Home schooling

Homeschooling, also known as home education, is the education of children inside the home. Home education is usually conducted by a parent or tutor. Many families that start out with a formal school structure at home often switch to less formal ways of imparting education outside of school. "Homeschooling" is the term commonly used in North America, whereas "home education" is more commonly used in the United Kingdom, elsewhere in Europe, and in many Commonwealth countries.

Before the introduction of compulsory school attendance laws, most childhood education was imparted by the family or community. In several countries homeschooling, in the modern sense, is considered to be an alternative to attending public or private schools and is a legal option for parents. In other nations, homeschooling is considered illegal or is restricted to specific conditions, as noted in the Homeschooling international status and statistics. According to the US National Household Education Surveys, about three percent of all children in the US were homeschooled in the 2011 and 2012 school year. And as of 2016, there are about 2.3 million home-schooled students in the United States (Brian, 2016). The studies found that of these children, 83 percent were White, 5 percent were Black, 7 percent were Hispanic, and 2 percent were Asian or Pacific Islander.

For much of history and in many cultures, enlisting professional teachers (whether as tutors or in a formal academic setting) was an option available only to the elite social classes. Thus, until relatively recently, the vast majority of people, especially during early childhood, were educated by family members, family friends, or anyone with useful knowledge.

The earliest public schools in modern Western culture were established in the early 16th century in the German states of Gotha and Thuringia. However, even in the 18th century, the majority of people in Europe lacked formal schooling, meaning they were homeschooled, tutored, or received no education at all. Regional differences in schooling existed in colonial America; in the south, farms and plantations were so widely dispersed that community schools such as those in the more compact settlements were impossible. In the middle colonies, the educational situation varied when comparing New York with New England until the 1850s. Formal schooling in a classroom setting has been the most common means of schooling throughout the world, especially in developed countries, since the early- and mid-19th century. Native Americans, who traditionally used homeschooling and apprenticeship, vigorously resisted compulsory education in the United States.

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