We're strongly considering homeschooling our kid. We have reservations (read are scared of how hard it sounds compared to sending them off to school) but hearing about experiences like this move us in that direction.
It sounds like a best of both worlds. Avoid bullies and other bs associated with institutional education and instead have a customized, curiosity driven education.
...and also to keep the kid in an associal bubble. Socialisation and experiencing/handling all kinds of people in life is the most important skill to be learned in school. I woulnt want to give this up for comfort.
The idea that socialisation with unsocialised cretins is important, is one of the biggest pieces of marketing spin that I feel keeps schools operating, children and teenagers when allowed to form groups and cliques are fucking animals, they will engage in the worst kind of behaviour. There is a big difference between socialising your child, which can be done through a whole host of methods, and throwing them into a shark tank filled with animals.
As someone who was bullied at school, let me assure you, the only socialisation I received from the experience, was an appreciation for how fucking horrible humans can be.
There are other ways to socialize kids besides school. As I understand it, things like field trips and social gatherings are an important part of a well balanced homeschool experience.
Instead of just studying about government from books, take a field trip to City Hall, observe a public meeting and talk to people there.
Spend time with other home school families (via homeschool associations) and other families in general. Take trips with them. Let the kids hangout among themselves.
Homeschooling gives you that freedom.
Anecdotally, I personally know homeschooled young adults that are confident, have great social and communication skills and are doing very well in life thus far.
The emphasis here is more on the bubble. Who will decide on this trip? The single homeschool teacher. Who would the kids meet regularly? Kids of parents who can afford homeschooling. Field trips are one-off short contained episodes and can't replace having to live daily life with dozens, hundreds of other kids, and dozens of teachers/input voices. Of course, a lot of them will be adverse, inefficient, aggressive, in different developmental stages. How to deal with them is the learning. The family home with understanding parents is still central to this. There is that, and the "out there".
I feel that motivation of most homeschoolers - a lot of time fuelled by their own bad memories - is to provide an "adequate", contained, controlled chicken coop. Life is anything but that. I can't believe one can go in with a pharmacy scale and make a just fine sampling of daily societal life.
Source, somehwat: I was also bullied in school a lot, but in the end I think I could learn and grew from the experience.
It sounds like a best of both worlds. Avoid bullies and other bs associated with institutional education and instead have a customized, curiosity driven education.