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As yall probably know, I was homeschooled from birth to the end of 'high school', and cut off from most secular culture - except for 3 months, when I attended public school at the age of 14, and ran into a lot of public school norms that shocked and confused me (cont).

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Aella

@Aella_Girl

Jun 28, 2019

1. The wasted time. SO much wasted time. The whole day felt so slow, with lots of waiting and a tiny amount of learning inside it. I remember thinking I could have done the work of the whole homeschool day inside of 1-2 hours at home.

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Aella

@Aella_Girl

Jun 28, 2019

2. The impersonalness of the teachers; it was disheartening when the teachers treated my work like it was just another thing on an assembly line of grades (which it was). It didn't feel like I was 'being taught by someone', but like I was pressing buttons in a teaching computer.

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Aella

@Aella_Girl

Jun 28, 2019

3. The maturity level of the other kids. I'm not sure how 'legit' I'd view it today, but I remember distinctly thinking that the kids in public school felt approximately two years 'younger' - in jokes and mannerisms - than the other homeschooled kids I knew of the same age.

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Aella

@Aella_Girl

4. The lack of community. Maybe this was partially me-specific because I was weird and religious, but it seemed true even beyond me - that you couldn't trust kids that weren't your friends. I was used to near-total trust in all the other kids I met in my life.

2:17 AM · Jun 28, 2019

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Again, not sure how much my school experience was warped cause I was the weird religious kid - but overall it felt more fearful, more impersonal, and more useless than homeschooling did, by a significant margin. If I ever have kids I'm 100% keeping them away from public school.

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Is this a bug or a feature? If the point of school is really to socialize kids for modern urban society, then learning not to trust is important, even if very unpleasant.

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I get the impression public school kids have *significantly less trust* in each other than adults do. Adults typically aren't afraid their peer group might physically beat them up or put them through psychological torment, and adults have the ability to leave.

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Not just you. Pretty accurate.

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From my experience there is usually a greater sense of community in smaller schools. My primary school only had about 45 kids, and there was no bullying at all. When I then went to a high school with 1200 kids that felt impersonal and bullying was rampant.

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You're right on most parts, except for the community thing. I'm still very close with friends I made in school. I'm 33 now. And they'll probably be with me till we die.

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I don’t trust strangers, it’s a normal thing, that’s why there’s the saying: “stranger danger”

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