Abstract
This paper analyzes the reasons that parents choose to teach their children at home. From data collected over 18 months of qualitative research in a state in the southeast, three broad explanations for choosing home schooling emerged. First, the parents believe that home education will strengthen their families. Second, many home-schooling parents (particularly those who are fundamentalist Christians) believe that schools teach values and beliefs that directly contradict those they want their children to learn. Third, many of the parents believe that only they, as parents, understand their children's unique educational needs well enough to effectively teach them. The failure of educational policy makers to consider the extraeducational issues raised by home-schooling parents is then discussed.
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Van Galen, J.A. Explaining home education: Parents' accounts of their decisions to teach their own children. Urban Rev 19, 161–177 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01111877
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01111877