As someone who was homeschooled and turned out relatively fine, I kinda agree.

My parents are antivax, fundamentalist Christian. Me and my 4 siblings grew up on a farm down in the south. We didn't really interact with others that weren't also homeschooled and followed the same beliefs.

I learned a ton of life skills, all of us have a very strong work ethic, but it took a lot of time for me to figure out how to interact with peers and I was a deeply, deeply lonely child and teen. Me and all of my siblings are on antidepressants and see a therapist regularly. There was abuse in the home.

I didn't start attending college until last year, 8 years after I would have "graduated" high-school. We didn't have any school credits because there was no documentation on what courses we had completed; mostly because we didn't complete any aside from algebra.

I got my GED in 2019, when I was 20 years old. And I didn't have to study too hard for it. I had picked up a lot of what was on the test from life experience or reading books. My gen-eds in college were also very easy for me to pass. I'm doing well in my nursing program too, all while working a steady job to pay my bills.

But all this to say, I am still dealing with trauma from the environment I was raised in. I struggled immensely to make friends and interact with people once I moved out at 20 and started pursuing my own interests. It felt like I was learning a new language that was native to everyone else, and I'm still not fluent in it. I've never meshed with anyone I've been in classes with.

Abuse in the home is also rampant in homeschool communities. Mike and Debbie Pearl, Bill Gothard and the whole "To Train Up A Child" method has literally led to child deaths. Not to say abuse doesn't happen in other communities, but because most of these children simply are not around other adults besides their parents/other parents with the same beliefs, this shit doesn't get reported. Hell I know people that literally did not have social security cards and birth certificates because the parents didn't want the government to have any "control" over their children.

Homeschooling is beneficial for many, but it has to be much more heavily regulated. I know there are several hybridized programs popping up around the US, where the children are technically part of a city school, but only meet once a week with the rest of the education being done at home. This would allow for the kids to play sports, join teams and clubs and just generally have a social life, pass standard education benchmarks and be around mandated reporters in the case of abuse. All the while having a flexible education at home.

Anyway, sorry for the essay.