Precocious and Opinionated?

Another criticism of Home Education that often lurks in the background but only intermittently rears it's unsightly head, is that HE children are obnoxious because they are precocious and opinionated. I guess people who think this, daren't say it very often, since most parents often actually wouldn't mind having children who demonstrate these qualities, and the critic would probably unconsciously realise that they were recruiting for the other side, or that they would be caught out in some form of unconscious covetousness or envy.

But to take the criticism seriously, if only for just a minute, could it be true that HEers are nurturing a bunch of opinionated, over-confident brats?

Evidence-wise, I would say "NO". HE children in all groups I have ever encountered, always seem to be an entirely mixed bag of individuals, so I wonder who it is that these critics, (eg: Carol Sarler, Express columnist and guest on Radio 2 prog on HE), have come across.

Plus, those children who are not only HE'd but who are also taken seriously, tend not to need to express their opinions that forceably, since they know that they will, (mostly) be listened to. They also understand about fallibilism, since their parents will be demonstrating these qualities too; they will know the limits of knowledge; they will know that they cannot be certain, and they know that they can always look to improve upon their knowledge, all of which is likely to put limits upon qualities such as opinionated precociousness.