{"id":16386,"date":"2013-08-01T05:35:57","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T09:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=16386"},"modified":"2013-07-31T21:38:40","modified_gmt":"2013-08-01T01:38:40","slug":"because-we-thought-hslda-cared-about-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/08\/because-we-thought-hslda-cared-about-us.html","title":{"rendered":"Because We Thought HSLDA Cared about Us<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A recent comment by J on\u00a0Homeschoolers Anonymous\u2019 crosspost<\/a> of my post about the Josh Powell story<\/a> caught my eye.<\/p>\n

In general, I appreciate your efforts to lobby HSLDA to be more sensitive to issues like this, but I think it\u2019s important to remember that HSLDA provides legal services and is bound by certain ethical and legal duties that could prevent it from expressing sympathy for Josh Powell. If HSLDA represents a party involved, they have an ethical responsibility not to make public statements that could be construed as admissions against their client\u2019s interest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, J argues that HSLDA couldn\u2019t respond with compassion to Josh Powell\u2019s story of educational neglect because the organization has a legal duty to protect its members\u2014including, presumably, Josh Powell\u2019s parents\u2014at all cost.<\/p>\n

(I would make several points here. First of all, because of the nature of Virginia\u2019s religious exemption law, Josh\u2019s parents broke no rules by not educating him, and there are therefore no charges being pressed, so even if Josh\u2019s parents are HSLDA members HSLDA is not currently representing them in some sort of suit. And second, being someone\u2019s lawyer doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t make general statements about something being morally bad\u2014being OJ\u2019s lawyer, for instance, didn\u2019t mean you couldn\u2019t say murdering your wife was a bad thing to do. I think what\u2019s actually stopping HSLDA from expression compassion int his sort of situation is their lobbying efforts in favor of unrestrained parental rights.)<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether or not J is correct, I think his comment brings up an important point\u2014HSLDA defends the interests of homeschool parents, not<\/em> the interests of homeschooled children. This is actually\u00a0something I\u2019ve discussed before<\/a>:<\/p>\n

HSLDA protects homeschool parents\u2019<\/em> interests and homeschool parents\u2019<\/em> rights, not homeschooled children\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0interests or homeschooled\u00a0children\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0rights.<\/p>\n

This fact should be especially troublesome to anyone who was homeschooled, to those who like me grew up on the HSLDA literature our parents received and grew up on the HSLDA talking points our parents recited. HSLDA cared about our parents, but the organization didn\u2019t care about\u00a0us<\/em>. Think about that for a moment. HSLDA was there to defend your parents\u2019 right to homeschool,\u00a0no matter what<\/em>. HSLDA set about systematically eliminating safeguards that would have ensured that homeschooled children receive an education, and safeguards that would have protected homeschooled children against abuse. HSLDA has opposed\u00a0even laws that would have simply required that your parents register<\/a>\u00a0as a homeschool with the state board of education, so that someone would at least know that you existed. HSLDA set about putting all of the power in the hands of your parents, but during all that time they never gave a second thought about\u00a0you<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Again, J\u2019s response might be \u201cwell, duh, they\u2019re lawyers, that\u2019s how it works.\u201d Even if that\u2019s true, that in and of itself is a problem. That the largest homeschool advocacy group in the country can\u2019t even bring itself to condemn educational neglect perpetrated by homeschool parents, and instead defends homeschool educational neglect as in and of itself something that\u2019s just fine, that should be a red flashing light that something is wrong.<\/em><\/p>\n

But there\u2019s more here than that, at least for me.<\/p>\n

I never saw HSLDA as simply my parents\u2019 lawyers (and yes, my parents have been HSLDA members since I was small). I also saw them as my<\/em>\u00a0defenders. I thought HSLDA cared about me<\/em>. I really did. I\u2019m sure this is true of many other homeschooled children growing up in HSLDA member families\u2014we didn\u2019t see HSLDA as simply lawyers at all, we saw them as our protectors<\/em> and heroes<\/em>. When I met Michael Farris when I was sixteen, I couldn\u2019t have been more proud and excited. So for me at least, there is a sense of betrayal. I thought HSLDA cared about me,<\/em>\u00a0not just about my parents,<\/em> and their response to Josh Powell\u2019s story is simply one more confirmation that they didn\u2019t<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And to be honest, that may be part of why this bothers me so much.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I never saw HSLDA as simply my parents’ lawyers (and yes, my parents have been HSLDA members for two decades now). I also saw them as my<\/i> defenders. For me at least, there is a sense of betrayal. I thought they cared about me, and their response to Josh Powell’s story is simply one more confirmation that they didn’t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[198],"class_list":["post-16386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeschool","tag-hslda"],"yoast_head":"\nBecause We Thought HSLDA Cared about Us<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I never saw HSLDA as simply my parents' lawyers (and yes, my parents have been HSLDA members for two decades now). I also saw them as my defenders. For me at least, there is a sense of betrayal. 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