Many U.S. Presidents were home schooled,
among them:

George Washington, 1st President, 16th
taught by his mother, father, and brother

John Quincy Adams, 2nd President
accompanied his father to France at 11

Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams, mother of John Quincy
was taught by her clergyman father and in visits to her cultured grandparents
who had an extensive library

James Madison, 4th
taught by his grandmother until age 12

Zachary Taylor, 12th
taught at home by a tutor

Millard Fillmore, 13th
attended school for short periods; studied the Bible and a hymn
book at home (those were the basic texts of that time)

James Buchanan, 15th
learned arithmetic and bookkeeping in his father’s store

Abraham Lincoln, 16th
taught by his stepmother

Andrew Johnson, 17th
apprenticed to a tailor, learned to read at 18

Theodore Roosevelt, 26th
taught by private tutor, at 19 was sent on the Grand Tour where
he learned a few languages

Woodrow Wilson, 28th
taught at home by his father in a home full of books, in the company of cultivated minds,
until he entered college; didn’t learn to read until age 11
"What need was there to read when I could spend hours
listening to others read aloud?"

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd
taught at home by a governess

Other Founding Fathers

Benjamin Franklin
six months of schooling at age 8; worked in father’s candle shop
at 10, father taught him to love good books, at 16 his first
essay was published

Alexander Hamilton, statesman, politician
taught by his mother and a clergyman, worked in a general store
from 12 – 16, then entered college

Patrick Henry, Revolutionary leader
informally taught reading, arithmetic, Latin, Greek ancient history
by his father
"Give me Liberty or give me Death."

George Mason, Revolutionary statesman
taught by his mother, occasionally tutored, studied law from an uncle who had
a library of 15000 volumes

Other Famous Non-Schoolers

Ansel Adams, photographer
". . . had difficulty adjusting to traditional schools.  His father decided to teach him at home, and the next
years were extremely fruitful.  Learning experiences were always tapped into the young boy's intrinsic
interests and ranged from playing the piano to visiting an exposition.
Years later, after he had become internationally known for his creative photography, Adams paid tribute to
the courage of a father who was willing to take risks, to listen to that "different drummer" unique to each
child.  In his autobiography, Adams wrote:
'I am certain he established the positive direction of my life that otherwise, given my native hyperactivity,
could have been confused and catastrophic.  I trace who I am and the direction of my development to
those years of growing up in our house on the dunes, propelled especially by an internal spark tenderly
kept alive and glowing by my father.'"
- Reader's Digest

Louisa May Alcott, author Little Women
educated by her father

Susan B. Anthony, women’s rights leader
home schooled by her father

Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of telephone
no interest in formal studies; taught by his talented mother

William Jennings Bryan, orator, statesman
until age 10, taught my his mother who stood him on a small
table to recite his lessons

Pearl Buck, author, Nobel & Pulitzer prizes
taught by her mother until she started formal school at 17

William F. Buckley, political columnists
taught at home by parents and tutors, father taught him politics
 at the dinner table

Andrew Carnegie, steel manufacturer
Refused to go to school at age five so his parents kept him home. An uncle read
to him out loud. After three years he went to school, but quit a 13, later to
become one of the world’s richest men.

Charles Dickens, author, A Christmas Carol
couldn’t afford school; "passions for reading were awakened by his mother" who
also taught him English and later, Latin

Thomas Edison, inventor of light bulb, phonograph
When the teacher called him "addled," Edison’s mother told him that her son had "more sense in his little
finger than you have in your entire body." She took him out of school and taught him herself, making learning
fun for him. She bought him books of experiments; then he went off on his own. Later, he hired a staff of
educated scientists to work on the electric bulb, finally firing them all and figuring it out himself.

Robert Frost, poet, Pulitzer prize winner
disliked school so much he became physically ill; what schoolwork
 he did was done at home until he passed the entrance exams
and entered high school.

General Douglas MacArthur, WWII and Korean War
taught by his mother until 13, then tutored; entered West Point with highest entrance 
exams ever reported

Margaret Mead, Anthropologist
"Some years we went to school.  Other years we stayed at home and Grandma taught us."
"On some days she gave me a set of plants to analyze; on others, she gave me a description and sent
me out to the woods and meadows to collect examples, say, of the 'mint family.' , , , She taught me
to read for the sense of what I read and to enjoy learning."
"Grandma . . . . seldom took more than an hour a day and left me . . . much time on my hands while
other children were in school.
One of Margaret's oldest friends told her in later years, "In my house I was a child.  In your house
I was a person."
- Larry M. Arnoldsen, "On Human Learning,"  UHEA Newsletter, April 1991

Laura Ingalls Wilder, author, Little House on the Prairie

Brigham Young, Mormon colonizer, founder of 200 towns and villages
11 days of formal education

Most of the above information was taken from
An "A" in Life: Famous Home Schoolers
by Mac and Nancy Plent, 732-938-2473
The book can be ordered from: Unschoolers Network, 2 Smith Street,
Farmingdale, NJ 07727, for $9 plus $1 postage & handling.

"The one outstanding and impressive fact that did leap from the pages was that
there was a strong and loving figure, usually a mother, father, or other family
 member, who spent time with that person during their childhood. With some
 notable [self-taught] exceptions….it was a person, not a school, that made a
difference in the lives of these famous and successful people."  
- Mac and Nancy Plent