Public schools are generally pretty terrible at socialization. The students interact mostly only with kids of their same exact age. Bullying and violence are ubiquitous. Sure, you learn how to conduct yourself in that particular environment, but it's unlike any other environment you'll see in your adult life outside of a prison.
The social environment of any school, public or private, is a function of the prevailing norms and behaviors of the community it serves. Bullying and violence are nothing specific to public schools. Many private schools have similar issues, and many public schools have few of those issues. It isn't as simple as you would like to portray it.
If a third grader hangs around third graders all day in school then I would expect those would be his friends. Until he starts participating in activities where kids participate in where the grades get mixed (ie. school basketball team). This seems entirely appropriate to me.
And you're comparing public schools to prison? Remote learning for all of them would fix this?
The point is that of all of the places where a kid could be socialized the public schools are at best sub-par and at worst counterproductive. It seems appropriate to you likely because it's a societal norm and it's what you've experienced, but it's not the best environment that you can give your child.
And I don't know why you're clutching your pearls about the prison comparison. It's a common topic of discussion, how the public schools are similar to prisons, employ similar methodologies, how the stakeholders have similar motivations, and even how the two systems are symbiotic with one another.
I'm not saying remote work will necessarily solve everyone's problems, but that if you're concerned about your child's socialization you should be concerned about what's happening to him in the public schools.
