Social Skills Come from Being Social

 My 3rd post is about social skills.

I talked with my daughter about a school orientation that is coming up this summer, and she was feeling anxious to go back to school.  When we moved down to Florida, she went right into pandemic online education and has not met any students at her school, and she was nervous about doing it.  I have talked for a year about the social and emotional impact these lockdowns would have on kids development, and here it is.  We are going to see ALL students impacted by skipping important non academic development points that just cannot be done by online.

Anyway, I explained that as I had learned in my Education coursework, when I was going to do that, that school was not just about subjects you learned but important things like learning how to interact with others and how to develop diversity, as well.  When you are cooped up in a house or even a small town, you get to only know your own circle and begin to think that ALL people are like that.  That is why so many rich have a hard time understanding the plight of the poor.... or even other races.  I grew up in a town with NO black students.  I believe I have developed quite a lot of diversity, afterwards, but even so I know my understanding of their cultures are lacking.

You cannot read and understand being social.  You have to get out there and learn it by doing it, like riding a bike.  It will be scary, and you will make mistakes, but that is the ONLY way you will be able to interact and function in the world, today.  Whether it be being social with the other sex for interest or JUST AS FRIENDS, the ONLY way you can succeed is by a lot of failures and just doing it, even when you are ready.  I hope we all remember that, as we begin to re-integrate as a functional society.