How many of you left high school with fond social memories and good friends? Not me. I have nothing in common with ANYone I went to school with, not until college. What did the social arena of public school teach me? That I hate being around people who suck and conformity is a social disease.

I'm still best friends with my one of my friends from Highschool. I have lots of good memories of hanging out with the band geeks. I don't remember how our group formed but we hungout before class and at lunch. At the time it felt like a diverse group by Linn-Mar Jr High standards; having a couple kids in band, a couple in choir, a token jock and a couple not involved in anything. There just wasn't enough racial diversity for every group to get a token non-white kid.

Basically any good friend I actually did anything with moved away by the middle of my middle school years, after that I was the shy depressed kid some people talked to when they happened to notice him sitting in the corner looking all depressed, on average someone would talk to me once every 3 or 4 weeks for a VERY short time, Invisibility is over-rated.

I actually started in catholic school and later was transferred to public school. My catholic school education was NOT a positive experience for me. The kids were vicious and rich and I never really belonged there. And of course, they were completely white and Catholic. Moving to a public school was a much healthier environment for me. I won't say that there's nothing I would change about the public school experience, but I thought Wash was a great school and I learned a lot from the variety of kids I met there.

Let's not assume public school ensures diversity. I went through Indiana and Iowa public school, and there was NO diversity. Cedar Rapids had no diversity. Iowa had no diversity....
How many of you left high school with fond social memories and good friends? Not me. I have nothing in common with ANYone I went to school with, not until college.

I find this very interesting, because it's posted on the discussion board of a site devoted to segregation (deliberate elimination of diversity) in religious thought. We don't have any Muslims practicing da'wa calling us to Allah, we don't have anyone from Westboro Baptist calling us sinners who will burn in hellfire if we don't accept Jesus, we don't have anyone advocating for the Church of Rome. No Shintos, no Hindus, etc. The viewpoints expressed here go from roughly atheist to "spiritual but not religious", with not much of the latter. That is by design; if we had loud proselytizers show up, we'd either boot them out or go elsewhere.

This could only come as a surprise to someone who never bothers with introspection. Some of us may enjoy debating religion with the religious, but everyone has to relax. We have created a community where our positions are close the norm, where our references are understood, our jokes are seen as funny and we're not going to offend anyone by being ourselves. It's a place where we can let our hair down. It's very fashionable on the left to praise "diversity" to the skies, but the lament above is from the position of being the "diverse" one and finding that it sucked royally.

I suggest reading about the research of Robert Putnam, who found that diversity destroys social capital. The fact that this group even exists is undeniable proof of that.

... our jokes are seen as funny and we're not going to offend anyone by being ourselves. It's a place where we can let our hair down.

Wait.....er, what? ;-)

... our jokes are seen as funny and we're not going to offend anyone by being ourselves. It's a place where we can let our hair down.

Wait.....er, what? ;-)

He's talking about those of us with hair, Joe. You can...um...pull your shirt tail out.

Hi,

One of my kids definitely falls into the socially awkward category, although I am not so sure I'd go so far as to classify him as a social moron. In any case, he was born with his wonderfully quirky personality and school was a toxic environment for him. So we removed him from that setting over six years ago. I have known several secular homeschoolers with similar experiences--usually families with kids exhibiting traits consistent with Asperger's syndrom. BUT, these are kids who were this way regardless of homeschooling. Like most human traits, one might view social ease as existing in a spectrum across the population. My son falls in the far end of the spectrum on social ease, as do many people in my family. School would not change this about him. So yes, it may be that many homeschooled kids fall into the more socially awkward realm. One can hope that the people these social morons meet will be open to encountering diversity in the real world (and not just in a school setting). :P

Let's not assume public school ensures diversity. I went through Indiana and Iowa public school, and there was NO diversity. Cedar Rapids had no diversity. Iowa had no diversity....
How many of you left high school with fond social memories and good friends? Not me. I have nothing in common with ANYone I went to school with, not until college.

I find this very interesting, because it's posted on the discussion board of a site devoted to segregation (deliberate elimination of diversity) in religious thought. We don't have any Muslims practicing da'wa calling us to Allah, we don't have anyone from Westboro Baptist calling us sinners who will burn in hellfire if we don't accept Jesus, we don't have anyone advocating for the Church of Rome. No Shintos, no Hindus, etc. The viewpoints expressed here go from roughly atheist to "spiritual but not religious", with not much of the latter. That is by design; if we had loud proselytizers show up, we'd either boot them out or go elsewhere.

We're not a public school with an intent to socialize the children of a given geographical community. We are a private group of adults, from across the country, who are seeking like-minded individuals. But I guess you haven't paid attention to ALL the threads and posts from all of us who are frustrated with the lack of gender and racial diversity in the atheist community. Diversity doesn't have to be all or nothing, Russ.

This could only come as a surprise to someone who never bothers with introspection. Some of us may enjoy debating religion with the religious, but everyone has to relax. We have created a community where our positions are close the norm, where our references are understood, our jokes are seen as funny and we're not going to offend anyone by being ourselves. It's a place where we can let our hair down.

No one is disagreeing that there is a place for this in all of our lives, but life is not one-dimensional. Human beings have much to gain and learn from a variety of social experiences within a variety of social groups containing varying demographics.

It's very fashionable on the left to praise "diversity" to the skies...

An easy dismissive stereotype.

...but the lament above is from the position of being the "diverse" one and finding that it sucked royally.

Just because something is difficult doesn't mean it's not valuable or productive. This shouldn't come as a surprise to someone who bothers with philosophical analysis and a basic knowledge of human behavior.

I suggest reading about the research of Robert Putnam, who found that diversity destroys social capital.

WIKI "Social Capital" (sociological):
Just as a screwdriver (physical capital) or a college education (human capital) can increase productivity (both individual and collective), so do social contacts affect the productivity of individuals and groups.

It all depends on your definition of "productivity" then, doesn't it.
Fascism is a much more productive form of government, in many ways, than democracy.

The fact that this group even exists is undeniable proof of that.

Now you just sound like a creationist.