I guess the present-day equivalent is home schooling.
No, it's not. Homeschooling does not equal social, cultural, religious, ethnic or any other kind of isolation. There are as many different types of homeschoolers as there are people who send their kids to brick-and-mortar school. Please do not perpetuate that stereotype.

I'm visiting out of town and don't have easy internet access, so I may or may not be able to post in this thread again. This explains my rather direct reply.

Karen