In Maine and across the nation, increasing numbers of parents are choosing to educate their children at home, often illegally. The anarchistic home schooling movement springs from various motivations: religious views, pursuit of independent lifestyles, desire to spend more time with one's children, and others. Whatever their reasons, home schoolers share a deeply held belief that the existing public educational system cannot provide a healthy learning environment for their children; most want more control over their children's learning and development. Although critics and concerned public officials find two major faults with home schooling (supposed deficiencies in equivalent education and socialization), some research finds that home-schooled children are better educated and socialized than their public school counterparts. This preliminary study proposes to develop profiles of Maine home schooler parents and their children. The study is necessarily limited to parents and children who home school in compliance with state regulations. Additionally, no formal survey or profile of parents exists, because the state is withholding certain information. Despite these limitations, this paper attempts to describe the reasons why parents choose home schooling, instructional methods and materials used, evaluations used to measure student progress, parental attitudes toward home and public information, and the extent of cooperation between home schoolers and public schools. Also provided research design, and 86 footnotes. (MLH)