During the late 1960s and early 1970s, home education once again began to emerge as an alternative to public schooling. In past times, parents taught their children at home because there was a lack of public schools or the schools were too far away for the children to attend. Youngstown State University Professor Jane Van Galen describes parents who teach their children at home as either ideologues or pedagogues. Ideologues tend to view home schools as opportunities to create formal learning environments using pre-determined curricula, textbooks and rigid schedules. For these parents, the general processes and functions of the public school are often copied.
Pedagogues tend to place the learner central to everything else that transpires in the home.
For these parents, schooling does not always mean education. They also hold the belief that learning should be less structured, more direct and more experiential. The learner is responsible for determining what is learned. The more liberal home schooler usually has a less structured approach and use children's natural ability to wonder to set the course for learning. Since home schools vary from home to home, it is impossible to say what will work for all parents who choose to home school their children.