The Changing of the Guard, 1983–1998

Abstract

We must not let a focus on key leaders disguise the truth that the homeschooling movement from its earliest days was thoroughly a grassroots movement. Holt and the Moores were simply catalysts, accelerating trends that were already afoot, converting fence-sitters, and facilitating networks of like-minded families. And networking is what homeschoolers did best. Very quickly in the late 1970s and the 1980s, homeschoolers organized themselves into support groups all over the country. In the early years these groups were usually inclusive, meaning that they accepted all comers regardless of religious affiliation or pedagogical philosophy. Homeschoolers in those days were in a precarious position—misunderstood and held in suspicion by neighbors and family members, distrusted and occasionally persecuted by authorities, confused about what was legal and how to do what they were trying to do. Support groups were a lifeline for many struggling homeschooling mothers: providing sympathetic ears, advice for the daily grind of teaching, and especially expertise regarding how to navigate the educational and legal system. One mother described how a support group “is really the key to being successful…. If one of us is having a horrible day, we can talk each other through it…. It keeps me sane.”