you'd have to cut off interaction with other people completely, there's going to be a negative influence just about anytime you interact with another person.

And, if the teachers and other adults that parents have trusted to teach and keep their children safe did their jobs, we wouldn't have thes problems either. You cannot blame the whole thing on parents teaching their children here. The teachers' unions like to say that a parent isn't qualified to teach his/her own children anything. They can't have it both ways.
 

Christine

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As a homeschool grad (this year) I can honestly say I don't believe that being homeschooled has hindered my social skills in the least. In fact, I believe homeschooling has helped me to develop better social skills than I could/would have had if I had attended public school.
 
ebenz47037 said:
And, if the teachers and other adults that parents have trusted to teach and keep their children safe did their jobs, we wouldn't have thes problems either. You cannot blame the whole thing on parents teaching their children here. The teachers' unions like to say that a parent isn't qualified to teach his/her own children anything. They can't have it both ways.

Well, I definately don't blame the whole thing on parents. I'm aware that there's a problem with the teachers. I think that the more parent involvement the better, and in my opinion that naturally leads to homeschooling, but I also was never homeschooled, and only know one person who was homeschooled (my cousin mentioned earlier).

My close friends are from public schools, and I dont' feel like they have been perverted or damaged to the extent mentioned here, and most of my friends are also not into drugs, partying, sex, etc, because they arne't into that kind of thing since thats the type of people I tried to hang out with (of course that didn't always work out, some of my friends are into that). I guess my only point is that going to a public school isn't as bad a choice as it's made out to be. In the end, it's not a public school that will make someone do something stupid, it's being human that will.

Of course it also depends on what public school you're talking about, I live in a conservative section of california.
 
Christine said:
As a homeschool grad (this year) I can honestly say I don't believe that being homeschooled has hindered my social skills in the least. In fact, I believe homeschooling has helped me to develop better social skills than I could/would have had if I had attended public school.

in what ways do you think it's helped you? My social skills suck and I went to a public school but I dont really think it's due to the school, it's just because i'm naturally shy.
 

ebenz47037

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beefalobilly said:
Well, I definately don't blame the whole thing on parents. I'm aware that there's a problem with the teachers. I think that the more parent involvement the better, and in my opinion that naturally leads to homeschooling, but I also was never homeschooled, and only know one person who was homeschooled (my cousin mentioned earlier).

My close friends are from public schools, and I dont' feel like they have been perverted or damaged to the extent mentioned here, and most of my friends are also not into drugs, partying, sex, etc, because they arne't into that kind of thing since thats the type of people I tried to hang out with (of course that didn't always work out, some of my friends are into that). I guess my only point is that going to a public school isn't as bad a choice as it's made out to be. In the end, it's not a public school that will make someone do something stupid, it's being human that will.

I went to public school, in California, as well. Things like what we see today weren't as prevelant in the 70s and 80s, even in CA. :chuckle:

Of course it also depends on what public school you're talking about, I live in a conservative section of california.

Conservative and California do not go together. :chuckle: That's one of the biggest reasons I left six years ago.
 

The Berean

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Parents play a big role in their child's social skill development. This past weekend I went to Fresno to met my new brother-in-law. He has three kids, one girl and two boys. They are not home schooled. The daugher is amazingly talented and beautiful young lady. She plays classical paino, the violin, gets straight A's, sings worship at church, was a great swimmer before she quit and is preparing for the SAT test . Oh, and she is 14 years old. But she is extremely shy. I asked her to pray before dinner but she wouldn't do it. She said she'll mess it up. Her two brothers are the opposite. They are total chatter boxes. Her parents are extremely proud of her and she is very smart but I get the feeling that her parents haven't been as deligent in teaching and developing her social skills. I curious to see what she is like personality-wise at age 18-20.
 
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