Home schooling

When I was in the United States, I stayed with a host family who was home schooling their daughter.

The mother told me that she was doing home schooling because she did not trust the public school system. She also thought that it would be best for her teenage daughter to pass through middle school easier because she would not be exposed to peer pressure. She was not concerned that her daughter would miss social interaction, thinking that the girl could learn all about society within the family.
She was sure that the girl also preferred to be a home schooler because this way she was more
flexible in her curriculum and could do what she liked (e.g. take piano lessons or do ice skating as a P.E. class).

The girl, however, told be that she hated to be home schooled because she did not get to see her friends anymore. She was able to meet with other people her age, but not the people she liked but the people her parents chose for her. And she wanted to join the local middle school's sports team but couldn't. She wanted to learn Spanish but her mother only knew a little bit French, so she had to learn that language.

However, there is a happy end to the story. When the girl was in 9th grade, her parents finally 'had mercy on her' and let her go to the local high school. Now, she is the star of the cross country team and happily wearing jerseys in her school colours.