Mike Smith:
Rachel, socialization is a common topic that arises when people are discussing homeschooling. However, it can have a variety of meanings. Could you talk a little about good versus bad socialization?

Rachel Gathercole:
Sure Mike. When I was interviewing homeschooling parents and children for this book, one of the things that kept coming up was the idea of quality as opposed to quantity social interaction. Whereas people often talk about childhood socialization, especially peer contact, in terms of how much of it a child is getting, homeschooling parents seem more concerned with the quality of their child’s social interaction. For instance, they want their children to have positive, meaningful interactions with a range of individuals. They would also like their children to learn appropriate social behaviors through the modeling of adults rather than learning whatever miscellaneous behaviors they happen to pick up from their peers who are just learning themselves. They would like their children to enjoy healthy, peer contact rather than unhealthy peer dependence. They recognize that their kids would rather have a few good friends than many miscellaneous acquaintances they don’t have a lot in common with. And these are the same kinds of differences cited repeatedly by both homeschooling parents and children as benefits that they have experienced through homeschooling.

Mike:
Thank you, Rachel. That’s very helpful. And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.