Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: homeschooling & socialization

[jreed (jreed]

Here's a fwd from the homeschooling newsgroup FAQ.  I also recommend you read 
John Gatto to learn more about how kids are socialized in schools.

I can see how a kid might lack exposure (to subject matter and people) in some 
homeschool environments, but most homeschoolers make an effort to connect with 
adults & kids in the community.  Also, look at all the kids in public schools 
who have social problems!

Anyway, here it is.  I have a research study somewhere & I'll forward it if I 
find it . . .


Jodi Reed                                Follow your bliss.
jreed [at] ccmail.llu.edu                     - Joseph Campbell
______________________


5.  What about "socialization?"

Sandra Petit <Sandra_Petit [at] agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US> mentions:
     "I also usually mention that the socialization I think my child
     would get at school is not the kind I would choose for her
     myself.  I don't mean that there are not any good children at
     public school.  Of course that's not true.  However, if your child
     is home then you can better control the outside influences on that
     child, particularly as a very young person-before their values can
     withstand peer pressure."

Alan Moses <alan [at] edstar.gse.ucsb.edu> remembers:
    "I attended the Northern California Homeschool Association
    conference this past weekend in Sacramento, and David Colfax
    commented that the media has pretty much stopped asking him the
    "socialization" question, since it's becoming obvious that
    homeschoolers are the best socialized kids in the country.  This
    matches my perception of our kids and their friends - in small
    groups, on camping trips, and in large groups like the conference,
    it is a pleasure to see kids of mixed ages and interests
    interacting with consideration for each other and a minimum of
    hassles.  One friend of mine takes a pre-emptive approach to "the
    socialization question" (which seems to be the first or second
    thing we all get asked by non-homeschoolers) and the "workbooks at
    the kitchen table" image some non-homeschoolers seem to have.  She
    begins talking about homeschooling by saying, "Two of the things I
    like best about homeschooling are all the positive social contacts
    the kids have, and that they get to spend so much time learning in
    the community."

     Other ideas include:
     Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts
     outside classes (gym, dance, choir, piano, art etc.)
     neighborhood children
     church groups
     
Dale Parsons <dale [at] mhcnet.att.com> forwards the following quote from
Seymour Papert (one of the principle developers of the Logo
programming language and Lego Professor of Education Research at MIT):
      
    Nothing enrages me more than when people criticize my criticism    
      of school by telling me that schools are not just places to learn    
      maths 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.  I think that the examples I have given     
      of learning in a computational environment provide a glimpse of a    
      context for learning in which socialization would be based on a      
      potentiation of the individual, an empowering sense of one's own     
      ability to learn anything one wants to know, conditioned by deep     
      understanding of how these abilities are amplified by belonging      
      to cultures and communities.                                         
                                       
       Seymour Papert                                                      
      "Tomorrow's classrooms," **New Horizons in Educational Computing**   
       from a 1982 interview                                               

    Also:

        COMPARISON OF SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT BETWEEN HOME AND TRADITIONALLY
        SCHOOLED STUDENTS.  Shyers, L. Edward, Ph.D. University of
        Florida, 1992.  311pp. Chairman: Paul J. Wittmer
   
        Traditional schools provide for regular classroom contact with
        children of the same age, and it is assumed that this regular
        contact with other children aids appropriate social
        adjustment.  By their very nature, home schools do not provide
        for regular formal classroom contact with children other than
        siblings.  Be- cause of this obvious difference, parents,
        educators, legisla- tors and courts have questioned whether
        children schooled at home are as socially well-adjusted as
        their agemates in traditional programs.  Investigation of this
        possible difference was the focus of this study.
   
        The results of this study imply that children between the ages
        of 8 and 10 (sample universe for the study) have similar
        beliefs about themselves regardless of how they are
        schooled. All age groups in both research populations had
        self-concept scores higher than the average national average
        as measured by the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale.
   
        The results of this study further indicate that children from
        both schooling environments participating in this study
        achieved scores on the Children's Assertive Behavior Scale
        revealing slightly passive understanding of social situations.
   
        According to the results of this study, children between the
        ages of 8 and 10 who had been educated entirely in a home
        school had sig- nificantly fewer problem behaviors, as
        measured by the Direct Ob- servation form of the _Child
        Behavior Checklist_, than children of the same age from
        traditional schools.  Children of this age in this study, who
        had been educated entirely in traditional schools, revealed
        problem behaviors above the normal range for national
        populations of the same age.
   
        It can be concluded from the results of this study that
        appropriate social skills can develop apart from the formal
        contact with children other than siblings.  This supports the
        belief held by homeschool proponents.