Peer influences will inevitably be problematic and dangerous throughout the course of one's lifetime. If a teenager doesn't learn how to handle these influences in high school, then the dangers will invariably be exacerbated in adulthood.
Well, yes & no. The main problem is that high school is a very artificial environment in which a student has very little freedom.
Consider bullying. I had to deal with bullies in jr. high & high school, because there simply was no way to avoid them. But after high school, I didn't go where the bullies were. Problem solved. Yes, there were bullies in elementary school, but they weren't really capable of doing much damage yet.
And there is a flip side: teenagers are protected from the consequences of their decisions. This is another reason for bullying: the bullies get away with it. But in the adult world, violent people can be fired, jailed, etc.
And bullying is just one issue of many.
So, yes, peer influences can be a problem throughout life; however I definitely do not see the adult world as being more dangerous, if you can't figure out how survive in the teen world. Certainly my own experience does not support that idea.
See also PGs essays on high school. I don't mean that he is supporting my ideas; rather he provides a good explanation of why high school is different from "the real world". Thus, I don't see that figuring out how to survive high school really gives one much in the way of practical life skills for the long term.
This has as much to do with the parents as it does with the kids. Most of the home schooled kids I know (which is actually quite a few) are very well-balanced socially, as they've been involved in home schooling co-ops, sports, and other "after school" activities. In fact, I think many of them can deal with peer influences better than "schooled" kids, as they are more confident with themselves.
In my personal experience, we homeschoolers are as varied as "normal" kids. There were those incapable of dealing socially with anyone outside their immediate families. And there were those of us comfortable and capable of dealing with people of all ages.
Me personally, my social interaction outside sports was so varied I became much more adept at interacting with older and younger people rather than my own peer group. As a child, especially in middle and high school, I was often frustrated by the "rules" of peer groups. Dealing with people younger or older let me treat them as people - and vice versa.
Few would disagree that a teenager should learn how do deal with peer influence, but many would disagree with the idea that the artificial social environment of high school is the best place to learn, or even a good one. It is not a microcosm of the adult world.
