The review of literature presented here offers a comprehensive overview of the literature on home schooling. The review covers several aspects of this literature. These include: (1) historical aspects of home schooling; (2) reasons why parents choose to home school; (3) characteristics of families electing to home school (4) objections of the public education system to home schooling; (5) legal aspects of home schooling; (6) research on the effectiveness of home schooling; and (7) home schooling in New Hampshire. This final section is included because the proposed study shall examine home schooling in the state of New Hampshire and this section will therefore provide context for the setting.
Historical Aspects of Home Schooling
Tobak and Zirkel (1982) reported that in colonial American responsibility for the education of children was invested in parents, so much so that parents not only had the authority to school their children, they had the authority to choose not to school their children. The fact that most parents chose to school (as well as the fact that home schooling was successful) can be seen in a comment purported to have been made by John Adams who said that a person who could not read and write in New England of 1765 was as rare as a comet (Dupont-de-Nemours, 1923).
Even as late as 1925, the right of parents to educate their children was upheld by the Supreme Court. Indeed, in Pierce vs. Society of Sisters (1925), the U.S. Supreme Court declared that both parents and guardians have the right to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control. Specifically, the court wrote that:
The child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right. . .to recognize and prepared him for additional obligations.
Whitehead and Bird (1984) have noted that in the first two centuries of America's existence, courts traditionally upheld the right of parent...