| Homeschooling refers to the alternative education | | | | children from exceptionally inferior homes, they |
| of children at home by parents or tutors, rather | | | | maintained that the vast majority of children are |
| than in a formal setting of public or private school. | | | | far better situated at home, even with mediocre |
| This was the system of education before the | | | | parents, than with the most gifted and motivated |
| public and private schools were introduced for | | | | teachers in a school setting assuming that the |
| formal education. In many places, homeschooling is | | | | child has a gifted and motivated teacher. |
| a legal option for parents who wish to provide | | | | There are different methodologies of |
| their children with a different learning environment | | | | Homeschooling depending on type of curriculum |
| than exists in nearby schools. While academic and | | | | and the medium of learning like unit learning, online |
| religious reasons dominate the motivations for | | | | learning or community learning. The reasons for |
| homeschooling, parents cite numerous other | | | | homeschooling vary from religion, morality to the |
| reasons ranging from dissatisfaction with the | | | | feeling that school have a poor learning |
| schools in their area to the desire for better | | | | environment. It is not uncommon for the student |
| academic test results. It is also an alternative for | | | | to experience more than one approach as the |
| families living in isolated rural locations and those | | | | family discovers what works best for them vary |
| who choose, for practical or personal reasons, not | | | | in official curriculum and attendance requirements. |
| to have their children attend school. | | | | Homeschooling is legal in many countries. Countries |
| For much of history and in many cultures, enlisting | | | | with the most prevalent home education |
| professional teachers was an option available only | | | | movements include Australia, Canada, New |
| to small elite. Thus, until relatively recently, the | | | | Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United |
| vast majority of people were educated by | | | | States. Some countries have highly regulated |
| parents and in the context of a specific type of | | | | home education programs as an extension of the |
| labour that they would pursue in adult life, such as | | | | compulsory school system; others, such as |
| working in the fields or learning a trade. They | | | | Germany and Brazil, have outlawed it entirely. In |
| asserted that formal schooling before ages | | | | other countries, while not restricted by law, |
| 8–12 not only lacked the anticipated | | | | homeschooling is not socially acceptable or |
| effectiveness but was actually harmful to children. | | | | considered undesirable and is virtually non-existent. |
| Their primary assertion was that the bonds and | | | | Although there are some studies that show that |
| emotional development made at home with | | | | homeschooled students can do well on |
| parents during these years produced critical long | | | | standardized tests, some of these studies |
| term results that were cut short by enrolment in | | | | compare voluntary home school testing with |
| schools and could neither be replaced nor | | | | mandatory public-school testing. To summarize |
| afterward corrected in an institutional setting. | | | | – Homeschooling is here to stay and is proving |
| Recognizing a necessity for early out-of-home | | | | to be a serious alternative to the present |
| care for some children – particularly special | | | | schooling system. |
| needs and starkly impoverished children and | | | | |