The social experiment needs a change

It has been said that school is the biggest social experiment of the time of humans.  I see the President calling for "Education reform"  I see zero tolerance policies expelling small children for toy guns, I see the NJEA claiming to care about students but seemingly caring more about Superintendents inflated salaries and I see bullying gone so far as to cause young people to take their own lives.

Oh yes we need reform but not in the form of longer days, stricter classes, harder tests.  We do not need more school.  We need less.
Children need one on one supervision and care.  Children need to be heard.   Children need to play and they need to wonder and they need to make mistakes.
They need adults to guide them and show them right from wrong.

You can't win a battle with a bully by legislating behavior or using zero tolerance polices or lenghty assemblies on bullying.
Bullying starts and ends with self confidence and an abiltiy to  feel empathy.  This is milestone and kids don't have it immediately.
Throwing them all together in a classsroom where emotional needs of all can not be met is the makings for bullying. 
I know not all kids can be homeschooled.  It's just not reality.    However while the subject is on Education reform, let's stop and think what the kids need not what we think will make them into smarter faster little robots that can outperform other countries.
Let's slow them down, let them create and show them that the adults around them care about them and will guide them through difficult feelings.  Show them we care more about how they feel  than we care about math grade.
Sounds like an impossible plan , I know.; However as long as reform is on the table let's really reform it and not just make it stricter and firmer. That's not reformation.  That's just more of the same.

Socialization is the number one question people ask about homeschooled kids.  How will they make friends everyone wonders.   My biggest mistake in homeschooling was letting the worry about making friends more important than family life. It's not that I don't think kids should have other kids to play with but it isn't the be all end all that we sometimes think it is.  I think there is a school mentality that is so pervasive that it influences how children are raised. School is not the answer to social children.  With cliques and bullies the experiment shows over and over that children's basic needs are  being neglected yet the rules just keep stricter and kids are being expelled b/c the school can't deal with any infraction (Hey they might get sued for the 5 year old bringing the toy gun to school) 
If the school can not deal with teaching the child then maybe that's where reform needs to start.  Not with grades not with test scores but with making the school enviornment one that meets children's needs.

Let them play let them learn.