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Some people lack social skills and in my personal opinion it has little to do with what type of school you attended. Ever since I’ve homeschooled my three children I have become familiar with the popular myth which says homeschooled students lack proper socialization. My son recently asked me where this idea started and I replied that it was pulled out of thin air; it is nothing but someone’s idea. Of those who hold to this idea I wonder what they would think of my eighteen-year-old twin sons’ chosen college major: Communication.
A funny thing happened to my daughter recently; I think it was funny anyway. She thought it was rude and annoying. It was rude and annoying, no doubt, but I’m trying to encourage her to find the humor in it.
She has recently landed her first part-time job. She is fifteen and landing a job in this economy is an amazing feat. She applied for a job as a cashier at a local grocery store and was hired the next day. She has one of the sweetest temperaments I have ever seen, much sweeter than my own I assure you. She also has a bright, friendly smile. She has no enemies and is generally well liked.
One day as she was cashiering, a customer asked her how school was going. She said it was going well and mentioned that she is homeschooled. The customer disapproved of homeschooling and began listing off all the things he thought was wrong with homeschooling, the foremost being a lack of proper social skills.
He had already paid for his items and there were other people lined up behind him, yet he stood there expressing his ideas on homeschooling to my daughter.
After she told me of this incident I could not help seeing the humor in it. A complete stranger, who knows nothing about my daughter at all except that she is doing well in her home studies, proceeds to tell her, while holding up waiting customers behind him, how socially inept she must be.
For her part she smiled and listened politely.
I love it when people like this man unwittingly validate homeschooling!
Good post. Referred to you by “http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2011/05/who-has-lack-of-social-skills.html”.
Tweeted a link.
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Berating a child for the decisions her parents are making on her behalf is beyond rude; it’s a form of bullying. You and I both know that if you were there? You might have had a few things to say that your girl didn’t quite feel *empowered* to unleash on the dude.
One friend said I should give my daughter a card with my phone number on it to hand to people like him who want to debate homeschooling. Not a bad idea!
Irony is, if she hadn’t been home schooled she would have the “social skill” to be rude right back to his face. Witty comebacks are a specialty after what I went through at school.
That is so true. By the time I was fourteen I had some killer comebacks, but they only got me in more trouble than I was already in.
Now I keep my thoughts to myself and come home and blog!
If there’s one phrase I remember hearing in public high school, it’s “You’re not here to socialize!”
Love your post. I think the whole lack of socialization for homeschoolers comes from the fact that in the past, homeschooled children who made the news were always the ones whose parents had locked them in a kennel for 10 years, or the ones whose neighbors didn’t even know they existed until one of them died from malnutition. Of course, those things point to lack of socialization, but that is not who most homeschoolers are. The other thing is that homeschooled children tend to have strong opinions, about things that may be beyond their age, and are not afraid to express their opinions, or stand by their principles. In a society full of political correctness, sometimes this ia seen as rude, and thus un-socialized. Who knew standing by one’s principles meant one lacked socialization. Go figure!
Linda
Home schooling one child in Louisiana and on the internet ~~