I recently performed a monologue as a benefit for our local elementary school's breakfast and lunch programme. The performance raised $800. The school principal invited me to present the cheque at one of their school assemblies. I delivered a cheque to the 192 pre-kindergarten to grade 5s at the school. I was more nervous about that audience than I'd been the previous week at the performance of the play to a sold out adult audience.
I was so impressed with how wonderful the teachers were with the children and with how the children were with each other, despite age differences, racial differences, social differences and physical and mental health differences.
It's why I feel that home schooling is a poor choice for parents to make. I know there are reasons given and that in some special circumstances it might be the only choice. However, children who do not interact on a daily basis with children and adults from all "walks" of life, in my experience, lack the social skills of tolerance, acceptance and compromise that these other children are forced to learn in such a diverse setting.
We live in a civil society. In the real world one must interact with all people in our society. Isolation is not a socially responsible choice. And it is not a healthy one.
