Home schooling is going mainstream. And Rebecca Crescenti of Mountain View understands why. Once largely the province of the radical left and the religious right, home schooling is growing stronger, in part because of the Internet. Though accurate numbers are difficult to pin down, advocates say nearly 150,000 students are taught by parents like Crescenti statewide, a third of them in Northern California. Crescenti pulled her children out of the public schools last year after teachers suggested her son had attention deficit disorder, and her daughter was attacked by a bully.
Several factors help make the Bay Area a leader in the nationwide trend toward home schooling.
The region's growing wealth means that some families can afford to have one parent at home, which often is the only way that home schooling can work. Silicon Valley firms are usually amenable to telecommuting, opening the door to more flexible schedules. Many parents say the Bay Area is an ideal region to home-school, due to the bounty of universities, museums, natural attractions and social activities. But perhaps most important, the eruption of technology has led to a plethora of home-schooling resources and networks on the Internet. An entire cottage industry on how to home-school has sprung up online.