Court Removes Girl From Homeschool

This article from Foxnews.com frightened me as it should every homeschooler. An academically promising ten year old girl has been ordered to public school by a New Hampshire court. Her divorced parents do not agree on the homeschooling issue and so her father took it to the court as he is concerned about her ''socialization''.
Socializing is what garners success isn't it? High ACT/SAT scores, academic prowess, long term goals that is what is discussed at the lunch room tables while dining on over processed, nutritionally sparse lunches right?
I have never been to New Hampshire but unless they produce different kinds of kids there the socialization will include bullying, cussing, sexual innuendo, introduction to drugs and alcohol, peer pressure and cliques.
Well, isn't that great that her father is looking out for her? I am sure the first time she is excluded for being different, not wearing the 'in' clothes or whatever other reasons kids exclude each other I am sure that she will be thrilled with her father's concern of her socialization. It isn't just boys that bully. There is a huge problem in public schools with girl bullying.
I can tell you that the first time I had a cigarette I got it from a fellow public school student. Same goes with beer and a few other things. You get the idea.
The news is all about headlines and rarely is there follow up but I would sure love to know the depth of this father's interest in his daughter's level of socialization once he gets his way and she is in public school.
If her grades start to fall maybe she can buy better ones like the kids in this article did. Hopefully she won't be one of the many unfortunate students involved in a teacher sex scandal. They are so commonplace that they don't all make headlines anymore but you can find many of them here.
Maybe the father thinks things like that don't happen in New Hampshire. Perhaps he should read this story about a cheating scandal in his state. Those kids socialized with each other and came up with a cheating plan.
Here is a pretty yellow graph of serious violent crimes in U.S. public schools. Don't let the cheery color fool you these are kids getting hurt and killed in school. Maybe the father should ask some of those victims how they feel about socialization.

Socialization

To any homeschooler the term ''socialization'' is like fingernails screeching down a chalkboard. People who make assumptions about what social needs homeschooled children might have are of the same ilk of those who don't have children themselves but know all about parenting. They don't have the personal experience to back up what they are talking about. After having my son in the public school system until the beginning of ninth grade I saw first hand the type of ''socializing '' he had access to in school.

This past week we went on a ''Homeschoolers Field Trip'' hosted by the Durham Museum in Omaha. We have gone on these field trips before and have always had an enjoyable time meeting other homeschoolers from the area and learning more about history. This week though a public school group (for reasons unbeknownst to me) joined our homeschool group. There were six children and three chaperons. The very patient Durham employee who led the field trip repeatedly had to keep those kids in check. Constant reminders to not climb on exhibits, to not crowd in front of the other children, let other children look at the display case, take turns to touch the hands on display, keep quiet while she was talking, not touch the displays that were labeled ''do not touch '' , stay with the group and I seriously could go on and on. Meanwhile the three chaperons rarely corrected their children and mostly talked amongst themselves. They were such a distraction that after the field trip three of the homeschool families (including myself) went back through the exhibits so our children could see what they had missed out on.

I wish I had a video tape of this field trip. I would show it to anyone who ever misused the word ''socialization'' with me again.

ONE OF MY LEAST FAVORITE WORDS

I was watching a clip on the news about homeschooling and much to my dismay but certainly not to my surprise a representative from John Hopkins University stated he scrutinized homeschoolers applications more because of lack of transcripts and he wondered about their ability to get along with others at college because the lack of socialization. What? How did a chowder head like that get into such a prestigious and most likely high paying position? Wow.

First things first. Lets give good ol' Websters Dictionary a look shall we?

Main Entry: so·cial·iza·tion

Variant(s): also British so·cial·isa·tion /ssh-(-)l-z-shn/

Function: noun

: the process by which a human being beginning at infancy acquires the habits, beliefs, and accumulated knowledge of society through education and training for adult status

Most certainly public school doesn't begin in infancy and considering the problems that the public school system is brimming with these days even they do not fit this definition. Of course Mr. University Chowder Head did not have any specifics or evidence of this lack of socialization. He did not provide evidence anecdotal or otherwise of how homeschoolers do not function as well as they public schooled peers once in college. It is a myth, it is bigotry and it is really irritating. Homeschoolers don't have the peer pressure to act or dress a certain way, they are not bullied or offered drugs in the hallways. They do not fear another Columbine in their school and are not having sexual relationships with their teachers (there were over 2500 reported cases in a five year period!) There would be public outrage if any other group was targeted in this manner. Can you imagine how quickly they would protest or ask for his resignation if he had said this about Blacks, Gays , Southerners, Parochial School students? For now looking down on homeschoolers is a safe prejudice but prejudice is like a mirror and it isn't a very flattering reflection on him or the university he represents.