I too have been looking up a few definitions and thought I'd share them with you:
School - from the Greek scholé originally meaning ‘Leisure’ and also ‘that in which leisure is employed’ is an institution designed to allow and encourage students to learn.
Institution – structures and mechanisms of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals.
School is most definitely an institution put in place to create social order not socialization.
Our kids are part of the whole world and not just a governed institution. As homeschooling parents we can all be proud that our children are given the chance to interact with people of all age groups, from different walks of life and in everyday situations.
If that's not socialization then I don't know what is!!!
Our kids have friends from 3 to 72 not just a bunch of friends the same age just because they happen to be stuck in a box with them for hours every day!