At the age of 17, Sophia Park passed the California State Bar Exam. Park graduated from high school, college, and law school through online programs in four years, working from her family’s study room alongside her siblings. She became a prosecutor for a district attorney in Tulare County at 18 years old.
“Seeing where I’m at right now, I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Park said in an interview with the New York Times. “I’m having an experience not many get to have.”
This rare experience comes at the cost of high school and college. According to a research paper published in the Institute of Education Sciences, homeschooled students miss out on daily interactions with people their age, which results in less intimate relationships than those who attend public school.
Another research paper published by Utah State University used the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS) to assess homeschooled and public school students’ social skills regarding cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control.
They found that homeschooled kids scored lower on average, with a large gap between homeschooled and publicly schooled girls.
In the eyes of a parent, social gaps may be compensated for by academic success, which is significantly higher among homeschooled kids. The National Home Education Research Institute reported homeschooled kids scoring 15 to 25 percentile points above public schooled kids on standardized academic achievement tests.
But without the social development and experience to match, people who choose a path like Park’s are graduating early to join a workforce they may not be ready for.
Although someone who does school at home can socialize through youth groups and community volunteering, they might still miss out on a massive part of what “socialization” means. Socialization is not just hanging out with friends. It means having fights, dealing with people you disagree with, and overcoming peer pressure.
Without earlier opportunities to form close friendships or to otherwise merge into mainstream culture, homeschooled kids find difficulty when learning to interact with those who grew up in the public system, according to a paper published by Loyola University Chicago.
According to the National Institute of Health, the teenage brain isn’t done developing until the age of 25. To pass the bar by 17, Park had to commit herself to law at 13, and other potential interests and talents had to be cast aside. The first time many teens seriously consider their career path is around high school when deciding on their college major. Even later in college, about a third of students will change their major, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Stepping into the workplace years before the norm compromises psychological maturity and implies committing to a career path before most teens consider what they want to do.
Those who exchange the high school experience to get a few years ahead hinder their developing social skills and throw themselves into a professional environment they may not be psychologically ready to commit to or deal with.
