Kingdom of Children: Culture and Controversy in the Homeschooling Movement Paperback - 2003

First line

ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS home schoolers taught me is how central school is to the structure of modern life.

From the rear cover

"This is a definitive study. For anyone interested in home schooling, this is the book to read. It musters an impressive array of evidence to explain why parents decide to home school their children, and it carefully considers the consequences of home schooling for these children. In the process, the book dispels many of the criticisms that have emerged around the homeschooling movement. Read sympathetically, the book also poses a significant challenge to the educational philosophies still present in most of the nation's public schools."--Robert Wuthnow, Princeton University

"Kingdom of Children offers a rich study of the homeschooling movement. It makes important contributions both to research on education and to the study of social movements. The book's engaging and elegant style makes it accessible to general readers and students. . . . Firmly grounded in rich ethnography and interviews, Kingdom of Children provides a compelling introduction to the beliefs that increasingly animate public discussion and an exemplary case study of an effort to enact this alternative vision of education and family."--Elisabeth Clemens, University of Arizona