Thanks for sharing your story! What a journey. I don't think it's easy on the teachers and administrators, certainly. I don't really think it's their fault, but rather an issue within the broader education system. I have lots of friends who are teachers/educators and see through them how difficult it can be navigating aggressive teenagers or defensive parents, even. So definitely not a job to be taken lightly.

While I agree about the socializing aspect, I think that's a common misconception of home education. People imagine it as sitting inside the house all day long, which isn't necessarily the case. There's communities built around home education and most parents practicing it that I know take their children to activities, traveling, etc, places where they're able to meet and interact with loads of kids of all ages. That's actually one of my favorite aspects of this style, that it doesn't segregate based on age but rather allows kids to interact with different ages, form hierarchies and relationships with kids at different points in the journey from themselves, which is valuable as they're bound to need that later in life.

Coming back to your story, I think your advice to the kids to become their own disciplinarian was very wise. :)