The Social Side of School is Overhyped

A lot of noise is made decrying homeschooling lamenting over, “what about the social aspects of school? Students need the social interaction”

Here’s the social side of school this morning where I teach: there was a fight in the hallway and kids spent the rest of the day talking about it, the drama surrounding it, and comparing videos that they took and posted on social media, searching for and critiquing other videos, etc. If you’ve taught in a school recently, you know what I am talking about.

In the mornings and between classes, kids fill the hallways jockeying over the best spots to shoot and upload another tik-tok video. Kids don’t want to use the restrooms between classes because they are overcrowded, and claim that other students are just in there taking pictures. And I won’t even start about the profanity-laced language they use everyday in normal conversation like it was nothing.

On the teacher's side, we receive a lot of pressure to “help” students, especially those involved in sports, with their grades *nudge-nudge, wink-wink*. We know what that means. We’re told that if it wasn’t for a sports team, or a club, or some other extra-curricular activity these kids would be in danger of dropping out. And it's true. That really speaks to what the “high-school experience” (that my own principal touts) is all about. And it's not academics. Or actually learning anything.

So, the question is, do students, your kids, really need the "social side" of school? Seems to me that they’d be just as fine, if not better off, without it.