Ultra-religious. Ultra-iconoclastic. Ultra-isolated. Just plain different. These are the kinds of terms often associated with home-schooling. But an article from yesterday’s Washington Post opens readers up to the idea that many parents of home-schoolers aren’t anti-public ed, they just want to make their own decisions based on what’s best for their children.

Written in the wake of a California ruling that mandated that all children must be taught by credentialed teachers—great news to the teachers union, it proved a slap in the face to most home-schooling parents who are not credentialed—the article demonstrates the ability of home-schooling to teach children through experience and tailor education to a child’s individual needs.

The author, Gregory J. Millman, has written a book about his family’s experience with home-schooling and traces not the story of shut-ins, but of parents who wanted their children to learn about “geography and statistics through a trip to spring training in Florida” and history and literature through reading a full list of the classics. In order to make sure their children remained social, they participated in local bands, theater troupes and robotics teams.

While I’m not convinced that I will have the ability to home-school my children (when I have them), I certainly admire the pioneering spirit of many home-schooling parents. And Millman sure made me think twice about my own assumptions regarding home schooling. But there’s two sides to every story—and even more on the home-schooling debate—so check out the article and let me know what you think.