“Nothing enrages me more than when people criticize my criticism of school by telling me that schools are not just places to learn math and spelling, they are places where children learn a vaguely defined thing called socialization. I know. I think schools generally do an effective and terribly damaging job of teaching children to be infantile, dependent, intellectually dishonest, passive and disrespectful to their own developmental capacities.”

absolutely right Brother Seymour

We hold this truth to be self evident.

I think that a modified Mark Twain quote is most applicable: Never let schooling interfere with your education.

Children know what is important about school. It is recess when they can laugh, run and play, and socialize with their classmates and friends

As I said in regard to Manfred Zyst's quote. Our homeschooled son has better socialization skills than any of the public school kids I've met. Here's the link to Lisa Russel's "Socialization" article, again: http://www.tnhomeed.com/LRSocial.html ...and a list of a few famous homeschooled individuals: Claude Monet, Grandma Moses, Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt Peale, Jason Taylor, Tim Tebow, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Agatha Christie, Alex Haley, Beatrix Potter, C.S. Lewis, Charles Dickens, George Bernard Shaw, Hans Christian Anderson, Louisa May Alcott, Margaret Atwood, Mark Twain, Phillis Wheatley, Pearl S. Buck, Robert Frost, Virginia Woolf, Andrew Carnegie, Colonel Harland Sanders, Dave Thomas, Joseph Pulitzer, Ray Kroc, Felix Mendelssohn, Irving Berlin, John Philip Sousa, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Alan Alda, Charlie Chaplin, Christina Aguilera, Dakota Fanning, Hanson, Hillary Duff, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Justin Timberlake, LeAnne Rimes, Louis Armstrong, Whoopi Goldberg, Davy Crockett, George Rogers Clark, Alexander Graham Bell, Benjamin Franklin, Cyrus McCormick, Eli Whitney, Thomas Edison, Orville Wright, Wilbur Wright, Douglas MacArthur, George Patton, John Paul Jones, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Matthew Perry, Ansel Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, George Washington, Grover Cleveland, James Garfield, James Madison, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John Tyler, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, William Henry Harrison, Woodrow Wilson, Brigham Young, Dwight L. Moody, Joan of Arc, John & Charles Wesley, William Carey, Albert Einstein, Blaise Pascal, Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Pierre Curie, Alexander Hamilton, Daniel Webster, Patrick Henry, William Jennings Bryan, William Penn, Winston Churchill, John Jay, John Marshall, John Rutledge, Sandra Day O’Connor, Abigail Adams, (wife of John Adams), Clara Barton, (started the red cross), Florence Nightingale, Martha Washington, (wife of George), and Susan B. Anthony.

Just because some one succeeds out of homeschooling does not mean that was best for them or for society. In a real world we all need to know how to interact with others, both gifted and challenged, well behaved and not. This is not really germane to the decision of the value of home schooling for any one individual, or the problems of our public schools. The world is not black and white, it is technicolor.

I think it is funny how the well-indoctrinated folks (whether religious or secular) always defend their programming. What do you think 'homeschooling' is anyway? For the most part it is quiet uninterrupted reading and writing followed by applying the knowledge gained. If you want to socialize, then go out and socialize, it's not difficult. What is very hard is trying to study in the midst of socializing. Just like it is hard to think when you are being 'taught' what to think. Over and over, testing shows that homeschooled children are smarter, more responsible, more innovative, and better adjusted than their 'socialized' peers. Bryan, thanks for the list.

It is easy to socialize home schooled children. On Monday you give your kid a swirl in the toilet. Tuesday take away his lunch money. Wednesday push him down when he is not looking and laugh. The list can go on forever. He can get plenty of this crap with out going to a public school. The average home schooled children are far more socially well adjusted than those in public education. Many of our public schools are no better than a penitentiary. Socialization is the first reason people give for being against home schooling and it is the most idiotic. There is no public school where a child will learn positive socialization. Only a fool would want to live in a society of people that conduct themselves the way kids do in public school.

Socialization is probably the most important part of schooling. If we really don't want an individual to be social then we should be sure not to teach them to talk. Helen Keller who was blind and deaf was like an animal until her wall of anti-social behavior was broken through. She then blossomed into one of the most gifted and social pesons contributing widely to the world around her. So Warren you believe in positive socialization good for you. I thought you did not believe in socialization at all. This is progress my friend progress. I do believe however that you err in casting such a wide net of criticism on kids in public school.

i think dat home schooling is isolating your child from the public... it sucks!!!

Waffler, government seminaries are institutions of anti-social behavior. Further, the god/government continues to violate the youth by such techniques as inflicting immature children (younger and younger) with such porn and otherwise instruction that can only be defined as mass Stockholm Syndrome. Becky, your ignorance is only exceeded by your obvious government seminary instruction.

Becky, There are many and better places to "socialize" outside of school.

Waffler, you are probably right, socialization is the most important part of government schooling. And that is the issue. You have been programmed well: "Children know what is important about school. It is recess"

"Just because some one succeeds out of homeschooling does not mean that was best for them or for society." Who decides what is best for society? Public school is 'best'? Hardly! 'Pro-choice' usually only means the right to have an abortion -- why does it not apply which public services I may wish to benefit from and those that I may decline to receive or to support for that matter? Over and over the statists keep harping on how we need these social services, but the only way they can provide them is to require them by law on everyone -- paid for, of course, by those that don't want them. Sounds so familiar to the monarchical Catholic empire of old times, just that the ministers and priests are lawyers and psychologists, twisting the meaning of words for their own advantage.

Parents with a sound education are most of all, responsible, at home from the get-go ! Old ways are good ways instilling behavior and knowledge coupled with respect for you fellow being. Over the years we have seen the effects of social engineering, smart parents moving their children from one place to another, letting the child know, why it is so ! Understanding the politics involved ! As to Waffler's socialization, Respectful socializing begins at Home. Before you ever let your [ Child ] out in public !! Your, promoting of Nadiyb liberality is vile, corrupting the core fibers upon our nations very principles of sound wholesome wisdom. You are a soul without knowledge, a cloud without rain in a dry land. A shallow pond, dried, and stinks of dead fish.