What a fascinating thread! Thank you all for sharing.
I spent the decade after high school un-learning all the social things I had internalized (in my very wealthy, preppy suburban HS).
I have said more than once I spent as long recovering from school as I attended - ie 12 years at school, 12 years to recover. It was a hideous experience for me on every level, until the end of yr10 I calmly explained to my parents that I was changing school or dropping out. I moved to a new school for my last two years, which had the unfortunate effect of completely de-railing me academically as I took a great big out breath of relief and made some in-roads into learning social skills, though I still didn't really fit in. I also had some badly timed medical issues that didn't help.
I live in fear of my children going through what I did and grew up convinced I would homeschool my own children (unless they wanted to go to school). DH convinced me DD1 and I might kill each other if I tried to home school her and so we sent her to school, which has had it's ups and downs. Lately I find myself swinging back to considering homeschooling for a variety of reasons, more for DD2 than DD1, though I see benefits for both of them. But it's a hard call because DD1 is actually having a nice time socially and is fairly adequately supported academically too, for the time being.
