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"It takes serious numbers for developing humans to catch on to the nuances of accepted behavior and to have a chance to make enough friends. I just can't see homeschooling providing adequate socialization."

Here's some examples of government-school "socialization":

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My youngest son, who is in the fifth grade, brought home a letter from the principal yesterday. I seems he was disciplined for fighting. The letter stated that he had been knocked to the ground and was being kicked by a group of fellow students, and he got up and started hitting them back as I have always taught both of my boys. My son was punished for defending himself.
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At my Jr. H.S., it was standard policy to send BOTH parties involved in a fight home. A bully always slapped a friend of mine in the back of the head when he came into class EVERY day. And the wimp of a teacher did NOTHING!!!!! So one day my buddy switched seats with me an the bully hit me, and I stood up. I kicked his ass, of course. The teacher did NOTHING, AGAIN!!!!! But I was sent home, even though the priciple told my dad that the bully admitted to starting the fight. It was just school policy.
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Beginning of the school year some high school kid decides to establish a pecking order that includes my son...........resulting in him being pushed off his bike and picked on over a few days.

Our school has a "policy" against bullying, fighting, etc. At the open house my wife and I meet with the vice principal (after phone conversations) and put him on notice - we have noted the problem, the school has failed to deal with the issue-----he states that they will try to monitor the situation.

Fast-forward to a week later------big kid pushes my son off the bike at a corner......as my son gets up to brush himself off big kid comes in for more......a combination sweep of his legs and blow to his chest leaves the big kid gasping for air and in a world of hurt for awhile Big kid's buddy trys to get involved........ and discovers my son's foot in his face.
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I have been attacked several times at school. If there are teachers or administrators around, I just take it like a good little sheep. I already have bad enough grades, no sense making them worse by being suspended.

Now, if there aren't any admins around... at least I only have to hit back once or twice before they quit.
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My brother had the same problem. The school bully and his posse thump my nephew around a couple times, nephew won't fight back because he doesn't want trouble. School won't do anything about it.

Brother tells him to fight back in the future. Next time it happens, the bully ends up with a bloody snoot, and the principal called a meeting between parents to resolve the situation.
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I was standing in line to have my test graded in 5th grade math, and there was this jerk behind me. His back was about 3ft from the wall, as the line curved and they were standing parrallel. This is important for later.

So I was standing there, and the little jerk wouldnt leave me alone. Poking, hitting, slapping the back of my head. No matter what I said, he wouldnt stop, and the instructor was oblivious. Luckily, he was also the basketball coach.

Much to the dismay of the jerk in question, I had seen Goldfinger the night previously, and for some reason, the get-out-of-a-choke hands up then slammed into the ribcage move stuck with me. So, I turn around, and push him and tell him to stop. He decides he is going to grab me by the sholders and try something. Having remembered the move well, I executed it flawlessly. Hands up between his, knocking his arms out of the way, then straight down into his ribs with authority! He doubled over, and then I promptly body slammed him (little skinny punk, I weighed almost twice what he did) into the concrete wall. I then told him in a scary calm voice to "leave me alone." He did so after that...

My teacher said to take it outside next time, and not in his classroom. Ehh.
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I just have to share my daughter's experience when she was in JH. She's not imposing to look at, at 5'2", but swam competitively for about 9 years and even swam a 1500 freestyle event using the butterfly stroke to make a point. (Mostly the coach making a point about her to her).

One day near the end of school some boy attempted liberties with regards to her clothing that were uninvited, unwanted, and inappropriate. She decked him and made him cry.
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Personally, when I finally found myself surrounded by my elementary school tormentors, shoving me and calling me names, and swung out and caught one of them on the lip with my dentist's-office ring, I was sent to the office.

When I was being daily tormented by a pair of classmates during my newspaper route, it only came to a halt when I finally whipped a rock at him and hit the ringleader in the thigh from about 10 feet away.

How does this typical, run-of-the mill government-school socialization have anything to do with real life? In real life, if this kind of thing happened in a workplace, the oblivious supervisors would be sued right down to the kitchen sink and the perpetrators would be rotting in jail.

As per your statements:

When my brother and I were in Middle School(6-8th. grades), my brother was being picked on daily my a bully in his class. I told hem to fight back but he did not want to get in trouble.

One day while standing in line for lunch, this bully who weighed about the same as myself comes by and starts poking his finger in my face telling me he's going to "whup" my brother when he sees him.

I grabbed his finger and bent it back to his wrist and put him down on his knees while telling him not to ever poke his finger in my face again or I would brake his finger off and shove it down his face. I also told him if he ever bothered my younger brother again he would hear from me again!
He never bothered my brother again and would always give me a wide berth when he saw me coming. By the way I was not that intimidating at that age (5'6")and was considered to be very easy going. It was just that I stood up to him while others would knuckle under and take it. I guess it was the Irish in me(wink).
My teacher who saw and heard everything that went on, came over and congratulated me for standing up to this bully. He then took him to the Principles office for discipline. He was a rare Teacher who was a Conservative and a patriot. Most of the female teachers just looked the other way so that they would not have to deal with the problem.