Homeschool Heartbeat Radio Program

Aren’t your home schooled children isolated? How will they learn the social skills they need for life? Join us on Home School Heartbeat as Michael Farris, president of Home School Legal Defense Association, answers these questions.

When I heard about home schooling in the spring of 1982, the first words off my lips were, “What about socialization?” Society has apparently conditioned us to believe that if children do not attend school for six or seven hours a day with their peers, they won’t learn to get along with others. Let’s take a step back and examine this idea a little more objectively.


Those who believe that home schooling fails the socialization test are really suggesting that it’s imperative that children must have academics and socialization at the same time. Common sense and memory tells us that this is a fallacy. Academics normally suffer when children mix socializing with study. Home school students do plenty of socializing. In fact a 1996 study found that 98 percent of home school students are involved in two or more outside activities each week. These activities include scouting, 4-H, sports, church, music, drama, and community service. When it’s time to study, home schoolers concentrate on study, and when it’s time to socialize, home schoolers engage with full vigor.


And we have to remember that not all socialization is good socialization. Peer pressure to use drugs and to engage in pre-marital sex are common examples of the effects of children spending too much time with their peers.


This is Michael Farris.