| For many years, homeschooling was the purview | | | | remembers from their own school days. Many |
| of those families who lived in rural areas and | | | | parents cannot bear the thought of throwing their |
| found the cost and/or time it would take to | | | | children into the kind of system that breeds a |
| transport their children to school unbearable. For | | | | pack mentality, and are choosing instead to have |
| these people, homeschooling was and continues to | | | | them educated at home. |
| be the only real option when it comes to their | | | | A very recent development in the reasons for |
| children's education. Many rural families have | | | | homeschooling is the fluidity in choices that |
| traditionally relied on their children to help around | | | | homeschooling children allows. This is especially |
| the house, and thus homeschooling allowed them | | | | apparent in Generation X, who seem to be fairly |
| to pursue their studies around the family schedule, | | | | insistent on independence and not being tied down |
| and work and education could be fit into the day | | | | to any one place or situation. Homeschooling |
| according to a suitable timetable. | | | | eliminates the need to plan all vacations around |
| Another traditional reason for families choosing | | | | established school holidays, as the pace is |
| the option of homeschool was a fundamental | | | | determined by the parent and child. |
| disagreement with what was or is being taught in | | | | Finally, parents may choose to homeschool their |
| other schooling environments. Chief among this | | | | children because they simply feel they can do a |
| group are families whose religious beliefs clash | | | | better job than any educational system. Parent of |
| with the prevailing educational methods. Families | | | | gifted children do not want to see the child |
| who choose the option of homeschooling are not | | | | wasted in the hard pressed for both resources |
| subject to the rigid curriculum of established | | | | and qualified teachers system that public schooling |
| schools, and there are many options when it | | | | represents, and private schools are becoming |
| comes to homeschool resources that can offer | | | | increasingly unaffordable for the average family. |
| as wide or as narrow a field of study as far as | | | | Parents who believe their children need the |
| worldviews that the parent wishes. | | | | advantages of a more intimate education are |
| A more recent development in the reason people | | | | therefore turning to the option of homeschooling. |
| choose to homeschool their children is that of | | | | The rise in popularity of homeschooling has meant |
| safety. School ground violence seems to be | | | | a corresponding rise in the materials available to |
| increasing, and that has many parents worried. | | | | the parent who chooses to homeschool. There |
| They feel that the best way to keep their | | | | are resources available to meet any educational |
| children away from harm is to keep them close. | | | | needs, and with a little bit of homework a parent |
| Hand-in-hand with the safety issue is a concern | | | | will find the curriculum they feel will best suit their |
| for the child's self esteem. Bullying is a common | | | | children's needs. |
| issue within any school system, as any parent well | | | | |