I was in the Navy with someone who was homeschooled. He was odd. He didn’t understand personal space (but to be fair it was the Navy) and didn’t relate the best to other people. However, he also didn’t understand the social cues that the other sailors knew when it was time to form a posse and be nasty to the “designated hated person”. He just didn’t fall in line when they decided to be jerks, because he wasn’t raised that way. And heck.... he was smart enough to run nuclear reactors on homeschooling so........
I think there is a cause and effect question here. Is the kid odd because he was homeschooled? Or is he homeschooled because he is odd?
In my experience, normal kids are still normal when homeschooled. Odd kids, such as special needs or autism spectrum are homeschooled because typical school was not safe or effective for them.
Our kids’ homeschooled babysitter was normal, happy and well socialized with extra curricular activities and church youth group friends.
Our next door neighbor’s kids, one had autism and one had Tourette’s. They tried regular school for the eldest and it was ineffective and he was getting shunned by the other kids. The parents tried different things. Nice, happy, smart boys. But getting them situated in a conventional learning environment was a challenge.
I'm not bragging: One of my sons is a rocket scientist. He says things like, "It's not 'rocket surgery'"
When he talks about his career, that's the only thing he says that makes sense.
My other son is a Corpsman in the USN.
Speaking from 23 years of experience here... My kids never went to school until college, and we knew literally hundreds of other homeschooled kids. Most of the families were conservative Christian, and we all got together often every week. So, I made certain observations through the years. Here's what I noticed:
Most homeschooled kids and teens don't use profanity, and they tend to stay out of trouble. That is, the homeschoolers we knew did not drink or use drugs. That is the main reason to homeschool - to keep your kids on the right track.
However, the social cliques were present in the homeschool groups, too. There were nice kids, cool kids, bullies, and so on.
But, whenever non-homeschoolers come across a homeschooler who behaves a little differently, they think homeschooling was the reason.
That guy in the Navy might have been a nice guy who didn't join the posse, but I personally witnessed and overheard some homeschoolers bullying others. Nothing violent, but still mean.
Yet, I would still recommend homeschooling to everyone. The community is wonderful. Overall, the kids were great, but they're not sweet, innocent angels all the time.
He sounds more like he’s g9t Asperger’s, that he’s on the autism spectrum.
His inability to relate is NOT something typical of a result of being homeschooled.
On the contrary, most homeschoolers have the ability to relate well to others outside their own age bracket, something public school kids don’t do well learning because they are shuttered from one grade to the next with only other kids their age, for TWELVE years.