Although there are numerous reasons families choose to
home school their children, Van Galen (1988) appropriately
places home schoolers into two distinct categories:
ideologues and pedagogues. The ideologues argue that they
home school their children for two reasons: “they object to
what they believe is being taught in public and private
schools and they seek to strengthen their relationships with
their children” (Van Galen 1988, 55). These parents have
specific beliefs, values, and skills that they want their children
to learn and embrace. Because they are convinced that
these things are not being adequately taught in public
school, they opt for home schooling.
The ideologues’ argument is essentially religiously
based. Often “these parents view the public schools as
grounded in secular humanist philosophy that does not include
strong Christian values” (Marchant and MacDonald
1994, 66). They move beyond issues such as school prayer
and argue that public schools fail to take religion seriously
throughout the curriculum. This becomes problematic for
these families because “their religious beliefs and the education
of their children were inextricably intertwined”
(Marchant and MacDonald 1994, 77). These parents have a
deep concern for their children’s moral, ethical, and spiritual
development, and they feel that public schools do not
provide appropriate moral or ethical instruction, much less
religious values. Therefore, they home school their children
in an attempt to avoid public school’s perceived attempt to
strangle religion’s influence