I was homeschooled, so I don't have any first-hand experience, but in my possibly flawed observation: High-school has always seemed to me a very artificial and

I was homeschooled, so I don't have any first-hand experience, but in my possibly flawed observation: High-school has always seemed to me a very artificial and unhealthy sort of social environment, where the social hierarchies and rules are defined by other high-schoolers, who don't have a lot of maturity or experience. Is this wrong? Is high-school in general a good social preparation for 'the real world', or is it a matter of finding the right group of people to hang out with?