The 2025 MASSHope Homeschool Convention
In 2016, Homeschool pioneer Rick Boyer was accused of grooming a minor and disappeared from the movement he helped build. Eight years later he returned. I went to ask him why he left.
It took sixteen minutes to get to my gate starting from the parking garage—seven minutes more than usual for RIC. I lost my driver’s license two days before, and spent the morning of my flight collecting every other ID and form with my name on it. The TSA agent at the security bridge waves a supervisor over, who then thumbs through my half-inch thick envelope of personal documents. My envelope is handed back to me, “Just run his bags through the extra screening.” Now flush with time after my unnecessarily early arrival, I grab a seat at the only restaurant open inside the Evelyn Byrd terminal. I’m tapping my pocket with the envelope every few minutes, the current climate less than ideal for losing every identifying document you possess. As my order of what appears to be triple fried chicken tenders arrives, I check my carry-on for any Imodium I might have packed. I tap my pocket one more time.
I’m on my way to bear witness to the fastest growing form of education in its least hospitable region—a state that ranks 50th out of 50 in homeschool enrollment. Awaiting my reception at the Sturbridge, Massachusetts Super 8 is no one. I pace around for a few minutes until I see a note with a number for me to call. A once recently asleep man lumbers into the building and slides behind an unresponsive check-in computer. I fight the urge to join in as he starts playing with the router. The system boots up after a few minutes and I’m sent to the penthouse (2nd floor) with a beautiful view into the heart of New England.
Convention Day 1
The next morning, I down a paper cup of oatmeal between a CVS and Yankee Liquor on my walk to the convention. I passed on the discount block-rate at the Sturbridge Hotel and Conference Center, accepting the premium to enjoy some distance whenever I could find it. I arrive just as the morning keynote kicks off, finding a lone seat among the 150 or so attendees who arrived on time. As I settle in my seat, a man in colonial dress takes the stage to address the crowd, “Anyway, I’m in this get-up today in my incarnation as Uncle Rick the storyteller.” The man in stockings and tricorn hat is why I had come. “I don’t know if you know this or not,” he taunts his Yankee crowd, “But history was invented in Virginia, not Massachusetts!”
But Rick isn’t the keynote this morning; he hasn’t been seen much in the past eight years. He is only on stage to hawk his audiobook memberships and curriculum he’ll be selling over the weekend. I will have to catch up with him later. He wraps the sales pitch in prayer, and the headliner begins to take the stage, the room breaking into applause as she flips on her personal pink lavalier microphone. “Homeschooling by far and away, next to introducing our kids to Jesus, has been the best thing that we have ever done. And he’s going to sanctify you through the process of home education.” Behind her is the keynote title projected on the wall, Like Arrows in the Hands of a Warrior.
Heidi
“I first heard about homeschoolers in the 80s, and they were the people who didn’t register their kids with Social Security … I get it now. We all know we’re being poisoned, but that’s a whole other workshop!”
Heidi St. John is the keynote slot for a reason. The crowd is eating this up.
“Can you guys tell I ran for Congress? You should have seen me!” Before her third place finish in the 2022 Washington Republican primary, Heidi had already become one of Homeschooling’s most popular speakers over the last two decades. If the first wave of Homeschooling brought it into existence, Heidi and the rest of the second wave are responsible for bringing it into America’s alternative counter-culture.
This may be a Homeschooling convention, but the schooling aspect functions mostly as set dressing. Anyone in the audience who has made that assumption is set straight, “The Homeschool moms are wringing their hands. ‘I didn’t make it through the math book!’ My question is, ‘but did you make it through God’s book?’” The stakes are far higher than a child’s education. “I don’t actually care if you ever need to know math!”
Heidi continues through slides of particularly poor artwork, reminding the parents that they are preparing for “literal battle.” “This is the image I want you guys to keep in your mind.” Heidi’s slide switches to the next image, a father praying over his sleeping child. “This is a spiritual battle! … Dad’s not afraid about a math lesson … That’s not important!”
Heidi then asks the crowd to look a little closer at the photo. “If you zoom in—keep your eye on this—I want you to look at the top window … Can you see what’s happening” The audience is in wonder. “There’s a spiritual battle outside of the room of that child!” A sea of phones begin to pop up from the audience as the crowd takes snapshots of the projection. “I think if we could see the spiritual warfare with the naked eye, every one of us would be on our faces before the Lord.”
Well versed readers may have already picked up that the arrows in the title keynote are, in fact, people. Heidi hammers the motif repeatedly through the thickest of skulls in the crowd, “Children have been given to you like arrows in the hands of their warriors. Those children literally are God’s arrows.”
