Home Schooling
Home Schooling, the formal education of children by their parents at home. In the United States, the right to home schooling is recognized in all 50 states and the District of Columbia either by statute or in case law. Most persons who educate their children at home do so because they feel the public schools have low educational standards and lack order and discipline. Many home schooling proponents are also fundamentalist Christians who want to ensure that their children receive an education grounded in religious precepts. A few are conservative Roman Catholics who feel neither the public nor the Catholic schools provide a sufficiently religion-based education.
Critics of home schooling believe it can be detrimental to children, partly because they are deprived of the experience of working and playing with other children. Critics also believe that many parents who educate their children at home are not well enough educated to assume that role, that the curriculum is usually substandard, and that the instruction in many cases overemphasizes indoctrination.
In some school districts children receiving home schooling are required to be tested annually and parents are required to abide by certain curriculum standards, but most school districts do little to regulate home schooling.
Home School Legal Defense Associationis the largest home schooling association, with some 40,000 members. It provides information and assistance to families who want to educate their children at home. Headquarters are at Paeonian Springs, Virginia.