A few weeks ago Jay Mathews asked people to send him their stories, good and bad, about home schooling. In his Class Struggle column this week, Jay offers a sampling of the email he received. He also admits that his opinion of the whole issue "is too simple, too stereotyped and too stale".

But there really isn’t much new in this column and I’m sure that most of the mail came from people with positive stories to tell. There are hundreds of thousands of kids who are getting an excellent education from their parents. But there are also many – and it’s hard to tell how many – who are not. Home schooling, like any other "alternative" to the standard public school, is the right choice for some children and not for others.

The bottom line to all this, however, comes from a man who offered an inside perspective, having been educated at home from the second grade on.

"I don’t think home schooling is for everyone," Noonan said. "Not every parent can, or should, teach their children at home."

"I will say, however, that every parent should be involved in their children’s education, and I think one big reason public school fails our children is because parents simply aren’t involved in their children’s lives."