Homeschooling and Socialization : My Response to the NCLD
Is Homeschooling and Socialization a Problem?
The underlying tone of many of the NCLD FAQs would lead you to believe you’ll be cheating your child of a proper education or socialization if you homeschool. Nothing could be further than the truth! Homeschooling and Socialization go hand-in-hand to create GREAT educational outcomes for Learning Abled Kids.
The NCLD’s question: “Will home schooling deny my child the full range of social interactions and experiences with peers and adults that is so important to the development of a well-balanced personality?”
The NCLD question implies that a child is at risk of not having a well-balanced personality if you homeschool. However, there are many issues and problems in public schools that demean a child and lower the child’s self-esteem. In fact, socialization fraught with bullying, low educational expectations, etc. can harm a child, as we experienced first-hand (read our story).
The NCLD is doing the public a disservice by propagating the myth of social issues among children who are homeschooled.
What does the research show about Homeschooling and Socialization?
Research shows “home-educated children, whether thinking passive or aggressive thoughts, were more able to control their emotions and act in a socially acceptable way than the schoolchildren who: ‘had a tendency to act on their feelings, not their understandings.'” (Romanowski, M H. (2006) Revisiting the Common Myths about Homeschooling. Clearing House. Vol. 79 Issue 3, p125-129. 5p. Accessed at http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?vid=2&…)
This same research article by Romanowski says, “Despite an intuitive feeling that home educated children are likely to be lacking in social interaction and suffering academically, a growing body of research shows that home-educated children can excel academically and are generally socially competent.”
Your Learning Abled Kids’ BETTER Question About Homeschooling and Socialization:
What you should ask your self instead is: Am I able to provide opportunities for my child to experience social interactions with other children and people in the community on a regular basis?
Being homeschooled generally means the child is being taught in a loving environment by a parent who is passionate about both their child’s well-being and educational outcomes. As such, the parent wants what is best for her child and she will seek out social opportunities for her child.
Doing so is quite easy these days with homeschooling being more common and more widely accepted. A parent who wants to involve her child in social activities need only go as far as the nearest Internet access to search for “homeschool ” or “homeschool ” or “homeschool ” to find organizations, learning co-ops, and activities for her child.
Given the close parental supervision of homeschooled children while on social outings, a child who is homeschooled is much LESS likely to experience bullying, belittling, and suffer from low self-esteem brought on by the cruelty of loosely supervised bullies in school. The kind of socialization received in public school, particularly by children who are ‘different’ in any way or who have learning disabilities, is by no means universally positive.
In fact, my experience shows that ‘socialization’ as it takes place in public school is far more devastating to children with learning disabilities than Homeschooling Socialization. In fact, public school bullying decimated my son’s self-esteem, and slowly over time, his esteem was recovered through Homeschooling and Socialization opportunities where kids treated him with kindness and inclusion.
As is generally the case, the perceptions of educators and professionals who advise against homeschooling are SELDOM based upon any factual research but rather a simple, personal bias against homeschooling. Sadly, such is the case with this NCLD article about Homeschooling and Socialization.
Check out homeschool success stories of overcoming learning disabilities through homeschooling.
