The lie of socialization in school

It seems to be a common defence of elementary and high school that it provides necessary ‘socialization’. I even heard a professor encourage parents to send their toddlers to day care for the socialization. I take it that socialization means teaching children to live in society. If that is what it means, then the claim that school socializes is bull—because the social environment of school is utterly abnormal. It is nothing like the normal social situations of adult life. So how can it prepare children for them?

Let’s consider the chief features of the social environment in school:

1. A large number of children are corralled together, without their parents, for six or more hours per day. I could stop right here—where else in life does this happen? A sweat shop?

2. You spend most of your time with people of precisely your own age.

3. You are expected to spend your entire day on school property. (This loosens up a bit in high school.)

4. You are forced to change tasks and move from place to place frequently.

5. There are large periods of just hanging about, loitering, or killing time.

6. You are placed under a large number of superiors who can punish you or force you to do things.

7. You are required by law to be there. Most of your peers are not there by choice and do not want to be there.

For what social environment is school supposed to prepare children? The military? Prison? Labour camps?

Mind you, I am not trying to prove that the social environment of school is harsh or even unpleasant. For many people it is unpleasant, but many people enjoy it, too. That is beside the point—the question is: does it prepare children to live in society? It could be a dance through the daisies, but that doesn’t have one whit of relevance about socialization. And in fact, school is nothing like the daily reality of adult society: work, family, friends, church...

School does teach children how to socialize. It teaches children how to socialize in the abnormal environment of a school. This might be fun, or it might not, but it is no preparation for adult life. To claim ‘socialization’ as a justification for school is like claiming that gym class is valuable because it teaches kids how to play dodgeball. “What’s the use of knowing dodgeball?” you ask. “Well, you’ll have to play dodgeball in gym!” answers the true believer. Likewise, school teaches children how to be in school.

If you really want to prepare children for adult life, it appears stupidly counterproductive to force them to spend most of their time in the society of other children. Living your whole social life with children, you remain a child. If children lived more in the society of adults (not just placed under the arbitrary authority of strangers), the maturity of the adults would be a constant pressure lifting the children up to their level. To this end, I propose some alternative forms of socialization:

Apprenticeship. Traditionally, an apprentice would be placed with a master of the trade and would actually live in his home as part of his family. But at its most basic an apprenticeship could just mean that a child assists his mentor with the work.

Internship.

Employment.

Volunteering.

Home schooling. At least in home schooling a child spends his school time in the society of his family—with whom he will have a relationship for the rest of his life—rather than being separated from them to socialize with strangers, most of whom he will never see again after school ends.

Taking individual classes. As in adult education or university.

Private tutoring. Similar to apprenticeship, this could take the full form of actually living in the home of the tutor, or more basically just receiving lessons one-on-one.

Finally, if you must put children in school (as may be the case), it would be much more productive to return to placement based on aptitude rather than age. It is not common knowledge these days, but until fairly recently, schools placed children in grades or ‘forms’ based on the results of examinations. So you would have precocious twelve-year-olds in the higher grades alongside older students. This mimics adult life, where you will generally be around people of different ages. It also means that adept children can advance through school rapidly and perhaps into university.

The way schools are constituted right now, the ‘socialization’ they provide is sure to produce immature, confused people who are not well-adjusted to adult life. The people who come out of school able and mature—those are its failures. If we really want to prepare our children for adult life, we should not expect the artificial school environment to do it—instead, we should place them in situations where they can experience adult life for themselves, and be initiated into it.

School is not a preparation for adult life. Adult life is a preparation for adult life.