Two main reasons for ancient homeschooling
[People who choose to have their children educated at home] seem to have two main reasons. First, they are making (they think) better provision for morality by avoiding the crowd of persons of an age which is particularly liable to vice; and I only wish that the view that this has often been a cause of shameful behavior were false! Secondly, the future teacher, whoever he is, seems likely to give a single pupil more of his time than if he had to divide it among several.
Quintilian (c. 35-c. 100 A.D.) on homeschooling. He’s talking about aristocratic Roman children being educated by private tutors, but it’s interesting how the morality concern is present in arguments for home education even at this very different historical period.