Explain this statement concerning homeschool?

Question

"COMMUNICATION W/OTHERS IS THE #1 ROAD TO SUCCESS THAT CAN NEVER BE TAUGHT AT HOME."

Why can people who are homeschooled not learn how to communicate? Isn't that like saying that people who practice running by themselves would not be able to run in a marathon?

Answer 1

I think homeschooling has really changed over the years.  The parents get the children involved in sports and different activities so that they do socialize a lot more.  I think home schooled children are just as social and know how to communicate just as their counterparts do in public or private schools.  

My children were never home schooled.  But don't judge something you don't understand.  I had a different opinion about home schooled children and it was wrong.  There are different ways of learning and teaching.

Answer 2

It just means that the person who typed it is completely ignorant of what homeschooling is now.

20-30 years ago, in some parts of the country, kids were kept in the house much of the time.  If they weren't, social workers often came to the door to force the families into school.  I'm sure there were kids that homeschooled who were a little socially inept, whatever other skills and benefits they gained.

However, now that homeschooling is perfectly legal in all 50 states and many countries around the world, this is no longer the case.  Homeschoolers, at least in America, are often more involved in diverse social situations and interactions than their classroom-schooled agemates.  They are not kept with kids of their own age and from their own neighborhood 40-50 hours per week; they have the chance to interact with people of all ages and from all walks of life on a daily basis.  (Funny, that sounds like communication with others to me.)

If you look at it logically, homeschooling was the norm up until 100-150 years ago.  Were people in the thousands of years preceding public school socially retarded?  Completely unable to communicate with others or compete in the workplace?  Public schools are the newcomer on the scene; they're not bad or wrong by any means, but neither are they the *only* solution for raising kids who are aware.

Yes, folks, communication with others can be taught at home, assuming the parents are actually capable of communicating with others...as pretty much all of us are.  Homeschooling does not mean that the child stays at home, chained to the table, receiving anti-establishment indoctrination all day long :-)  It means that the family - the parents, and when they're old enough, the child - get 100% say in the child's education.

Answer 3

Since when have the naysayers made any sense at all anyway?   They are grasping at straws with this whole socialization thing.  Obviously they think we all lock our kids in their rooms and don't allow them to leave the house, talk on the phone, send e-mail, listen to the radio, watch T.V. or anything that would expose them to life outside the walls of our home.  As homeschoolers we know nothing could be further from the truth.

Answer 4

I don't think the statement suggests that people who are home-schooled can't communicate - just that 'communication' as skill isn't one of the things that can be deliberately taught.

While that might be true, such a statement precludes socialisation that someone being home-schooled *could* be involved in: weekend activities with the neighbourhood kids, deliberate socialisation activities, after school clubs, etc.

Not sure your analogy is a good one: running and social skills are quite different things.

Answer 5

What rot!  I guess it depends on how you define communicate .... most people today can not communicate well and it isn't because they were all homeschooled but because they were never "taught" how in ps!

Answer 6

I understand what you are saying, but I think you are missing the point.    The quote you mentioned is not saying that home schooled individuals cannot learn to communicate.  In fact, I believe that in some school systems, home schooled individuals can read and write better than public schooled persons.  However, a major aspect that home schooled individuals miss out on is social interaction; communication with a large, diverse community both about accademia and life issues.  I feel many home schooled indivduals miss out on learning social behaviors with a diverse crowd.  This can have good and bad effects, much of this depending on the school system.  This is not to say home schooled indivduals cannot learn these behaviors, but I feel that it is harder for home schooled to find opportunities for these interactions.  Home schooled individuals have to look outside the home for diverse social interactions that occur naturally inside a public school setting.

Answer 7

The girl who posted that (not you, the one who originally posted it a couple questions ago) was a completely uneducated moron. Only people who don't really know what homeschooling is say things like that. I am homeschooled and have a GREAT social life.

Answer 8

I am going to be homeschooling my son, he will be in sports and other activities, that is what the quote means.  It just suggest that home schooled children are not active in the community as other kids.  It has come a long way since people first started doing this.  There are so many sports and other organizations out there, there is not need to children to be backwards and home schooled.

Answer 9

Because the Teacher's Union and School Board Systems says so.

Answer 10

I'm not sure how people are interpreting it differently than you are, because it's very clear that the person meant that communication with others can never be taught at home. I even found, by chance, the original post and that made it all the more clear.

I would suspect that a number of schooled kids would think that there's no communication at home. With the way school forces parents and children apart, there is naturally less communication and home can end up for many being a place where they can't communicate with their parents, they hate their siblings so don't communicate with them, etc. People don't realize just how freely communication happens at home--that it's not like school where your opportunities to communicate are limited (recesses/breaks) or have to be approved of during class time. Of course, the person was also making the assumption that homeschoolers don't get out.

Answer 11

I saw that answer to another question myself and had to chuckle.

Sometimes all you can do is shake your head and realize that THESE people are the reason you homechool.......

HERE IS THE WHOLE QUOTE AND YES, THAT IS EXACLTY WHAT THEY MEANT:

"homeschooling is never a good idea bc u have to be able to work w/the real world. when u grow up u have to know how to communicate well w/others...and i am sorry but u cannot learn that at home. COMMUNICATION W/OTHERS IS THE #1 ROAD TO SUCCESS N THAT CAN NEVER BE TAUGHT AT HOME"

Answer 12

That is about the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard!

My 14yo homeschooled son is in a 3 year Jr. Toastmasters program.  By the time he is finished, he will have delivered more than 40 prepared and extemporaneous speeches in front of a rather large audience comprised of people of all ages.

My son writes for fun, is working on a book (think Eragon which was written by a homeschooled student).

My son writes college level MLA style essay papers for an Ancient Literature course and studies Greek classics.

My son reads voraciously and well above grade level.

Enough about me and mine!

Public school students:

How many speeches will you be giving during your 4 years in high school?

What is an MLA style report?

List out the books and documents you have read so far this year.  

Does your list include the likes of The Iliad, Killer Angels, 1984, Of Mice and Men, Traveller, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, The Foundation Series, The Greatest Salesman in the World, Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, The Old Man and the Sea, How to Win Friends and Influence People, The City and the Stars, Animal Farm, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Elements of Style, Why America is Free, the Declaration of Independence, the U. S. Constitution, etc.

Give me 6 randomly selected homeschool graduates and 6 randomly selected public school graduates and put them into an academic triathlon: Reading for Comprehension, Public Speaking and Persuasive Writing.

If I were a betting man:  I'd place all my money on the homeschooled kids!

Answer 13

What a lot of rubble. Everyone's first lessons in communication are taught at home. When kids go out into the wider world, they still come home and talk to their mum, who help them interpret other people. One mantra from my childhood- "Look at it from the other person's perspective..." I think Mum said that about a trillion times. Eventually she was able to stop saying it. So, I guess we learned. How many social misfits do you know who go/went to regular school? Me for one! It's taken me years to teach myself where Mum left off.