The New BWAS

[Verdauga]

Well. *Thinks he's done pretty well, but okay.*

However, there are homeschool groups which were meant for that sort of thing. Furthermore, the cultural isolation most often occurs if the homeschooler's almost completely cut off from society, and has quite literally no idea what they just walked into.
I also tend to be the most extroverted of my IRL friends, and I've been homeschooled the longest out of them; I can also hold a conversation better than almost all the other teens in my church (which tends to turn me to adults, as the teens can't hold the conversation), and of them, I'm the only permanent homeschooler.

[Ebantu the Kararehe]

Yes, a lot of people hear we home educate and say 'But what about social interaction?' when actually we (our group, not homeschoolers in general) have perfectly fine social skills. We meet up as a group at least once a week, usually, and also meet in smaller groups of two-three families even more often. We have a very diverse age range as well, making our group pretty good at interacting with anyone, from newborn babies through to the residents of our local rest homes (we do singing performances there several times a year).

[Verdauga]

(We actually left the homeschool groups here because there are bullies.)

Going further, a limited viewpoint is expressed in most public schools, as they teach evolution. Almost all scientific broadcasts are heavily laden with this religion, and the most famous scientists hold so fastly to it the cannot accept anythng else. And they likely aren't homeschooled.

[Wylder Treejumper]

I'm not talking solely about the ability to hold a conversation or have meaningful personal interactions with another person, I'm talking about constructing meaningful relationships with people who hold opposing views, embrace contrasting values and live in different cultures and societies. Communication ability is something that most people (even introverts) have in varying degrees of expertise, and a public school situation may or may not be beneficial for developing such skills. But understanding of other value systems and societies cannot realistically occur except through meaningful social interaction.

Not that I'm even talking about gaining an understanding about the beliefs and values and cultures of others. I am talking about gaining an understanding of those others which hold the differing beliefs, which is something separate and much harder to achieve.

[Verdauga]

As to your first point; what would it cause if you were to build a relationship with someone of opposing views? Would it cause you to relax your standards? And would you have to compromise your values to embrace something contrasting them? Not that it isn't possible, but is it worth it?

As to your second point; understanding the people who hold those beliefs requires spending time getting to know them, and why they believe what they believe. While this requires social skills, the core of it requires the same of homeschoolers and publicschoolers. At that point, it becomes individual.

[Wylder Treejumper]

Don't be silly, you can absolutely have a meaningful relationship with someone who does not share your views, or even has opposing views, without compromising your standards. My best friend in high school (who I still keep in touch with) was a very liberal atheist, while I am very much the opposite. I never minimized my faith or commitment to my ideals in order to gratify him; what made us friends was that we both had a strong interest in political subjects and were willing to hold a civic discourse about those subjects. Did that relationship change me? It did. Not in that it reduced my faith, or caused me to suddenly embrace liberal political views, but it did cause me to reconsider me views on certain points because during our discussion I realized that some of my arguments were incomplete, insufficient, or simply invalid. And likewise with him. In political thought, this is called the "marketplace of ideas," and is the theory that strongly backs freedom of speech: whenever two ideas are presented, it will be visible which one is truer; the more ideas presented, the faster the truth can be reached. That relationship strengthened me and made me a more faithful and more thoughtful person (and I believe it did the same for my friend), because it caused me to think through and validate my own beliefs, and that is the value of it.

My point is not that homeschoolers are not capable of having such experiences, obviously they are. It is that they do not have such experiences, due to the nature of the program.

Now I must say that what I speak is a generalization, and in no case absolute. I'm not saying that public schooling is worse or better than homeschooling, only pointing out a specific advantage which I feel that I derived from attending a public school. And that advantage may not necessarily apply in all cases, either; obviously there are some public schools no one would wish their child to attend, and other public schools which are small or homogenous enough that they don't produce said experience.

[Verdauga]

About you and your friendship, correct me if I'm wrong, but the only major aspect tying you two together is your political discourse. If either of you weren't civil, would the two of you even connect?
I also didn't say that it was impossible to have a relationship of any meaningful level with someone of opposing views, but I did say (or ask, really) about whether any relationship with them would constantly stress your views and values to breaking point; not that this isn't exactly wrong; my discourses with others has caused me to really think about what I believe, and I have changed quite a few of my views due to them.

All that to ask a question and clarify my statement.

[Wylder Treejumper]

Well, as I said, I have a mild (that's a lie, a strong) tendency towards debate- so I hope I haven't been too oppositional. I very much enjoy these types of conversations 

In any case, we connected very well over our political interests, but that was not the only dimension of our friendship; I mention it mainly as a way to illustrate my point. And to clarify, I am not saying, for example, that anyone should go out of their way to become best friends with a drug dealer solely because that person has a different value system- that would clearly be a terrible idea. Our friends should, if they do not share in the particulars of our standards, at least support them. But I do think it is valuable to have friends who hold differing ideas, or we risk turning our environment into one that impedes thought.

I would say it is valuable to have good relationships (in a general sense, not necessarily friendship) even with people who do not hold our standards. Living with people who hold other standards is merely one of the inevitabilites of life, and having experience with those relationships can help us to uphold those standards (and gives us a much clearer view of why we have them).

[Verdauga]

Well, as I said, I have a mild (that's a lie, a strong) tendency towards debate- so I hope I haven't been too oppositional. I very much enjoy these types of conversations 

You're good. I enjoy debating as well, though I'm hardly any good at it

That out of the way, to your points:

I agree with both of them, though to a slightly lesser extent than you do. But if we do not have relations with anyone with different views, ideas, or methods, we begin to think our methods are right and theirs wrong. Once that extends beyond matters of right and wrong, it becomes a problem. In short:
I agree.

[Kade Rivok]

School is for losers anyways.  Education is so overrated.

[Verdauga]

Totally. Look at me; I never learned to read. Did that stop me? NOOOOOOoooo!!

[Kade Rivok]

Right?  I don't even know what you just typed!  I don't even know what I'm typing right now!

[Ebantu the Kararehe]

I pretty much taught myself to read, with a bit of help from mum and dad.

[Verdauga]

Which is pretty good, if I do say so myselfI DO SAY SO!

[Ebantu the Kararehe]