Kyle Williams: Homeschoolers: Political force of the future

Thanks for the ping. The other is a much better article, but I'd still pick on the grammar and some of the analysis, as I'm sure the 70+ responses are!

Re your previous post about a youngster getting above himself ... my oldest daughter (13) reads some articles on FR, and has asked if she can post. I told her to be prepared to have dozens of people tell her how idiotic her thinking is (not to mention criticizing her typing and grammar) if she tries it!

".. but rather it is to get out there and evangelize among the great masses of the mushy middle, to convert the unconverted.

You are so dead on right with your well written article. I read Kyle's little essay and found it to be simplistic and boring. I find it arrogant, too, for Kyle to state that homeschoolers, HSLDA, and PHC are this nations hope. Our family homeschools and is involved in the homeschooling community in our area but that doesn't make us any better or make us any more responsible than anyone else to effect change in our government. Homeschooling is a lifestyle not an ideology nor an activist organization. The true answer is exactly as you have stated (and I quoted above).

HSLDA and PHC are fine organizations and I have supported them financially in the past. I sincerely hope that HSLDA's new program is successful. But I'm certainly not ready to claim its victory before it even gets off the ground.

Homeschooling was a "liberal" movement initially ..."
I sincerely doubt you have solid proof of that statement. I think both were involved initially. I have met liberal homeschoolers and Christian homeschoolers that started in the late 60's early 70's. There is no way to know what kind of numbers were out there.

Christians did flock to homeschooling but I've never heard for the reasons you give. You use the premise of, "bringing more students into homeschooling automatically raise the number of conservatives." to insult Christian motives to educate their children. I find your statement outragous,insulting, and off topic:
It was going for a good 15 years before Christians flocked to it after the US Supreme Court in the early 1980s issued the ruling against racial segregation (originally directed at Bob Jones University) which closed many whites-only "academies" in areas affected by forced bussing.
Not racially motivated; Christian homeschoolers wanted a better education for their children and also wanted to pass on their faith to their children. A difficult task when the state has your child for 8 hours of the day.

but "conservative Christians" were the ones who were more willing and organized

You talk to the pioneer homeschoolers, liberal or conservative, and over and over again you will hear the same thing. There was absolutely no organization and very little in the way of curriculum to help them along in their efforts. They continued homeschooling dispite the trials and blazed a trail for anyone who wants to homeshool.

Homeschooling liberals are just as opposed to state intervention as most conservatives.

Not here in Pennsylvania. Homeschooling liberal groups have made homeschooling support a business and have a great need for these restrictive regulations to keep their pockets full.

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