I guess I have to think one of our families.com members, for giving me some fodder for this blog post.
In my blog post, Can You Homeschool through College Too? Comments I wrote about the possibility of homeschooling past middle and high school into college. One families.com blogger, Valorie thinks the same way I do, that my kids who will very likely start college early, will do it through correspondence (and possibly community college) until they are 18. At that point, I will be packing trunks, breaking dishes, and sending them off to college! Another blogger commented that her 23 year old with a Masters Degree would have even more social problems than he already has, had he homeschooled through college. I have to agree with her that too much shelter can be bad… very bad.
Julie, on the other hand took the more protective route and plans to keep her girls innocent until marriage. While I think that approach has its rewards, I sure hope that the spouse is well chosen, as sometimes it is the person we marry that causes the most harm. Personally, I learned most of my social cues about users, abusers, and freeloaders by observing my fellow college students.
All of this caused me to ask the question… Are Homeschooled Children Over Sheltered? If you think about it, this is the “S-word” (socialization) question wearing a different skin. My answer is yes, and no.
Yes! Homeschool children are over sheltered to a certain extent. Some cases are more extreme than others are. There are even those that are not sheltered at all. I, however can only account for how sheltered my own children are. It is the parent that is an indicator of the over or under-sheltering of homeschooled students. Of course when homeschooling we tend to error on the side of over-shelter. It is the nature of homeschooling.
As for my kids, they are sheltered from the venomous nature of bullies, which we experienced en masse when they were in public school. They are saved from “sex ed” classes until we have determined their maturity level can handle it or at least until we suspect their friends and relatives are going to start talking openly about sex. They are sheltered from teachers who walk into classes with pre-conceived notions or an axe to grind. They are sheltered from the idea that parents are the enemy, which starts around age 10. (My 10 and 12 year old still like to hug me in public… yeah!)
On the other hand…. (to be continued)