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Homeschooling is opting out of formal public and private schools in order to educate children in the home or in specially arranged classes or cooperatives.  Parents take a more active role in the education of their children when they homeschool.

Homeschooling is opting out of formal public and private schools in order to educate children in the home or in specially arranged classes or cooperatives.  Parents take a more active role in the education of their children when they homeschool.

The primary reason for homeschooling is to give the child a better education.  A close second in reasons, however, is to avoid the culture of public school and its many adverse effects of hostility to Christianity and parental control, political bias, boredom, confusion, depression, etc.

Families who homeschool do so for a number of reasons.  Frequently mentioned reasons include concern about safety, drugs, and peer pressure at other schools, dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools, the ability to provide religious or moral instruction along with academics, the ability to control what the child is being taught, flexibility in meeting the needs of a child with special needs (such as a physical or mental health problem, a temporary illness, or giftedness), and flexibility in scheduling family life.  <ref>[http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/homeschool/TableDisplay.asp?TablePath=TablesHTML/table_4.asp ] Homeschooling in the United States: 2003 Statistical Analysis Report, National Center for Educational Statistics, NCES 2006-042, Feb 2006</ref>

In the United States, opting out of public schools is not new. When Thomas Edison's public school teacher said he was "addled," Edison's mother took him out of public school and taught him at home. But because of compulsory education laws&mdash;the first was passed in Massachusetts in 1852, and by 1918 every state had them&mdash;schooling at home was a violation of truancy laws, and was rare until the 1970s.  

In the United States, opting out of public schools is not new. When Thomas Edison's public school teacher said he was "addled," Edison's mother took him out of public school and taught him at home. But because of compulsory education laws&mdash;the first was passed in Massachusetts in 1852, and by 1918 every state had them&mdash;schooling at home was a violation of truancy laws, and was rare until the 1970s.