A Brief Case for Socialization ~ by Dr. Jay Wile

I entitled this "A Brief Case..."

because it is short, sweet, and to the point!

But POWERFUL!!!

Mary Leggewie, the creator

of the Homeschool Christian website,

(and a dear online friend of mine!)

asked the following "Million Dollar* Question"

of Dr. Jay Wile of Apologia Science in

an interview she did with him

on December 2, 1999:

"What should we tell our

friends, in-laws, parents about SOCIALIZATION?"

(* I call it a "Million Dollar Question" because

if I were given $1.00 for every time I have heard this issue

brought well-meaning and concerned, but misinformed

interrogators, up by I would be a millionaire! Oh, if

only I'd started collecting long ago!)

Here is Dr. Jay Wile's

response...

Tell them, first of all, that schools are the most ARTIFICIAL place in the world! Nowhere, in the rest of your life, will you ever be in a situation where you spend 8+ hours per day with those your same age. In fact, if you are worried about the erosion of the English language, you can point to schools as the culprit.

Every study ever done on this subject indicates that when a certain age group that is relatively homogeneous is cloistered away, the members of the group end up communicating in their own dialect. That's what happens in schools.

Second, you can point to a WEALTH of studies that indicate homeschoolers are BETTER socialized than publicly-schooled children. For example: Dr. Gary Knowles(1991) studied more than 1,000 Michigan adults who had been homeschooled.

None were unemployed or on welfare (compared to 5.6% and 11.2%, respectively for the average population).

A full 94% said that homeschool helped prepare them to be independent persons, and 79% said that it helped them to interact with those from other levels of society.

The WORST place a student can be from a social perspective is in a public school. Psychologists tell us that during the high school years, peer pressure is at its HIGHEST. The jails are FULL of people who listened to their peer group and not their parents. Thus, the MOST IMPORTANT time to monitor peer group is in high school. It is nearly impossible to adequately monitor a peer group when your child is at school 8+ hours per day!

P.S. Money Troubles?

From Barb: Here is one more mini-excerpt from

the same interview that I want to close with. It gives you

a good idea of Dr. Jay's perspective which, if you're

still convinced that public schools are the best place

to learn, you will lose pretty quickly if you

spend much time with Dr. Jay!

MARY: It's also interesting that many folks will say "ah...you're lucky to have enough money to stay home with the kids and homeschool, when actually, most of the families I know struggle to make that a reality!

DR. JAY: Most homeschoolers I know have money troubles… That's because they are paying lavishly for their neighbor's kids' education and also paying again for their own kids' education.

For more information about

Apologia Educational Ministries or curriculum,

you can contact them via their website.

Also check out

Insights on High School ~ from Jay Wile

(Also excerpted from that

same interview by Mary Leggewie!)