This part especially spoke to me:
"More important, though, I think the social life of most schools is so competitive and snobbish and status-oriented, and so full of meanness and teasing and ganging up, that even if I didn't have any other reason for wanting to keep a child out of school that very "society" would be reason enough to educate the youngster at home! I don't think schools teach young people anything about friendship, intimacy, and trust."
That sure sums up my entire social experience at school, and I doubt all the bullying awareness stuff that's surfaced since my school days has done much to change that.
This bit about older kids who choose to go to school is spot-on, too, I think:
"PLOWBOY: Suppose the children want to go back to school when they get older. Do they have peer problems then?
HOLT: Actually, they'll be in better shape for coping with school, because they're going there by choice and for their own reasons. It's like the difference between a prisoner in jail and a sociologist who goes in to study prison conditions. Both people are in the same building, but they're in very different frames of mind."
Lillian
