It’s a decision that is more and more perplexing to government school officials, but more and more clear to parents. Each year parents are pulling their children out of school at extremely high rates. These rates are often so high that state education officials find themselves attempting to change current homeschool laws to make the withdrawal from government schools more difficult.

In a quest to find answers I surveyed over 1000 homeschooling families from the United States and Canada. Their responses to my question “What is the top reason you pulled your child out of school, or decided not to send your child to school?” were many. I received over 300 different answers in total, and the most popular are outlined below.

-Lack of individual instruction. Much to my surprise religion was not the number one reason parents choose to homeschool. The overall number one reason the parents I surveyed made the decision to homeschool was the “failure” of government schools, and private schools alike, to provide individualized instruction. Many parents felt their children were being cheated in the traditional school system, and they feel they can provide the better education their children deserve. In most schools individual attention from teachers is less than six minutes per day, total.

-Religious Reasons - The majority of respondents who gave religion as their primary reason for home educating stated that they were conservative Christians. Many conservative Christian families do not believe that a government school can properly teach their children the values and lessons they wish to learn, and they wish to incorporate Biblical training in all aspects of their children’s education. Interestingly, I also heard from families of many other beliefs (Muslim, Buddhist, & Wiccan to name a few) who stated religion as their top reason for homeschooling.

-Current academic standards of American schools are seen as lax an inferior.

-Food allergy concerns. Along the same line, several families replied that they follow a vegetarian or vegan diet and their children’s school district did not make allowances for their beliefs. In one instance the children were not allowed to bring their lunches to school for fear of children packing weapons in lunchboxes.

-Medical concerns. Many parents stated that their children became homeschoolers in response to developing illnesses from the school environment. Some children developed allergies from molds in school, and some simply contracted more viruses from everyday contact with hundreds of other children.

-Ethical concerns. Some parents responded that they do not feel the government has a say in the rearing of their children, as long as they are not being physically abused. These parents feel that it is a duty of the parent to provide the best education possible for their child, and the government shouldn’t have a say in what the parents decide is best.

-Safety. Parents continually listed the personal safety of their children as a major benefit of homeschooling. Fears ranged from those of weapons inside schools, to bullies, to teachers abusing students. Some parents also stated a biological attack on public buildings as a confirmation of their safety worries.

-Compulsory age disagreement. Many parents believe that there is nothing “magical” about the age of 4, 5, or even 6 that determine a child’s readiness to attend school.

-Competition. Parents see that the school environment promotes competition among students, and they do not wish to have their children exposed to this at an early age.

-Unnatural age association. Parents theorize that their children will not enter the workforce with people solely their age, so why segregate their peers to those only of the same age?

-Socialization. From peer pressure to unnatural age association, parents believe homeschooled children obtain better social skills at an earlier age. Parents insist that being exposed to citizens of different cultures, different age, different occupation, different social status, and different beliefs adds a great deal of real-life socialization to their child’s life. School children, for the most part, are socialized among a large group of peers with very little guidance. One parent put it like this: “Is it really a good idea to have thirty ten year olds deciding what is cool and what’s not?”

What stands out most to me, after this survey, is the realization that for many families the government schools just do not work for their children. It’s been estimated that there are as many as 1.8 million homeschooled children in the United States alone, that’s approximately 2% of the school-age population. Each family has their own unique reason for homeschooling. It’s very obvious to these parents that unless there is a dramatic change in the system of public education, and a very quick one, more and more children will be withdrawn from the government education system.