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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Farris remains committed to lobbying for his theocratic agenda in political and home-school circles through peripatetic involvement in conservative organizations and numerous writings. Last September, Farris gathered together leaders of conservative organizations to interview Republican candidates for president, to ascertain their openness to supporting socially conservative issues. Farris, who invited Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation, Phyllis Schlafly of Concerned Women for America and Randy Tate of the Christian Coalition to the meetings, described candidate Bush as "reasonably harmonious" with his and the other attendees' goals and deserving of their endorsement.
The leader of the HSLDA has since been very open about his hope to deliver the home-school vote to Bush. On the organization's Web site, Crosswalk.com, Farris lauds Bush as the obvious home-schooler's choice, and speculates that if Bush is elected, he may get an appointment in either the education or legal areas.
(Farris also pens mystery novels, such as the anti-abortion whodunit "Guilt by Association," and writes editorials and articles for the conservative Washington Times and other publications. He produces the syndicated "Faithful Father Devotional Series," teaches an online constitutional law class and is the father of 10 home-schooled children.)
The HSLDA founder defends his myriad political activities, saying, "Sure, I do a lot of things personally, such as pro-life work. But with HSLDA, we focus on home schooling, parents' rights and religious freedom issues." Adds Farris, "We stand up for them because they form the pillars of home-schooling freedom."
Not even Farris' critics quibble over his right to pursue whatever citizen advocacy he chooses -- home-schoolers unquestionably comprise every political stripe imaginable and many are outspoken, particularly about their educational philosophies. But the HSLDA, charge Hegener and others in Home Education Magazine, has gone too far. The organization has dominated debate about home-school regulation and legislation by refusing to work with other home-schooling groups, says a recent magazine report.
The magazine also says that the HSLDA is unfairly representing itself to national and local policymakers as the sole representative of home schooling. It has even pushed through legislation that has proved detrimental to home-schoolers, the magazine says. One example: An HSLDA-led legislative effort in New York that was supposed to loosen onerous regulations for home-schoolers led to requirements that parents report periodically to education officials and submit to standardized testing, measures almost uniformly opposed by most home-schoolers. (HSLDA lead attorney Chris Klicka has said that the legislation was "the best compromise we could get." Critics argue that a coalition of inclusive groups would have gotten a measure more favorable to home-schoolers.)
Most important, says Cheryl Seelhoff, the move toward exclusive support groups with HSLDA affiliation has thwarted access to home-school information and alienates many home-schoolers. Seelhoff, founder and publisher of folksy Christian home-schooling magazine Gentle Spirit, has emerged as a leading voice among devout Christian home-schoolers disgruntled with HSLDA.
According to Seelhoff, cooperation was very common in the early days of modern home schooling. Countercultural home-schoolers of the 1960s, influenced largely by John Holt's "unschooling" ideas (a child-led educational philosophy that emphasizes real-life experiences as learning), networked amicably with religiously motivated Christian home-schoolers, who began emerging in the 1970s.
In the late 1970s, however, conservative, fundamentalist Christian home-school leaders gained the upper hand, Seelhoff notes. Home-schooling support groups splintered when fundamentalists took over leadership and required members to sign "statements of faith." Members of these groups also were required or encouraged to follow rigid home-schooling guidelines stressing absolute parental authority, a Christian curriculum and a strict teaching style.
