It is also useful to socialize with people who are different than you. They make the majority of the world, don’t they? But at some point being only with that kind of people becomes exhausting. Finding people like you, that’s like… finally finding a home. A place where you can stop pretending, where you can fit as you are.
As I’ve indicated in this thread, I reject the notion that children are successfully socialized by putting them together in a big pile and letting them figure it out.
The younger the child, the less they need difference, and the more they need competence and acceptance, both of which the 8 year old under question will be unlikely to find institutionalized with all the other unsocialized 8 year olds, most all just too far from his level of intelligence to make suitable peers.
The 8 year old has a home—that’s where his parents live. Certainly it would be great to get him some actual peers his age too, but the socially competent elders who love him are the most important agents of his socialization at this point.
It is also useful to socialize with people who are different than you. They make the majority of the world, don’t they? But at some point being only with that kind of people becomes exhausting. Finding people like you, that’s like… finally finding a home. A place where you can stop pretending, where you can fit as you are.
As I’ve indicated in this thread, I reject the notion that children are successfully socialized by putting them together in a big pile and letting them figure it out.
The younger the child, the less they need difference, and the more they need competence and acceptance, both of which the 8 year old under question will be unlikely to find institutionalized with all the other unsocialized 8 year olds, most all just too far from his level of intelligence to make suitable peers.
The 8 year old has a home—that’s where his parents live. Certainly it would be great to get him some actual peers his age too, but the socially competent elders who love him are the most important agents of his socialization at this point.