When we contemplated homeschooling, we had feedback along the lines of "What about socialization?"
My frequent thought (occasionally voiced): "Have you read Lord of the Flies"
I have this same thought.
The more I think about this issue, the more I come to believe that the key to a successful adult life is to unlearn all the social behaviors you learned on the playground. The alleged social benefits of public school are actually a social hindrance, because of the toxic environment, IMO.
Yup.
No advice-- other than to note that for some kids, this kind of social acumen (that is, some combination of being a doormat and being pained at not fitting in better) seems to just
BE (as opposed to being a conditioned response to something).
My DD hasn't ever really been exposed to that kind of social scene since she's never attended a "school" setting since she was about two, and yet she's always been that way. From our perspective, it can look a lot like letting others walk all over her-- they can be really awful to her and she just shrugs rather than countering.
She just shrugs at our assessment of things, too, and points out that her way is probably the
best option overall, that anything else is only going to escalate things. Trouble is, she's all too often right about that.
Painful to watch, though-- definitely.
