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I wasn't good enough at encouraging people to be kinder, and removing people who refuse to be kind. Encouraging people is hard, and removing people creates conflict, and I hate conflict... so that's why I wasn't better at it.

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No, Homeschoolers Aren't 'Properly Socialized'
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SoulRiser Offline
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Post: #1
No, Homeschoolers Aren't 'Properly Socialized'

Full Article: No, Homeschoolers Aren’t “Properly Socialized.” — Life Learning — Medium

Quote:WTF IS SOCIALIZATION, ANYWAY?

This all assumes that socialization is a desirable end. It assumes socialization is simply the process by which somebody can easily form organic, meaningful bonds with other people and navigate the drama and reality of the rest of their lives.

Is this the kind of socialization that schools are really designed to create, though?

The point of this open rant so far has been to ask whether or not schools are very good at socializing — and the answer is a strong no, if socializing is a desirable end.

But what if they are really good at socializing and we’ve just been mis-defining socialization this whole time?

What if that processes of fearing arbitrary authority, viewing your family as agents of these authorities, and of seeing your peers as threats aren’t negative side-effects of schooling, but the point of it?

The modern school system developed out of the need for a standardized work-and-war-force in 18th and 19th century Prussia (Germany) and was brought to the United States by reformers like Horace Mann, who were impressed by the German ability to apply scientific standardization to young human beings.

Thinkers like Johann Gottlieb Fichte viewed universal state-coerced (public) education as the answer to the German problem of modernity. As the church fell out under industrialization and the growth of empire, the Prussians needed something to keep their subjects working towards the goals of the state. The modern school was their answer.

Alexander James Inglis, an American education expert and contemporary of Fichte’s, mirrored his concerns about creating fixed reactions to authority. In his Principles of Secondary Education, Inglis noted six functions of schooling, two of which, the integrating and adjustive functions, are designed to create a sense of conformity and standardization among the students and to create a fixed reaction to arbitrary authority, respectively. By placing children among their age-selected peers and by appointing teachers and administrators to look over them at all times, these ends were largely achieved in the modern school.

The socializing aspect of school, then, was designed to mimic socialization among industrial-era workers and soldiers.
Another German ruined the original salute used for the Pledge in the 1930s.

Remnants of this system remain today. Think of how schoolchildren are taught to walk in single-file lines, do a military salute in the morning, and are managed by bells on strict schedules.

If this sound conspiratorial to you, it doesn’t have to. Just think of the timeline of American history, the centralization of state roles between the Civil War and World War II, and the rise of scientific management. Public schooling came to age during a time when social science was really coming into its own, too. Planners thought they could measure and standardize anything — and schoolchildren weren’t exempt from that.

And our workforce wasn’t, either. If the entire time you’ve been reading this you’ve thought to yourself, “tough cookies, gossip, fearing your peers, and people wielding arbitrary authority over you is just a fact of life. Look at so many workplaces!” then you’d be right. The management ideas that infected school also infected our views of work. But just because they are that way, doesn’t mean they have to be that way. You can go work somewhere with a better culture or start your own company. The workforce, being less centralized and controlled than schools, has more freedom to evolve and adopt. Schools — and those stuck in them — aren’t so lucky.

So maybe schools are actually very good at socializing young people. Maybe the entire process of coming to view adults as authorities to be feared and peers as problems to deal with is intentional. Or maybe not — maybe the writings of Fichte, Mann, Inglis and others are just the theorizings of madmen that coincidentally were written while the modern school was coming into its own.

Regardless, the idea that home education is bad at socializing young people when compared to its most likely alternative is laughable.

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11-04-2015 11:12 AM
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BradM Offline
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No, Homeschoolers Aren't 'Properly Socialized'

I highly recommend anything written by Zak on the subject of schooling (or anything else for that matter), he's a very knowledgeable guy and his blog is outstanding.
11-04-2015 02:51 PM
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schoolsux Offline
fuck this school bullshit

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Post: #3
No, Homeschoolers Aren't 'Properly Socialized'

The system needs overhauled. Simply put. Less emphasis on conformity and standardization.

Quote:You view your peers as people to constantly undercut, outdo, and are caught in a frenzy of comparing yourself to them. You view them with suspicion and distrust.

I am the exact opposite of this. I used to feel somewhat similar to this when it came to peers. I have realized I am a doormat, and everyone else is better than me. That I suck at everything.

Quote:Even for kids who are good at avoiding petty drama, bullying, and drugs, school has the negative side-effect of making them ultra-competitive to the point of myopia.

Again, the exact opposite. I am not competitive at all. I used to be competitive, then I decided to say "Fuck this shit.".

I used to care about stuff. I used to be happy. I used to be energetic. Now, I just don't give a fuck about anything and I feel like I am a doormat who isn't worth shit.

schoolsux's countdown until school ends:

177 days until i get out of freshman year (aka hell)
1280 days until I get out of prison (aka school)

(as of november 28, 2016)

also Fu school

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(This post was last modified: 11-10-2015 11:05 AM by schoolsux.)
11-10-2015 11:02 AM
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