Homeschooling or homeschool (also called home education or home learning) is the education of children at home, typically by parents or professional tutors, rather than in a public or private school.

Although prior to the introduction of compulsory school attendance laws, most childhood education occurred within the family or community, homeschooling in the modern sense is an alternative in developed countries to formal education.

In many places homeschooling is a legal option for parents who wish to provide their children with a different learning environment than exists in nearby schools. These motivations range from a dissatisfaction with the schools in their area to the dissatisfaction of modern schools in general. It is also an alternative for families living in isolated rural locations and those who choose, for practical or personal reasons, not to have their children attend school.

Homeschooling may also refer to instruction in the home under the supervision of correspondence schools or umbrella schools. In some places, an approved curriculum is legally required if children are to be home-schooled. A curriculum-free philosophy of homeschooling may be called unschooling, a term coined in 1977 by American educator John Holt in his magazine Growing Without Schooling.

For much of history and in many cultures, enlisting professional teachers (whether as tutors or in a formal academic setting) was an option available only to a small elite. Thus, until relatively recently, the vast majority of people were educated by parents (especially during early childhood) and in the context of a specific type labor that they would pursue in adult life, such as working in the fields or learning a trade.

The earliest compulsory education in the West began in the late 17th century and early 18th century in the German states of Gotha, Calemberg and, particularly, Prussia. However, even in the 18th century, the vast majority of people in Europe lacked formal schooling, which means they were homeschooled or received no education at all. Formal schooling in a classroom setting has been the most common means of schooling throughout the world, especially in developed countries, since the early and mid 19th century.

In 1964, John Caldwell Holt, published a book entitled How Children Fail which criticized traditional schools. The book was based on a theory he had developed as a teacher – that the academic failure of schoolchildren was caused by pressure placed on children in schools.

One common theme in the homeschool philosophies of Holt is that home education should not be an attempt to bring the school construct into the home, or a view of education as an academic preliminary to life. He viewed it as a natural, experiential aspect of life that occurs as the members of the family are involved with one another in daily living.

(Adaptado de: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeschooling.Acessado em 24 de outubro de 2008)

A synonym for compulsory is free.