Chocolate Vegetables

I think we have been blindly following some great idea that our children learn how to be social by being social.  You know, as in being able to talk to others their own age or older or younger.

Has anyone considered that maybe socialisation is more about learning what to do to be social (fitting into our society), and they do that by watching and observing us in how we interact with people and that may very well be why children "socialised" at school are actually not very social.  They blunder their way through playground relationships and have no real guidance on how to act around others while they are supervised by some stray teachers on a playground who can not hear every interaction and to help in guiding it to be more socially correct.  They don't learn the steps needed to compromise, or have empathy, or how to be polite.

I am sure most of us adults would say thank you at the post office, bank or shop as we leave.  We say hello and how are you to our friends.  We go back and forth in a dialogue.  We share experiences and empathise.  We compromise on a future play date.

By hanging around us, even if they don't actually participate, they are being socialised.  They are learning how to be social and act in our society.

Well, don't often have a soap box moment, will crawl back into my hole now.  :-)