Is homeschooling beneficial or detrimental to children?

Editor's note: The news that Li Teijun, a father in the southwestern city of Luzhou, had his nine-year-old daughter drop out of school and homeschooled her for 11 years has sparked heated discussions online. Is homeschooling a better option than formal schooling? Forum readers share their opinions.

Ted180 (Canada)

The social experiences at school are essential to enable a child to integrate into the wider society. This is even more important than the academic knowledge obtained at school. I always suspect parents who "homeschool" their children have paranoid ideas of superiority and wish to dominate their children.

Dorina Choban carries a sign as she joins protesters of the new home school regulations, as they march outside the State Board of Education in Sacramento, Friday, March 7, 2008. [Photo/IC]