The home schooling spectrum

Jay Mathews's latest column at washingtonpost.com offers selections from emails he received after confessing his "deep ignorance about the home-schooling movement" earlier this summer. He makes it clear that the stereotype of home schoolers - usually depicted as fundamentalist or right-wing zealots - doesn't bear much relation to reality. In fact, there are many reasons why parents and children pursue home schooling, not all of them religious or political. And the benefits of home schooling can be tremendous. Mathews is no cheerleader, though; he quotes plenty of parents and children who have had negative experiences. All of the stories he recounts about this rapidly maturing movement are interesting and some are quite surprising.