Well, lots of reasons. And we'll get into them in a second.

But first: don't be offended by this topic, dear educators who happen to be reading this. Just as people are compelled to become teachers for numerous reasons, there are plenty of reasons that people choose to homeschool their children. And as an educator, it could be tempting to take such a decision personally. After all, by choosing to educate their children at home, parents (and grandparents and guardians) are, in essence, choosing not to send them to traditional educational institutions. And that means not sending them to you. How could they? We know.

But wait. Here's an idea: a choice to pursue one option is not always a condemnation of another. And even when it does have to do with some sort of feeling about traditional schooling, remember: it's not about you.

So, like we said, people choose to homeschool for numerous reasons. So chin up, and let's take a look some of the most frequently cited motivations.

The Top Five

Ready? Bracing yourself? Here goes.

The number one reason that people cited for homeschooling in a 2011-2012 survey (according to the U.S. Department of Education) was "concern about the school environment." Twenty-five percent of respondents cited this phrase as their main reason for homeschooling. Although, we'll give you this—it's tough to know (without more context) exactly what it means.

Basically, concerns about the school environment could refer to anything from moral objections, to the content of a particular class, to issues of bullying and harassment, to concerns about drug use, sexting, school prayer, fluorescent lights, mildew, mold, pesticides used on school grounds, or the wrong paint color in the kindergarten classroom. Seriously, environment can mean anything.

And just wait. If that's not sufficiently vague for you, wait till you hear the second most frequently cited reason for homeschooling: other.

Yes, "other."

At least there's a parenthetical on this one that includes options like "family time, finances, travel, and distance." Still, the survey from whence this data came, the National Household Education Surveys (NHES) Program of 2012, seems to be a bit flawed in terms of really nailing down the primary reasons people opt to homeschool. Like, really, "other"? So much for the top five concrete reasons.

Moving on. The third most popular reason, according to the NHES, is dissatisfaction with traditional school's academic instruction, and the fourth reason is a desire to provide religious instruction. You can feel offended about that if you want, but we think that's probably more about the parents than you.

Tying for fifth place are three separate reasons, all cited by 5% of respondents: a desire to provide moral instruction, a child's physical or mental health problem, and a desire to provide a nontraditional approach to education.

Like we said: the reasons are pretty across the board.

Worth noting is the fact that when given the option of citing multiple reasons for homeschooling—as opposed to having to pick the single most important reason behind the decision—91% of respondents included among their reasons our nebulous friend "concerns about the school environment." Sigh. At least we tried.

Anecdotal Evidence

Okay, enough of the numbers.

While personal stories about why particular people made the choice to homeschool aren't necessarily scientific—you know, what's true for one person isn't representative for an entire community—considering just how underwhelming the data from the most recent NHES survey is, we thought a few personal stories could help to shed a little more light on the issue.

To that end, we give you the following three:

• "The Homeschool Diaries," by Paul Elie—an article in the October 2012 issue of The Atlantic in which Elie, a professor of graduate students at Columbia University explains how he and his wife decided to homeschool their children.

• "Why Parents Choose Homeschooling," by Chris Jeub for ASCD (the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development). Jeub, a public school teacher, decided to homeschool his children for primarily academic reasons, although he discusses some of the other main reasons parents choose to homeschool in this article as well, including social, family, and religious reasons (yes, most of those showed up in NHES, too. At least it's on the right track). And it's worth noting that this article is from 1994. The number of homeschooling families in the U.S. as of the NHES survey of 2012 was approximately 1.8 million, or 3.4% of all U.S. students. So, things have changed, but a lot of the reasons have stayed constant.

• "Why We Chose to Homeschool" by the family behind the Toad Haven Homeschool newsletter and blog. This honest, heartfelt account explains why (and how) Jennifer and David Ellis made the decision to homeschool their two children, while also giving you a glimpse into their homeschooling lives.

Of course, there are plenty reasons people could give in answer to the question, "Why homeschool?" For more information, we recommend seeking out families in your community who have made the choice and seeing if you can open a dialogue with them to get their answers firsthand.

For the time being—now you know some of the basics. And it's not something you or your classroom should take personally. So hold onto that, and keep up the research.