COLUMBIA, Maryland (Reuters) - Elizabeth and Teddy Dean are learning about the Italian scientist Galileo, so they troop into the kitchen, where their mother Lisa starts by reviewing some facts about the Renaissance.
Elizabeth, 11, and Teddy, 8, have never gone to school. Their teachers are primarily their parents, which puts them into what is believed to be the fast-growing sector of the U.S. education system -- the home-school movement.
Nobody is quite sure exactly how many American children are being taught at home. The National Center for Education Statistics, in a 2003 survey, put the number that year at 1.1 million. The Home School Legal Defense Association, which represents some 80,000 member families, says the figure now is quite a bit higher -- between 1.7 and 2.1 million.
But there is no disagreement about the explosive growth of the movement -- 29 percent from 1999 to 2003 according...