The Importance of Socialization and My Journey to Home Schooling

**NOTE: I apologize again. My blogs on security will be delayed another week. This blog deals with an important issue; the re-opening of our schools.

Socialization is important.

We live in a world where the ability to network and connect outweighs a person’s talent, skills, and qualifications. It is the most important thing that every college graduate should know upon receiving their Bachelor’s Degree. We are living in a global marketplace for work. You can split an atom and figure out how to create a new form of ‘nuclear power’ but if you can not reflect this talent back to the ‘right’ people (Yes, knowing the ‘right’ people to network with is an important skill), your talent will be wasted. Your success in life is built around luck more than anyone wants to admit. In the television industry, I was constantly surrounded by managers and supervisors who had no knowledge of how the industry operates that created rules that were in direct opposition to the tasks that needed to be done for a proper broadcast signal. How did they get into that position? 95% of the time, it was ‘networking.’

So why bring this up?

Well, COVID-19 has managed to accomplish something that no other public-school policy of the last 20 years has managed to do. It is forcing me to pull my child out of the system. While I personally believe that public school education has regressed tremendously since my daughter graduated high school back in 2016, I still found some positive aspects to the system especially the need for exercise accomplished via recess and the socialization among your fellow peers in the classroom. Like many Californians, my son has been working virtually since March due to this pandemic. Now that in-person instruction is beginning again, the only beneficial aspects of the public education system are being taken away. Here are the re-opening conditions for Murrieta Valley School District.

•    Parents will need to complete a daily symptom checker (see form above) for each student daily before arriving to school.
•    Half of the students will be on campus during each AM/PM session.
•    Students will remain in the same classroom during each AM/PM session.
•    Face coverings are required for all staff and students in grades 3-5 .
•    Face coverings are strongly encouraged for students in grades TK-2.
•    Social distancing is mandated, and plexiglass shields will be at each desk.
•    Recess and lunch break will not be part of the daily schedule.
•    Breakfast and lunch will not be served during the AM/PM session, but weekly meal packs will continue to be available for pick-up on Thursdays.
•    Individualized student learning materials will be at each student’s desk.
•    Independent work will be assigned to all students when they are not on campus for in-person learning.
•    IEP processes will apply to special education students.
•    Enhanced health and safety procedures will be implemented.

Even accepting the mask mandate for my child which does make me concerned for his health, these other requirements are a ‘deal breaker’.

Individualized student learning materials? If that is the case, will each child get an ‘individual’ teacher to help them learn? He will get more attention from me teaching him at home than the occasional teacher dropping by to see his progress.

Recess and lunch break Are Not Part of the schedule. How do they expect my child to maintain his friendships? How is he going to socialize which is an incredibly important life skill? Are the kids just going to yell at each other inside the classroom since everyone is ‘socially distanced’?

How are kids going to respond when they want to play together, and a teacher comes up and forcibly separates them because they are not ‘socially distanced?’ Also, what is up with not being allowed to eat during his four hours at school?

Because of this, I see no benefit in keeping my 9 year old son in public school. I will continue with my son’s homeschooling which I started back in June. He gets the same amount of attention from his parents and at least will feel some aspect of ‘freedom’ and ‘comfort’ at home instead of living inside of this fear based system which will not be good for his personal psychology.

I am devastated for this generation of kids. I hope these lockdowns were worth it. Because we are destroying a generation of children and the important social skills they need to be successful members in our society.