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thomblake comments on Let them eat cake: Interpersonal Problems vs Tasks - Less Wrong
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This is amongst the reasons I won't send my kids to school, and try to discourage anyone else from doing so.
I will have a similar policy if and when I happen to breed. As Jowibou alludes to, this means I will have to take the initiative in seeking high quality social interactions for my children myself. It may be a better option for my children but it certainly will not be easier!
(Care to share your thoughts on the subject?)
I know several people who were unschooled. Their parents didn't particularly 'take the initiative' in the sense of organizing 'play-dates' or other such things; but the parents did make the children a part of their lives, so the children interacted with ordinary people practically every day.
In your judgement how well did that work for them?
Well as far as I can tell, they're all some of the most brilliant people I've met, and not socially stunted or anything. And seeing the lack of scars from schooling on these folks really makes them obvious on everyone else.
Could you expand on the "scars from schooling"?
Keep in mind selection bias. The pool of people who would unschool their children is systematically different from the general population. Aspects of child-rearing unrelated to schooling (at least conventional schooling) and/or genetics probably played a role in determining the adult personality of their children.
Indeed. The eldest of them hypothesizes that it wasn't so much unschooling that caused the good effects, but more likely other factors, most relevantly "the parents having bothered to make any decision regarding their children's schooling", which has been shown to matter in other contexts.
Have you found ways for them to nevertheless socialize with their peers?
Socializing with their peers isn't nearly as important as socializing with ordinary folks in society. Schools artificially stick a bunch of kids of the same age group together with one 'authority figure'; naturally, they learn to socialize from other kids and form 'kid culture' and act like a bunch of monkeys.
Rather than go to school and learn how to be kids, it's much better to let kids meet the neighbors and learn how to be people. Your neighbors may vary.