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I think home schooled kids miss out on some social training. Many probably do quite well socially in spite of that, but I suspect many of the more borderline ones do not do well due to the extra strike against them.
It's probably not fair, as I do know half a dozen or so homeschooled children who have grown to be successful, productive adults, but I am not a fan of homeschooling.
I personally know 3 adults, homeschooled from elementary school through high school, who are frightened by members of the opposite sex, who literally hide from the outside world, and 2 (in their 30's) live at home with their parents and aren't working. I should hope those 3 individuals are anomalies. The parents did try to socialize them with music, church, dance, etc., but something went wrong.
In my experience, the majority of the parents who homeschool do so for religious reasons. Not just in the south, but in other places I have lived. Parents want their children surrounded by the parents' religious views, and many of these parents can't afford religious schools or don't like the ones available to them. My personal opinion is that this does the child a disservice. Most homeschooled children and adults that I know struggle to interact with people of different backgrounds - socioeconomic, race, ethnicity, and esp. religion. This can become a problem in the "real" world. I'm sure there are exceptions to this.
I know that there are wonderfully functioning homeschooled adults. In talking to them, they've had to overcome some or all of the above issues and usually did so in college. For one guy I know it was challenging to go to public university after so sheltered a life, but he's overcome lots of prejudices and issues.
On the positive side, I freely admit that without doubt the homeschooled people I've met are highly intelligent. National merit finalists and semi-finalists who didn't so much as pay for a pencil even at private universities. The ability to move at the child's pace and explore the child's interests and strengths is absolutely wonderful. One guy I know (the one mentioned above) was suffering from anxiety and depression while in public school, but he blossomed while homeschooling. His entire college education was free, and he is very successful at his career.
I think the short answer to your question is "both" and "depends".
I think it depends on both the child and the parent and the quality of homeschooling, plus, any effort made to be a part of some kind of social group.
I know of two boys of my son's age that were/are both homschooled. One appears happy and has a peer group that he is part of, so he is not socially isolated. He made good grades and is now in college.
The other boy, I feel sorry for. It is obvious that homeschooling is not working for this child. He is rude, isolated, has no idea how to relate with others his own age, and appears to not even have learned basic english or spelling. He and his mother obviously butt heads over everything; and he needs to be apart from her at least part of the day. Their home life seems miserable and he could benefit by more contact with the outside world.
So I agree with the above poster. Yes, it can work, but not always. When it's obviously not working, I wish parents could step back and see that things are not where they should be.
My son says he would never want to be homeschooled. He's 15 and there is no way he is going to spend the entire day with his M O T H E R!
Personally, I think that the federal government should give out school vouchers to every parent in the country. If they decide to stay home, and homeschool their children, then they could keep the money for themselves. That would have the added benefit of a parent staying home with the child, and teaching them, while removing some people from the work force, that would allow some of the unemployed to get jobs.
What we'd need is a standardized national test. If you can't pass the test, then you have to put your child in a public school, private school, or private teacher, as the parent obviously can't teach all of the material.
Advantage? No. Those parents who are actually well enough educated to be good home-school teachers (and what percentage of home-schooling parents would that be?) can still contribute to their children's education by the kinds of discussions held at home, etc., even while the children attend school. I think the disadvantages of home schooling grow and compound the older the child is. Just think of all the specialized teachers available at any good high school: Drama, art, instrumental music, choral music, advanced math, foreign language, biology, chemistry, physics, history, English. How many sets of parents have degrees in more than any two of those? And the parents who are home schooling for religious reasons are attempting to brain-wash their children, who then get just the opposite of a real education.
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Depends
