The Myth of Socialization: Part Two

            It’s been a year since I wrote Part One of this series of reflections on effective teaching. I really didn’t intend that such a length of time to intervene; it simply happened, and I won’t waste time reporting on what transpired. I will simply continue on this and other topics in this blog. My subject matter will center on the follow remark directed towards me the other day: “Students who are homeschooled don’t get the necessary ‘real-world experience’ they need to navigate their way in [fill in adjective] society.” Taken aback at this glib statement – and hearing this at the end of a very tiring day – I reserved comment until later. Now, it’s “later.”

            Let’s unpack this statement. It starts out with fallacious assumptions: 1) Homeschooled students are sheltered in an anti-social manner. 2) Their education lacks exposure to ‘real-world problems.’ 3) They are confined to “homeschool subjects” – as if this severely limits their ability to comprehend and explore ‘real-world topics.” I could go further into this, but I believe my readers have a modicum of sense, and realize that the points outlined above are short-sighted and lack empirical (experiential) knowledge. The person who gave me the glib statement recorded in the first paragraph was never homeschooled. In fact, this person was not a fan of public school education, and went out into the “real world” at the first opportunity. It is a well-attested fact that teachers – especially those of the early years of education – heavily influence the opinions and attitudes of their students; this is increasingly evident in the wave of teaching on “gender confusion” which is the result of deliberate grooming rather than a logical reaction to ‘real-world’ problems. (For this perspective, I thank Jordan Peterson, an outspoken – and knowledgeable, with years of successful clinic practice – critic of the present insane trend regarding this subject.) My young friend who “authoritatively” pronounced disdain for “unsocialized” and “naïve” homeschooled students, had not actually been involved in the homeschooling attempt; he merely took some “facts” reported by the homeschooler he encountered – and those “facts” pretty much amounted to protestations that he “never got to play video games” during school time – and formed some pretty damning opinions.

            May I interject a little personal insight into this discussion? I was raised Catholic, and attended Catholic grade schools through 8^th grade, then an all-girls’ Catholic high school until graduation. When I went back to college at the age of 35, it was to a well-run Weekend College at a nearby Catholic college. I then got a Master’s Degree in Theology at a local University. My point? I constantly heard how “sheltered” I was all during the 12 years of my initial education; I was being “indoctrinated” into an un-American faith (yes, I was actually told that); I was “repressed” by having to wear uniforms (although, as a motherless teen, I at least didn’t have to compete in a dress-up / makeup war every day) – and so on. But when I won a scholarship to college (my first go-around in 1970), and graduated high school with a piano certificate, representing 7 years of intense study on that instrument and a 2-hour Graduation Recital in my senior year, no one criticized my educational journey. No one criticized that fact that I had been taught – quite well, in fact – by nuns and priests and religious laypeople. No one criticized that my Catholic faith – though shaky at times, and not exactly the I-want-to-be-a-nun foundation – had steered me through some pretty traumatic events and seasons. No one criticized that I was willing to become the wife of a young E-2 Navy man, and remained faithful – and happy – through almost 50 years of marriage (he died in 2020). I am not comparing myself to anyone who was brought up differently, but I am saying that my “sheltered” and “indoctrinated” and “repressed” self had some remarkably successful years – given all those “disadvantages.”

            Now back to our discussion. My young friend who is so pro-public education – asserting that private school somehow doesn’t give the “real picture” of how society operates – is woefully uninformed. Anyone who reads the Bible – as the new private-school student does already, and will continue to do once the school year starts – will be quite adequately prepared for the “real picture”: the world is fallen, and full of sin. Only Jesus Christ provides a “real world” answer through faith in His sacrificial death on the Cross, followed by His miraculous, soul-enlightening Resurrection; following Him will indeed yield “real world results.” This realization dawned on me exactly 50 years ago next month (August), and it has stuck with me through thick and thin.

            In short, someone who is brought up along Biblical lines cannot be far from the “real world problems” of this life. He or she cannot fail to see brokenness, despair, and injustice all around him or her. What he or she needs – as does anyone, whether self-educated, homeschooled, or educated through private or public schools – is a personal experience with the Real Savior, Who said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Jesus said this on the eve of the Cross; He knew His death was imminent, and yet He did not give Himself over to the terrible weight of the pain and suffering He knew He would endure. Neither did He allow His disciples to feed on fear and panic in those closing hours. He focused on the truth of what it means to be alive in our time (or in any other): We are destined to go through an earthly existence, during which we are free to choose our next existence – with God, or with His enemy, the devil.

            All any of us can do – whatever our means and level of education – is to choose wisely.