Date:   11/15/2005 8:26:47 PM ( 20 y ago)
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URL:   https://www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=406744

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Back in 1981, when my first son was born, I had a homebirth with midwives. I started attending births myself and learned of this underground movement called homeschooling. In 1980, the state of Texas had declared homeschooling illegal, so people were were actually living "under the radar" to avoid sending their children to public schools, getting them vaccinated, etc. Some of these people were in my church. They weren't kooks at all. They were very educated professional white collar people who believed the Lord had given them a scriptural mandate to teach their own children. They were willing to commit acts of civil disobedience and even risk jail time in order to do as the Lord commanded.

In 1985, my husband and I had to decide what to do about kindergarten. We prayed like crazy, and decided to teach our son preschool at home. We knew we had until age 7 to obey the state compulsory attendance law (it's 6 now), and technically we could have waited until he was 7 before putting him into kindergarten, but that didn't seem right to us.

There was only one bookstore in Houston that carried any books about home education. I had heard of a couple of book titles and knew I needed those books. I drove to that Baptist bookstore with my 41/2 year old and 2 year old boys, praying all the way, and wore sunglasses so no one would recognize me. I was afraid I'd be arrested for thinking about homeschooling and if anyone saw me buy books about homeschooling they would take my children away from me. I was scared to death but somehow I managed to buy the books. The clerk saw which books they were, double wrapped them in brown paper bags, and when he took my check, very quietly whispered to me "Good luck. I'll be praying for you." I ran out of there and prayed the police wouldn't follow me. I got home, locked the door, pulled down the window shades, and cried. God was calling me.

We went to church a couple of weeks later. After church, our son asked if he could do an activity with our "homeschool stuff." A man approached us in the parking lot. "Excuse me, but did your son just say something about homeschooling? Do you homeschool?" I froze. This is it. He's going to take my boys away from me. My husband said "it's only preschool." The man said "There's about 20 families in the church who are homeschooling underground. Why don't you join us for hamburgers after church next week?"

From there we were invited to a conference, held that summer in our church, of all places. The place was packed with about 800 people from all over the state. We had no idea there were so many people homeschooling!LOL it's in the millions now. The speaker was awesome, showing us the very scriptures I shared above. He said "who are you going to serve? Who is going to be your master? Are you going to sacrifice your children to the god of the Philistines or are you going to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?" He talked about fathers being the head of the household and being accountable for the souls of their children. We prayed an anointed prayer that night, dedicating our children to the Lord and dedicating our lives to the high calling God had given us to educate our children whom the Lord had blessed us with. We repented of our wicked ways, on our knees, at the altar or at our seats. I don't think there was a dry eye in the place. I knew that if I placed these children in the public school system that they would be corrupted- absolutely useless to the Lord.

The next day we heard from an attorney who later became the most trusted legal authority for home education in the world. He said "parents, you had better make sure God has called you into this. It is illegal to homeschool in Texas. You had better be sure you are homeschooling out of conviction and not just preference or convenience, because religious conviction is the only leg you have to stand on in court." A father stood up and shouted "it's the only leg worth standing on!" and the other fathers shouted "Amen!"

So that's how we got started. In 1986 there was a big rally in Austin to make homeschooling legal and there were 5000 people there. In 1987 there was a class action law suit, and a legal battle that dragged on until 1994. When my oldest son turned 7 we moved to Louisiana so we could homeschool legally. We came back to Texas in 1994, homeschooling ever since. Three have graduated, four are still at home.

I hope I didn't bore you with all this.

Blessings as you seek the Lord,
-Donna
 

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