Homeschooling -- Disadvantages?

I went looking for homeschool negatives on the web and could find very little indeed of substance. Mostly there were anecdotal reports from teachers who said that some homeschoolers that returned to school were academically behind and didn't fit in socially. But though worrisome for paranoid types like me, this is so purely anecdotal and also simply a cross-section of a certain slice of an individual's life. If someone had studied ME at the diplomat tea party they would have said rustic doctor's daughters from Alaskan alternative schools are obviously socially unfitted to move in polite circles. So there is more to it than that.

Homeschool and Socialization

Stough (1992), looking particularly at socialization, compared 30 home-schooling families and 32 conventionally schooling families, families with children 7-14 years of age. According to the findings, children who were schooled at home "gained the necessary skills, knowledge, and attitudes needed to function in society...at a rate similar to that of conventionally schooled children." The researcher found no difference in the self concept of children in the two groups. Stough maintains that "insofar as self concept is a reflector of socialization, it would appear that few home-schooled children are socially deprived, and that there may be sufficient evidence to indicate that some home-schooled children have a higher self concept than conventionally schooled children."

Advantages and Disadvantages

Homeschool or Not To (Steubenville Concourse)

Negative Effects of Homeschooling?

Teachers talk about Homeschooling

* My experience has been the opposite. My very shy child initiates conversations and participates with many more people than she did when she was in school. She no longer feels the pressure to fit in. Homeschooling has not caused my children to bully or be bullied. Both of my children love writing. Being at home allows them to be more creative. We don't do assigned topics, but I may offer examples. My largest homeschooling expense is composition notebooks. Each child fills up at least 20 each year with journaling, poetry, short stories, field notes, etc.