Editing Homeschooling (section)

=== Early history ===
For most of history, home-based education was common.<ref name="EoDL">A. Distefano, K.&nbsp;E. Rudestam, R.&nbsp;J. Silverman (2005) [https://books.google.com/books?id=PwNPSlDHFxcC Encyclopedia of Distributed Learning] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101025239/https://books.google.com/books?id=PwNPSlDHFxcC&printsec=frontcover|date=2016-01-01}} (p221) {{ISBN|0-7619-2451-5}}</ref> In many cultures, home education often consisted of literacy training centered around religious texts, as well as basic math skills needed in everyday life. In past Christian-majority cultures, reading aloud, reciting, and memorizing passages from the [[Christian Bible]] and other writings was central to this practice, as well as workplace-based education such as [[apprenticeship]]s. Enlisting professional tutors was an option available only to the wealthy.<ref name=":11">{{Cite book |last1=Dwyer |first1=James G. |title=Homeschooling: The History and Philosophy of a Controversial Practice |last2=Peters |first2=Shawn F. |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |year=2019 |isbn=978-0226627250 |page=5 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=|pages=5–6}} 

Home education and apprenticeship remained the main form of education until the 1830s.<ref name="History of Alternative Education">{{cite web|url=http://www.quaqua.org/utah.htm|title=History of Alternative Education in the United States|access-date=19 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031714/http://www.quaqua.org/utah.htm|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> However, in the 18th century, the majority of Europeans lacked formal education.<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Education |volume= 8 |last= Welton |first= James | pages = 951&ndash;989; see page 959, fourth para, last line |quote= But the total results were not great; the mass of the people in every European country remained without schooling throughout the 18th century. }}</ref> In the early 19th century, formal classroom schooling became the most common means of schooling throughout [[developed countries]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Cvrcek|first1=Tomas|last2=Zajicek|first2=Miroslav|date=2019-09-01|title=The rise of public schooling in nineteenth-century Imperial Austria: Who gained and who paid?|journal=Cliometrica|language=en|volume=13|issue=3|pages=367–403|doi=10.1007/s11698-018-0180-6|issn=1863-2513|doi-access=free}}</ref> As laws enforcing public school attendance proliferated, movements to resist such laws began to form.<ref name=":11" />{{Rp|pages=16–17}}

Home education declined in the 19th and 20th centuries with the enactment of compulsory school attendance laws. However, it continued to be practised in isolated communities. What is now known as homeschooling began in the 1960s and 1970s with educational reformists dissatisfied with industrialized education.{{definition needed|date=March 2025}}<ref name="EoDL"/>