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A recent study of 5,402 homeschooled children from

1,657 families, conducted by Brian Ray and the HSLDA, noted

that the top three occupational groups of homeschooling

fathers were accountant or engineer (17.3 percent); profes-

sor, doctor, or lawyer (16.9 percent); and small-business

owner (10.7 percent).  According to the same survey, 87.7

percent of mothers who have chosen to stay at home and teach

their children list "homemaker" as their occupation.34

Educational researchers Jane Van Galen and Mary Ann

Pittman have categorized the two primary types of families

who choose homeschooling as ideologues and pedagogues.

Ideologues are typically the religious conservatives whom

homeschooling attracts.  Van Galen notes that ideologues

want "their children to learn fundamentalist religious

doctrine and a conservative political and social perspec-

tive" and establish homeschools to communicate to their

offspring "that the family is the most important institution

in society."35

Van Galen defines the pedagogues as those who teach

their children themselves primarily because they dislike the

professionalization and bureaucratization of modern educa-

tion.  They are parents who "come to their decision to home

school with a broader interest in learning--they have pro-

fessional training in education, they have close friends or

relatives who are educators, they have read about education

or child development, or they are involved with organiza-

tions that speak to the issue of childrearing."36

Both types of families share a common characteristic:

they have enormous confidence in their ability to do a

competent job of educating their children with minimal

institutional support.

Are There Different Methods of Homeschooling?

Families may choose to purchase a preplanned, prepack-

aged curriculum from publishers that specifically target

homeschoolers, such as A Beka Home School, Konos Curriculum,

and Saxon Publishers.  Other families may choose to enroll

their children in correspondence programs, like the Calvert

School of Maryland, the Christian Liberty Academy Satellite

Schools of Illinois, or the Clonlara School of Michigan.