If homeschooling is such an outstanding thing how come I see many?

Question

links pointing to the HSLDA (home schooling legal defense association) instead of to just regular links for curriculum ideas?

Answer 1

My guess is the majority of homeschoolers in the US are fundamentalist Christians, and HSLDA tends to be one of their biggest gathering points. I know for my former general manager's family, that was their main place for support.    The group is very fundamentalist, and they really aren't the best for supporting the secular homeschoolers (the few there are anyway.)

Answer 2

Homeschooling seems to be a refuge for religious fanatics who want to keep their kids out of regular school so they aren't exposed to such "evil" ideas as evolution.  Watch those nutty families in the film "Jesus Camp."

Answer 3

So you think directing people to a place where they can obtain info that will help them follow their state's laws means homeschooling isn't outstanding?  I'm not following your question.

Answer 4

Because most questions want to know how to get started, and the way you get started if you want to do it right is to learn the LAWS applying to homeschoolers in your area. The best site for that is hslda.org because they have detailed information on every state's homeschool laws, and usually provide links to other sites with similar information. New homeschoolers need to know what their rights and requirements are before they go shopping.

Answer 5

HSLDA has nothing to do with curriculum choices.   They have a listing of the homeschooling laws for every state and country.  

So, the best place to start is to know the laws of where you live so you can comply with that.   Then, once you have done that, you can start choosing curriculum.

I have been homeschooling for over 4  years and don't belong to HSLDA.  They do have great information on their site though.

Answer 6

I think a lot of folks start out at the HSLDA site because it is so well-known. Personally, I think HSLDA often panders to the paranoid and scares new homeschoolers into becoming a member. HSLDA is also decidedly Christian and will only support homeschoolers who abide by their definition of homeschooling (Check out member form at http://www.hslda.org/join/hslda_ap.pdf).

While many families do homeschool for religious reasons, most homeschool for many reasons - many are academic.

I like to refer people to the Home Education Magazine site (http://www.homeedmag.com/) or the A to Z Homeschooling site (http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/) because they do offer many good ideas without the scare tactics.

Answer 7

For whomever stated that 95% of homeschoolers are radical Christians, I'd like to know how you got THAT number. In fact, there is no certainty in it, as there is no national registration for homeschooling (it is denied under constitutional law)

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeschooli... has stated at approximately 49% of homeschoolers are conservative Christians, a far cry from your majority number. 90% of POLLED homeschoolers in the US may have stated that they are Christians, but much like the people at Y!A, religious beliefs have little to do with our choice to homeschool.

In answer to the question, we point to hslda for beginners because it has the legal standards for each state in unequivocal terms.If someone asks specifically for curriculum, then we will suggest curriculum. If you click on 'discover' at Yahoo! Answers, you can search for the hundreds of curriculum questions  and answers.

Answer 8

lots of people have problems with homeschooling.

Answer 9

In addition to the good answers above, it is because there are people who, for their own narrow minded selfish political motives,  would love to have educational choice denied parents by force of law.

Answer 10

Err...maybe because they are two completely different type of sites - the HSLDA site and those sites dealing in curriculum ideas etc - meeting two completely different needs.

When they answer a question here, people refer the original poster to the site that best fulfills their requirements at that point in time.

People here refer posters to the HSLDA site when they ask how they can get started as homeschoolers in the USA.

This is because the HSLDA site contains probably the most concise & up-to-date reference, organised by individual States, of what parents need to do in order to both:

i) de-register their kids from their current school in order to start homeschooling

and

ii) understand the various regulations and requirements (if any) for homeschooling within the confines of the law as laid down by their particular Home State.

  

Any potential homeschooler needs to be appropriately de-registered from their current school and the legal requirements met *before* they can start homeschooling.

There is no point in them fretting about ideas for curricula (which incidentally not all homeschoolers will bother to use anyway) if they don't know what the laws, local to them, say about the requirements imposed upon them for de-registration etc.

