This is a serious question, worthy of an intelligent response. The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) has a great response to this question, and you can read the response at their website at http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/2012/201205160.asp. The Huffington Post has a recent article that addresses this question, and you can read this article by clicking here.

Two additional webpages that provide excellent information regarding the socialization of home educated students are available here:

http://ontariohomeschool.org/socialization/

http://www.homeschool.com/articles/socialization/

Below is our response to this question.

Socialization is the process of learning the rules of behavior of the culture within which an individual is born and will live. Two relevant questions would be

(A) What currently are the strongest agents of socialization?

(B) Are traditional schools effect agents of socialization?

In a CBC interview, Neil Postman answered the first question by stating that the most powerful agent of socialization shaping the behavior of our youth is television advertising, followed by the influence of “mom and pop”. Our kids learn by watching and imitating the behaviors of others on TV or in person, therefore, socialization will be occurring every time children are around other people. Going to school contributes to socialization, but so does going to church, or going to movies for that matter. Attending church may involve many rules of behavior while attending a movie may involve fewer such rules; the better question might be, “what rules of socialization are learned at school?”

Many people are starting to realize that traditional schools may in-fact be poor places to learn positive social behavior. The artificial environment of age-segregation is reflected no where else in our society. The school experience offers very little opportunity to practice appropriate behavior with people older or younger than the student. While traditional day school students are preparing for “real life”, home-education students are living real life.

It seems common sense that students learn most effectively through modeling. Whatever children see others doing is what they themselves learn to do. Given a child’s predisposition to model the behavior of others, it seems a bit risky to expose a child to a roomful of other immature children with only one responsible adult as the “official” model. Certainly students learn much of their socialization from their peers–for better or worse!

Are schools taking the job seriously? In Alberta, schools are accountable to the Auditor General for their performance. What is the measure of performance? Academic achievement, NOT socialization. Socialization appears to be the goal nobody checks up on. If good socialization happens in schools, it is likely in spite of the lack of culture development on the part of educators.