r many diverse reasons. These reasons are said to include: differences in religion, concerns about the safety of public schools, overcrowding of public schools, contrasting views about discipline, providing a better learning environment for special needs children, avoiding negative peer pressure, devoting more time to development of children's special talents and interests, and beliefs that school curricula are ineffective or irrelevant.
It should be noted here that many home schooling parents hold more than one of the just delineated views. Indeed, despite some sociodemographic differences, LaRue and LaRue (1991) report that there is a common theme that emerges in the thinking of parents regarding their reasons for home schooling. The commonalities comprising this theme include a concern for independent thought, a longing to strengthen the family, and a frustration with the bureaucratic limits of conventional schools.
According to the Home School Legal Defense Fund (1998), most of the parents who home school are Christian and, as such, many of their reasons for home schooling their
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