[DuncanKinney]

This socialization comment is one that my coworkers always brings up. "They're breeding serial killers" he half-jokes.

I wasn't very well socialized in school. Maybe that's why I was interested in writing this story.

[nicholasjbs]

The socialization question is an extremely common one, and it usually indicates that the person asking it thinks unschooling is somehow "school at home" or something similar. This is frustrating, since it's exactly the opposite of the truth: People unschool their children so they can be exposed to a wider range of social experiences than those provided in the narrow and artificial environment of most schools.

I think pg's essay on why nerds are unpopular has some good insight into much of the "socialization" that goes on in school: http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html

[tomjen3]

Thats kind of funny, until you realize he is actually right.

Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris would not have been serial killers if they had not be so mercilessly bullied in school.

Granted most people don't end up as serial killers, but they do end up pretty ruffled and with psychic scars for the rest of their life.

The irony is that if geeks actually did kill more people they would have women falling all over them in prison.

[tokenadult]

Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris would not have been serial killers if they had not be so mercilessly bullied in school.

Causation for that has not been rigorously demonstrated. But, agreed, the school social environment they were in is described by press reports as having been toxic even before they brought their weapons to the school.

[philwelch]

Technically they weren't serial killers at all--their killings were not really in series so much as all at once. They were "parallel killers".