by Catharine Beale

Created on: May 16, 2008   Last Updated: October 06, 2011

Imagine a school that sends its students on field trips to art and science museums. Nature walks. Art classes in the park. Visits to hear symphonies and operas and plays. Speeches at political gatherings. Tours of Washington, D.C., to study Congress, the Constitution, the White House.

Imagine a school that teaches about the effects of the Atom Bomb with walks down the streets of Nagasaki. Or about the Pharaohs during tours of the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Language immersion in Costa Rica - or Szechuan Province, Moscow or Rome. On the home school timetable, all this is possible.

No wonder it was a home-schooled 8th grader from Danville, Calif., who won the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

A month earlier, 14-year-old Caitlin Snaring of Redmond, Wash. - the only girl among the 10 finalists - was crowned the National Geographic Bee champion. She, too, was home-schooled.

In fact, home schoolers win lots of competitions: Geo Bees in 2005, 2003, 2002 and 1999. A big chunk of this year's 288 Spelling Bee finalists. Do you know that home-schooled test-takers consistently out-score regular students on the SAT and ACT?

If you think religious fanatics are the only ones shunning traditional education, consider that plenty of ordinary parents see schools as way too limiting. Even those in rich school districts, with high paid teachers and small classrooms, think way too much is wrong with our schools.

Take the typical student body. A mix of varied and sundry interests and intellects.

Sure, diversity is the spice of life. But it's only a good setup if you're an average kid. If you look around, there are not too many of those anymore - this one's great at tennis and math, that one's a sensitive, musical genius with a passion for languages, yet another is a born leader who can't give enough of himself.

There's no way to cater to all these children. Democratic compromise, within budget constraints, is the best case scenario. Forget the individual; it's the needs of the group that teachers must reach.

The way I see it, there's way too much that's right about the home school advantage.

That includes less obvious things - like the less hectic pace. Bolting out the door to beat the school bell is replaced with the intimate, familiar atmosphere of family ties, and breakfast at the kitchen table.

Some parents have even taken the concept a step further with "Organic Schooling". This new trend values personal interests over the plain vanilla, conventional curriculum. Experts point

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