Smith, D. S. (1996, February). Parent-generated home study in Canada. The Canadian School Executive, 15(8), pages? Retrieved 12/4/00 online http://user.fundy.net/fplace/overview.htm. (“Sources of information-Two strategies were used to obtain data (Smith, 1993): a questionnaire directed to each of the provincial and territorial Deputy Ministers of Education and a survey of home schooling associations.” “I was surprised at the length to which the various provincial and territorial Departments of Education have gone to accommodate the relatively few home schoolers. In light of the legislative and regulative climate that exists in some of the American states, the degree of cooperation and accommodation that exists, for the most part, in Canada is remarkable.” “When dealing with home schoolers, legislators, educators and administrators should remember that just as parents cannot match or provide all the infrastructure of a school within the home, a school cannot provide the attention and care of a loving, concerned and responsible parent.” “Who Home schools? – Home schoolers are, by any classification, a diverse lot: doctors, back-to-the-landers, lawyers, francophones, anglophones, fundamentalist ministers, farmers, housewives, teachers and just plain parents – of all faiths and creeds. And all are united in one common way: They are concerned about their children and the nature of their children’s education. And concerned enough to do something about it themselves. [paragraph] A majority of parents, it is true, undertake home schooling because they have a deep conviction that the school system no longer upholds their religious and moral convictions. Others home school for pedagogical reasons, having a deep-seated dissatisfaction with the school system and the quality of education it offers. Still others undertake to home school because of their conviction that their child’s welfare and education are their responsibility.” Estimates there were about 10,000 officially registered homeschool K-12 students in 1990-91 (out of a total 1990-91 Canada-wide K-12 public and private school enrollment of 5,141,003, so about 0.02%) but “For example, estimates obtained from home schooling sources for Ontario and Alberta suggest home school student populations of 5,000 for Ontario and 5,000 for Alberta, with a national total of around 30,000.”) (Descriptors: home education, research, policy, population, foreign, Canada)