From my perspective, the world of the public school is actually what society is, like it or not. People don't encounter drugs, weapons, or sex in the adult world? The adult world doesn't have it's own "school of hard knocks"? News to me. (Sometimes this of course is due to poor life choices, but it's probably better to witness poor life choices firsthand.)

I'm ambivalent on homeschooling and it largely depends on motivation. I can absolutely buy homeschooling as an alternative to a poor public school district with no opportunity for quality education. I don't buy homeschooling as a way for parents to hide their children from "the real world" or other more ideological reasons, which from what I see sometimes does happen. This is a bad strategy; after all, in so many career paths who you know is just as important or even more import as what you know.

My guess is that homeschooling will produce both some of the best students and some of the worst, depending on the parent.

The worst of public school attendees in the United States join gangs and kill other human beings in US inner cities - I suspect that's much less common among homeschoolers. If true, I'd argue that the homeschool 'worst' is probably a lot better for society than the public school 'worst'. It would be an interesting research question. Disclosure: homeschooled our 4 kids, my eldest is 20 years old and working full time as a software engineer in sf. One down, three to go... :)

In the adult world, I'm much less mixed with people of different background. Sure in my coworking space there are translators, NGOs, ecologists, motion designers and programmers, but the thing is: They all work. If they beat or insult me, I can take then to court. Women also have a lot of protections against harassment. And I don't remember anyone talking about their swirlie experience in any workplace.

School, to me, is like jail: It's the only place where I can meet such unregulated behaviors.

First of all, what have you got against sex and weapons? Are you a commie or something? (/jk)

Second, yes, it's true that there are gangs, crime, bullying, popularity-obsessed people, etc., in the real world. But the difference is this: outside public school, those are bad behaviors, which lead to unsuccessful outcomes. If you want to teach children to succeed in society, you need to teach the opposite of what public school "socialization" teaches.