Socializing is huge. I really cannot emphasize enough how important it is, especially for younger kids. If you're really smart or gifted in a subject, there are multiple other avenues to take that still let you hang out with peers around your age.
I transitioned from homeschool to public school at one point during my childhood and I think I was actually much more socialized in homeschool where I was in sports, Scouts, intentional play dates, etc. that my parents were doing to avoid the socialization problem. Whereas once you’re put in public school it’s simply assumed you will be somehow “socialized” (in reality socialization in school often takes the form of bullying, especially if you’re clearly different from peers in some way like intelligence, or you can end up just not having friends)
Parents should definitely take socialization into account for such a student, but I don’t think putting them into a standard school academic track is the only way to achieve such socialization.
Obviously there are a lot of benefits from socializing at school but there's really a lot you can do without. It would be much more beneficial to get kids to socialize in an environment where beating someone up actually ends up in the court.
Not saying it’s not possible, but a school setting is definitely one very easy organic path to socializing children.
But won't my child become a unsocial hermit?! Interestingly, I've heard people dislike unschooling not because they are afraid that their children will not learn anything, but because they are afraid they will not develop "healthy social relationships with their peers". Nothing could be farther from the truth.
First, school is not a place to develop social relationships. In fact, it seems designed to stifle them. There is hardly little time for socialization provided, and it is discouraged for the majority of the school day. Any student who does develop a true relationship with someone does it outside of school: at a local meeting place (like a park or mall); when going over to a friend's house; or after school. An unschooler can still do all of these things.
Second, who decided that meaningful relationships could only be had with other people who happen to be in roughly the same physical area at roughly the same age? If anything, this is a severely restrained peer group. I have developed my most meaningful relationships online. None of them live within driving distance. None of them are about my own age. Even among those who I would not count as "friends", I have met many people online who have simply commented on my work or are interested by what I do. Through the Internet, I've developed a strong social network -- something I could never do if I had to keep my choice of peers within school grounds.
https://web.archive.org/web/20101219193753/http://www.aarons...
I think public schools do a pretty good job teaching kids to not speak openly with adults.
Totally helped me socialize - first year uni students cared less about who I hung out with, and more about who I was. I was able to reset and engage with people in the way I wanted to. I was also able to accelerate my pathway to meeting attractive and mature young women, since I went to an all boys high school.
Still trying to shake of the horrible socialization that is the result of accepting that the people who are left behind by the education system act out in violent ways.
Socializing in your formative years is MASSIVE.
There are posts about home school students, some of the teams meet at the local library (not just books!) and that also helps
This makes it less likely for them to enjoy moving to a place where this topic is nonexistent.
Or, to say it in ML terms, it would be very surprising for this child to be trained so fast without overfitting.