>>Don’t be too sure: I have observed that home-schoolers are just as prone to forming cliques and excluding others, and even bullying, as anybody else. And, indeed, a few homeschoolers I know can be downright snooty and rude when it comes to being around those “whose parents don’t love them enough to home-school them.” <<
I belong to four homeschooling groups, work with Public School kids and do many activities with both.
There are exceptions to every rule and as you are stating here, it’s not how kids interact with adults but how they interact with peers that I am viewing. Some kids, no matter where they are educated are snooty and rude. However, in a given situation you will find that the group that know each other will cling to each other.
The thing to look for is how the excluded child handles that situation. I have found that Public School children either throw a fit, pout or act out. Homeschooled kids gravitate to the adults or younger children. They don’t have a problem with either because that’s what they have been exposed to. They adapt. That is a learned skill not taught in school.
Interesting. I have seen homeschooled kids throw fits, pout, and act out .... just like ANY kid will do.
It amuses me, how homeschooling parents continually tout the superiority of their children over those whose parents choose differently. It's like you're defensive, and trying to compensate for something.
Just to throw it back at you .... some of the most neurotic kids I've ever seen, have been home-schooled. Not their faults; rather, their parents were so fearful of the outside world, and passed that fear onto their kids, that the youngsters never had a chance. And the "home-schooling choice" was an important element of that fear.