by Rusty Pugh
(AgapePress) – A leading expert on home schooling says contrary to popular myth, children who receive their education at home have just as good a social life as any other student.
Home School Legal Defense Association president Mike Farris says questions about socialization still dominate most discussions about home schooling. He says parents often ask, “Will my child have a social life?”
Farris says the fact of the matter is that home schoolers actually do better at socialization than students from public schools, and there is a simple reason for that.
“Group-based socialization means that a bunch of kids are teaching other kids the rules of society rather than adults teaching kids the rules of society,” he says. “When parents spend time with their kids and teach them what polite behavior consists of, and then supplement that with going to ‘Scouts, playing on the ball team, being in the church youth group, and going to Sunday school and playing with kids in the neighborhood, then you really get a lot more of a real-life scenario.”
Farris says socialization does not mean just getting along with someone who is exactly your own age. He says adults do not live in herds segregated by narrow age groupings, so neither should kids.
(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
