M.W. Sullivan, one of the earliest educational programmers, was asked how a child could develop socially out of school and how he would ever learn to get along with other kids. He, in turn, asked for proof that the school does a better socializing job than the home. Exactly what John Dewey heralded at the onset of the twentieth century has indeed happened, our once highly individualized nation has evolved into a centrally managed village, an agora made up of huge special interests which regard individual voices as irrelevant. The masquerade is managed by having collective agencies speak through particular human beings. Dewey said this would mark a great advance in human affairs, but the net effect is to reduce men and women to the status of functions in whatever sub-system they are placed.
Public opinion is turned on and off in laboratory fashion.
All of this in the name of social efficiency, one of the two main goals of forced schooling. Socialization is not 'done' by confining children within four walls, making them sit still, shut up, stand in line, ask questions only at appropriate times, obey mindlessly and respond appropriately to the harsh noise of bells and the shriek of playground monitors' whistles. School-type socialization is a dynamic that clearly is designed to bring people under the control of authority and to obedience to group standards, norms and peer pressure. True socialization enables the powers of emotional, spiritual and intellectual development to grow together at a gentle pace just as the individual grows physically and mentally. Children need a close, intimate relationship with an adult and caring role models to learn and to understand the positive attributes of giving, sharing, helping, loving - they need their parents and family.