In the public school system, children are socialized horizontally, and temporarily, into conformity with their immediate peers. Home educators seek to socialize their children vertically, toward responsibility, service, and adulthood, with an eye on eternity.

Thomas Smedley, as quoted here. Via Jake Meador.

On the old canard “But will homeschooled children be properly socialized?”

The piece follows with this quote from the psychologist Richard G. Medlin: “Homeschooling parents expect their children to respect and get along with people of diverse backgrounds. . . . Compared to children attending conventional schools . . . research suggest that they have higher quality friendships and better relationships with their parents and other adults.” This suggests that although public school ostensibly exposes one to more “diversity” than homeschooling, its tendency toward peer pressure and conformity may in fact counteract the positive effects of such exposure. In contrast, though homeschoolers by definition go to school with people who look like them, their tendency to be more independent-minded and less wedded to conformity with those like them serves them well when they encounter diverse experiences and viewpoints, including diversities of age.