Preparing For The Real World??

"We want our children to be prepared for the real world."

"Don't you think your kids need to experience the real world"

These are statements I have heard more times than I can count in discussions about the merits of public schooling versus homeschooling.  It's implied that school is "the real world" and homeschooling is some kind of utopian virtual reality.

I would like to question the idea that school is representative of "the real world", even the secular "real world".  Where do adults experience being in such close proximity to twenty or more adults of almost exactly the same age for hours a day with all breaks scripted by a bell?  Where do adults experience having to ask permission to leave their workplace for a toilet break?  Where do adults need to raise their hand in order to speak to their boss?  Where do adults need permission from their boss to speak to their colleagues during working hours?  

On the other hand, while homeschooling, my children experience everyday activities that I rarely experienced as a child -  grocery shopping, meal preparation, house cleaning and more.  They also interact regularly with people of all ages in our community.  Something that I rarely experienced as a child.  My daughters have milked goats, raised chickens and slaughtered sheep.  They have also made phone calls to organize buying animals from strangers.  How is this considered less real than the life of a classroom?

For some school serves a purpose.  For some that purpose may be mostly worthwhile.  But please, let us stop this pretence that the purpose of school is to prepare children for the real world.