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Comment by graemep | Hacker News Reader

That is insane!

I had taken my kids out of school by that age, but they would go to places alone much younger than that - depending on where we lived, the time of day etc.

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if you don't mind me asking, why take them out? did you homeschool them?

Will never understand homeschooling, social (and even survival) skills are the most important to learn when young imho.

And they can be learnt outside of school just as well. I'll never understand how readily people are to accept schooling.

I hear this all the time, but so far every time I've met a home schooled kid they show that lack of socialization. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it is so rare that I doubt any home schooled kid is.

Sure they will have a lot of kids, but that is not the same. Do they interact with kids that are different? Poor, rich? Different religion? Different political background? (note that many private school suffer from the same problem - generally not as bad as home schools, but it is easy to find private schools that don't really socialize kids well either.)

I fully agree with you, however....

> Do they interact with kids that are different? Poor, rich? Different religion? Different political background?

This is often the main reason that parents take them out of school in the first place.

Schools seem like a poor place to learn social skills unless one plans to live out Lord of the Flies later in life.

Life is tough and the dynamics of the book are common in real life.

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