The devoutly religious teach their children at home; so do aging hippies. Intellectuals unhappy with public schools and poor families who can't afford private schools do it. Maybe one of your neighbors is doing it, too.

Bringing education home may be the educational craze of the '90s. Ten years ago, 15,000 children were registered as home-schoolers. Today, the U.S. Department of Education estimates that up to 350,000 children are being taught at home. Advocates say the figure is closer to 1 million.

In Maryland 10 years ago, 95 children were being taught at home legally, although tight restrictions forced many others underground. But since the state relaxed the rules in 1987, the numbers have increased steadily. Last year, the number climbed to 4,588, reports the state Department of Education, 1,000 more than the previous year.

What is turning parents into educators?

Many view home education as a way to shape religious values. Others want to tutor their children personally, working within each child's abilities and limitations. Some parents are concerned about the quality of public education and safety in the public school system.

"You don't have to go to school to learn. We see learning as part of life," says Susannah Sheffer, editor of a Cambridge, Mass.-based home-schooling magazine, Growing Without Schooling.

"Having skills, finding work they love, loving to learn are the most important goals," she says.

Says Stacy Batchelder of Millersville, who teaches her 6-year-old daughter at home: "I want Jamie to have the freedom to grow into the person she is meant to be, without artificial restrictions. Even if I could afford private school, she wouldn't go."

Home schooling laws range from the stringent, like Pennsylvania's, to the liberal, which is how some educators view Maryland's regulations.

Parents have significant latitude in Maryland. They are required only to submit a portfolio of a child's work twice a year to the district school superintendent. As an alternative, parents may register with a church or an approved correspondence school, such as Baltimore's Calvert School, which is responsible for overseeing the child's education.

Jane and Christopher Shipley were among the first Baltimore parents to teach their three youngsters at home under the state's more flexible guidelines, passed seven years ago after lobbying by the Maryland Home Education Association.

Being pioneers wasn't easy. Wary Baltimore school officials assigned three employees to check on each child. The law requires only "regular, thorough instruction" in basic subjects, but Mrs. Shipley says she constantly received inquiries about how she planned to "implement" her instruction.

During the third year the family taught their children at home, education officials objected that she didn't include "social studies units" explaining the concept of family, community and society. Instead, Mrs. Shipley was teaching her youngsters ancient history.

Life is much easier today, say the Shipleys and others. Dennis Younger, who oversees home schooling for Anne Arundel County public schools, says some educators may still have reservations, but most try to make the process smooth for families.

"The law says you can home school, and we want to help parents in every way we can," he says. "My experience is that most home instructors work very hard. They are truly dedicated people."

Every county has its exceptions, he notes. Of the 513 students taught at home last year in Anne Arundel, "maybe 30 students were in it for all the wrong reasons, [such as] families that were fugitives from school" out of irresponsibility or rebellion, Mr. Younger says.

In other areas of the state last year, the number of home schoolers ranged from 315 in Baltimore City to 588 in Baltimore County and a high of 702 in Montgomery County.

Pupil personnel workers around the state report an occasional story of parents who fail to educate their children. If a family doesn't turn in a child's portfolio, or if the portfolio doesn't demonstrate study in each required area, superintendents may require a home-schooled child to return to public school.

"Very few" students in Maryland have ever been asked to return, says Mary Albrittain, chief of pupil services for the state Department of Education.

Still, educators "are a little alarmed," says Ms. Albrittain, because they have no way to gauge how Maryland's home-schooled children are faring academically. The state is not permitted to test the children.

Critics of home schooling fear children are deprived of academic opportunities.

However, more than 20 studies of the educational performance of children taught at home have found that they perform, on average, as well as or better than their public school counterparts.

In 1991, one of the most complete studies of standardized test scores was performed by the Psychological Association, which publishes the Stanford Achievement Test, used in public schools to measure whether children are meeting grade-level expectations.

The study tested 5,124 home-schooled students who represented all 50 states and all 12 grades plus kindergarten.

Their composite scores in reading, math and language arts ranked 18 to 28 percentile points above public school averages.

Public educators also question whether parents are as qualified as certified teachers.

"You can have a master's degree in history. That doesn't mean you're as capable of teaching a child all the things a school provides," says Karl K. Pence, president of the Maryland State Teachers Association, a 44,000-member union.

When Drix and Judi Niemann's oldest daughter was ready for first grade, the Annapolis couple visited many of the private schools in the area. "The best student-teacher ratio we found was eight children to one teacher," says Mrs. Niemann. "We can do better."

"Better" doesn't necessarily mean long hours of drill, parents emphasize. One study has shown that the average home-school family spends three hours a day in formal lessons.

"One of the myths is that everyone home schools a certain way," says Mrs. Batchelder. "There are all types of approaches."

Although Mr. Shipley is a teacher at the Maryland Institute College of Art with a doctorate in English literature and his wife has a degree in Latin, they don't call themselves their children's "teachers."

"We're more like consultants," says Mr. Shipley. "We don't ask our kids 'fact' questions. They ask us questions."

Such home educators tend to view themselves as "un-schoolers," says Manford Smith, founder of the Maryland Home Education Association (MHEA).

"For most people, the only model they have of learning is school. But children learn at home, they learn in the community and they learn best when they are interested and ready to learn," says Mr. Smith, who teaches social studies in Montgomery County but educates his own children at home.

In the MHEA, he says, "We have [home-school] kids not reading until they are 10 or multiplying until they're 12. When they're ready, they pick it up quickly, sometimes in an instant."

Even if home schooling provides a sound academic education, critics of the movement fear that children will grow up unable to relate to outsiders.

Says Mr. Pence of the state teacher's union: "Public schools can offer a broader range of experience and learning. We can provide a better, safer environment for socialization to occur and for a broad range of academics for the child to function in society."

Home schoolers disagree, pointing to a National School Boards Association survey released in January that reported a growing "epidemic of violence" in public schools over the last five years.

Seventy-eight percent of the 729 school districts responding to the survey reported student assaults on students; 61 percent reported weapons incidents; 39 percent said there had been a shooting or knifing at school.

Some home schoolers assert that the structure of a school discourages healthy socialization.

Mr. Shipley says, "One of the reasons we home school is socialization. Schools teach competitiveness, not collaboration. Schools segregate kids into age and gender groups, which is artificial. Our kids don't mind playing with smaller kids, and they're comfortable with adults."

Home school, says Mrs. Shipley, "gives children a good sense of who they are. Peter dances ballet and also plays basketball, soccer and baseball. I firmly believe he wouldn't be dancing if he were in school, because it would be socialized out of him."

One 1986 study, performed by J. W. Taylor for Andrews University, analyzed 224 children in grades four through 12. The study looked at their scores on the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale, an 80-item test used by many public schools.

Dr. Taylor found the home-schooled children had a "significantly higher" sense of self, involving leadership ability and social competence, than children who attended regular schools.

Teaching your children is not for everyone, most home schoolers emphasize.

"It's a tremendous amount of work," says Ms. Weiss. "Some people don't have the patience or have discipline problems with their children. Those people usually get frustrated and give up the idea, which is probably for the best."