That is the reason why, certainly in the first instance here, they're so often referred to the HSLDA site.

Answer 11

Homeschooling isn't such an outstanding idea...one wonders why 95% of "homeschoolers" happen to be radical christian crack pots...heaven forbid their children should be exposed to science (evolution)

Answer 12

Because before you choose a curriculum it make sense to know the laws in your state because ignorance of the law is not a defense against it. Also HSDLA has links to other pages that include support groups and curriculum choices.

  In what way do you imagine suggesting checking HSDLA to a person asking about how to begin homeschooling indicates that homeschool is not outstanding? Why are you purposefully ignoring all of the other sites that are suggested to questioners with more specific questions? What purpose could that possible serve?

EDIT: I agree that HSDLA is extremely fundamentalist friendly. I won't attend local meetings where they have a speaker. It just isn't a great way for me to spend my time. However, I as a non-christian, I may use the information they post as I see fit. The state by state info is dead on and very helpful to me. Also, HSDLA does not require me to be a Christian in order to join or to receive their services.

Answer 13

Using your logic, one would have to assume that civil rights are not that great either since the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) exists.

There are organizations for just about anything and some are more useful than others. The HSLDA exists because homeschool families are unfairly treated by school employees in a lot of cases.

Answer 14

Because a lot of times, local schools or agencies can make it difficult for parents to pull their children out of public schools. If your child is special needs, and floundering in school, the school might get upset at a parent pulling a child out. Why? Special needs kids net schools lots of funding...

Schools get paid thousands of dollars per child. If they lose out, they *could* get angry. The HSLDA helps parents in this situation, or others like it. A lot of special needs kids do better at home, where their parents can focus on what they need help with, and they are not bombarded with negativity from their peers...

Answer 15

Because most people need to know the laws and to be frank NOT every homeschool is acceptable.  Penn Foster, one of the actually ACCREDITED homeschool programs, is NOT arbitarily acceptable to New York State!

The first thing you have to do is know the rules and the laws and HSLDA provides them

And, by the way, Federal and private studies SHOW clearly that homeschool workes twice as good as brick public school.

40% fail from brick schools and less than 50% get into college and most drop out after the first year

60% of homeschoolers not only GO to college they but 70% of them get a degree!

Only 10-20% fail

And yes, when they fail they fail miserably and those who fail would be better off in brick school hurting the good students with their anti-learning antics, but absorbing 10% by osmosis.

You DO realize the ANTI SCHOOL or ANTI learning kids are part of the brick school learning problem.  They drag the class down by taking up teacher time because they are disprutive!

When these kids homeschool, they free up class time for other students who want to learn in brick school

And YES some students DO learn in brick school!  Even the public ones!

Answer 16

The HSLDA provides information for homeschooling laws for each and every state. You MUST know what you legally have to do in your state before you begin or you could get into trouble! Curriculum selection comes later.

Answer 17

It's because the HSLDA site is a great starting place for HS'ing information.  It is a convenient site with all the laws in each state listed regarding HS'ing.

FWIW, I've HS'ed for 5 years and don't see a need to join HSLDA.  It's not "homeschool insurance" like many people think.  Here is a link that refutes a lot of what HSLDA does:

http://hsislegal.com/

Links to curriculum are given here when it's appropriate.  But for the "how do I start HS'ing" type questions, the HSLDA site is the best place to start w/o being overwhelmed with the amount of information on the 'net.

Answer 18

We point people to HSLDA because they have a listing of each state's laws, regulations, legislation, and news, as well as a listing by region of homeschool groups.

Because each state has their own laws and regs, and these can get pretty picky in some states, it's important to know from the start how to homeschool legally.  In some states, if you don't dot every "i" and cross every "t", you can end up in legal trouble.

If a person asks about curriculum, we point them to curriculum sites.  However, there is much more to homeschooling than just picking out curriculum.