When most people think of school, they think of bricks and mortar and the teachers, administrators, and other employees who staff school buildings.
But for an increasing number of students in the United States, home is the classroom and the teacher is a parent.
The Department of Education estimates that nationwide, more than a million students are now being educated at home. That is about 2 percent of the K-12 school population.
In the past, families that taught their children at home lived in isolated environments or held strict religious views at odds with the secular environment of public schools.
But today, home schooling is attracting a broader range of families not necessarily tied to organized religion.
Poor academic quality, peer pressure, and school violence are motivating many parents to teach their children at home.
Indeed, recent publicity on school shooting sprees seems to have accelerated the move toward home schooling.