Excellent points—and they need repeating as long as the stigma is applied.
No class, race, or gender, has a monopoly on weirdness or social deficiency. It occurs across the board. Social misfits abound in public school. To single out a class for a deficiency is uncivil brutality calculated to demean.
However, I did wish to address SBprone's point.
And to do so, I tell you that when my eldest was about 3 years old, I did look into homeschooling. I attended a social event at a park. Very, very nice people. What I saw then was a group of highly civilized, academically oriented families. At the same time, elsewhere at this public park, was a group of pub-ed schoolers using the park for an activity; call it "recess". This group was racuous, not very civil, fairly wild, more into fun, being cool, racing the wind. My husband I decided that night to try pub ed. Why? We wanted our daughter "mainstreamed". We wanted her to find her bearings inside a "microcosm" of the society at large.
Well, some have already heard the rest of my adventures in this regard, as to how my daughter came to be homeschooled very soon after her onset in pub ed.
The real issue, which made us decide: Is our daughter actually getting an education.
We began homeschooling. Not at all in isolation, not at all to "hide" from the microcosm of the public "at large".
We knew that a "child should be trained from the get-go" in how they should live. And going the pub ed path in the location we were living was a sure way to ensure chaos and trouble and little to no education. Just lots of fun, indoctrination, fitting in, conflict resolution, gangs, foul language, mispelling, no science, little math.....
Inside the pub ed classroom was one whole "recess".
I, for one, didn't take offense to SBprone's words: I wished to address it, on the level, with what my own experiences have been. SBprone found homeschoolers with a "wierdness" factor. Homeschooling takes place 24-7: It's a lifestyle. Fully getting into any location and experience. Being vital and aware of one's full surroundings.
Pub Ed: Another lifestyle, largely involving going for what one wants, ignoring all other the factors around, and having a good time.
I really didn't think the "weirdness" factor had much to do with homeschooling kids, actually.
Absolutely all the homeschooling families I know, knew, still know, have few to no problems with sibling rivalry. And what rivalry does exist is at very civil and appropriate levels. The same, I cannot say for pub ed kids. Pub ed kids bring their "other world" inside the home with them. They have a bad day at school, everyone at home gets to experience it, too.
This just doesn't happen in homeschooling families. The goal is clear - education, civility, becoming life-long learners.