Home schooling
Being home-schooled won't allow them to properly socialize.
That's the claim pushed by the NEA (teachers' union). I haven't seen any actual evidence to back up the claim, and personally I think it's bullѕhit. It's at least as valid -- possibly more so -- to say home schooling lets your kids focus on learning 'cause it spares them from the tyranny and cruelty of other kids and of incompetent teachers, and keeps them from having their creativity and thirst for knowledge crushed by the public schools (it's what they do best). NO, I am not saying all teachers are incompetent. I had a good number of excellent teachers, and I also had far too many stupid, ignorant, and/or incompetent ones.
Look, you just have to put thoughtful time and effort towards making sure your kids learn social skill. Make sure they get time with other kids, in small and large groups. Home-school support groups have scads of resources for this. It's no bigger deal than putting thoughtful time and effort towards making sure your kids learn to read, write, do math, and do science. The only
real socialisation concern comes from those parents who home-school for reasons that can be called "questionable" if we're being far more polite than the situation deserves. I'm talking about the parents who wanna hammer their own values -- usually rigidly-held, bigoted ones -- into their kids' heads to the exclusion of all others, and so are home-schooling their kids to shield them from exposure to "unapproved" viewpoints. Such kids tend to be badly unprepared for the reality of life on a planet full of different people.
