The headline: Not enough sugar and too much spice; Teen girls often gossip, bully and back-stab their way up the adolescent social ladder. The subject: The harshness and cruelty with which teenage girls often treat each other at school.

"The girl who is a complete outsider who wants to be in can be miserable and the girl who is in the group and has to constantly prove herself to stay in may have to sacrifice of herself," said Rosalind Wiseman.

Wiseman, the author of "Queen Bees and Wannabes," runs a Washington D.C. based non-profit called the Empower Program that teaches teens to stop violence and cliquish behavior that leads to conflict and violence.

I suppose that's part of the valuable socialization of which homeschooling deprives children.