Isolation - It’s Not Just for Homeschooled Teens. Quite the Contrary.

Eve Tushnet has an excellent article on Jewish World Review about homeschooling and the myth of the isolated teen. And a reasoned discussion of the drawbacks of age segregation.

She also explains why the non-traditional age students (or Damned Average Raisers) were something of an irritant to us back in college. They were mature, thereby reminding us that maturity was getting closer for us, too. Bummer. Isolation by age has its benefits, to be sure. College may be the best example--the ideal of college is a four-year truce with the world during which students can spend as much time as possible figuring out what their purpose is, how they should approach their lives. Being surrounded by other people all in the same exuberant, unformed, questing stage of life provokes great camaraderie.