We near the finale, Heidi’s voice already hoarse for the last several minutes. Up until now, her pink* lavalier mic has been mostly for show. She enters a much slower and quieter cadence, and tells the story of Jim Elliot, killed on a missionary trip. For a literal war currently waging, they haven’t been able to produce any new martyrs since I was told the story.
I look around at the kids in the crowd, most unaware they have just been drafted for an impending war. “What are your arrows for but to shoot? You are training your children for a battle that will take them far beyond any academic pursuit that you could ever engage in.” I feel nauseous, wondering which Homeschool book or convention was the impetus for my own botched conscription. Apparently, the parents look nauseous too.
“I feel like they should give barf bags to new homeschoolers before they go into the vendor hall.”
Heidi hasn’t made Homeschooling sound very fun. In fact, most of these workshops spend a good deal of time warning parents it’s actually going to be quite the opposite. But if the alternative is to lose your children, can you afford not to?
“Don’t get overwhelmed by what you see … Don’t let it become a burden. You’re going to have bad days. You’re going to cry … You guys, welcome to the conference!”
The Exhibit Hall
The audience empties from the central ballroom and disperses to the first of dozens of breakout workshops available throughout the weekend. I choose to exchange the stuffy air of the ballroom for the musty air of the exhibit hall, where a bin of familiar posters for sale catches my eye. I flip through. On one are three pledges: one each to the American Flag, the Bible, and the Christian flag. Others provide “Answers to Evolution” and “The Ten Commandments” in cartoon form. The last, a depiction of the Old Testament Tabernacle. I flip it over and check the Copyright at the bottom. 2005. Above is an advertisement for the accompanying PowerPoint CD “for your class or home!” Still available to purchase for $39.99 at GoodSoil.com.
I stop by a handful of other booths. The Great Wolf Lodge is advertising their homeschool day packages. Another booth has two men in knock-off Boy Scout uniforms recruiting for Trail Life, a breakaway organization from Boy Scouts after the organization ended its discriminatory policy towards gay scouts—the hideous uniforms a dead giveaway on the reason for the split. One row over I ask the USAF National Guard what brought them here. “Just doing research and came across it,” she tells me. Besides her husband’s step-brother, she doesn’t know anyone who’s been homeschooled. “This is a new experience for me.”
I grab lunch, a burger from the concession-type room. As it’s handed to me from a kitchen with no stove, I make note to seek out a vegetable soon.
Uncle Rick
Rick Boyer and I are neighbors of sorts; less so from a physical distance standpoint, and more by our coexistence in the tiny world of Homeschooling. In 1980, Virginia did not recognize the practice, so Rick’s home outside Lynchburg became a testing site for what happens when parents just stopped sending their kids to school one day. His early adopter status brought him close to the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) once they put down roots to the north of him in Loudoun County, and Uncle Rick started making his first appearances at the newly formed Home Educators Association of Virginia (HEAV) convention a couple years later. Rick joined HEAV’s board in the early 2000s, about the same time I began homeschooling in Virginia—the soil of my childhood tended and groomed by Rick and a small battalion of constant gardeners.
But in 2016, after fourteen years on the board, Rick left suddenly. He received a call from the HSLDA president; his yearly invite to their National Leadership Conference was being rescinded. Accusations of grooming a minor lost him access to everything he had helped to build. He has been missing ever since, his wife becoming the face for their Character Concepts brand. Rick spent seven years trying to sue the (now adult) minor—as well as anyone who shared the allegations. But he ran out of funds; he needed to pay the liens issued against him by his second lawyer, and the case was brought to a close at the end of 2024.
Rick is still in his colonial get-up as he addresses the gaggle of children assembled before him. I take a seat as isolated as possible from the rest of the room. You might think a 30 year old male sitting alone at story time would seem out of place, but no one questions me. There is no such thing as out of place here. As Rick tells the kids some (likely apocryphal) stories from the Revolutionary War, I’m passed a stack of flyers for the Uncle Rick Audio Book Club. $14.95 a month. “Who buys this shit?” I think to myself as I pass the stack to the next potential customer. I do some quick math to find what subscriber count breaks six figures (558), and consider if it’s not too late to switch paths.
Marilyn
Rick finishes story time, swapping places with his wife at the vendor booth. I take my seat in a far less attended workshop for her session, You Mean I Can Teach History Like That? It promises to show how you can teach the true history of our country to your kids, but in practice is a reading of book suggestions for 50 minutes. Despite the extra dose of Adderall I am nearly asleep a few minutes in, but I jolt back awake about halfway through. On the projector is Judge Roy Moore, who lost his 2017 U.S. Senate race after allegations of serial predation and grooming of minors. Underneath his photo is an endorsement for the Boyers’ history books, which you can buy as a bundle for $131 at their booth or online.
Opting to skip the day’s last session, I head out to grab a burrito (counting the pico inside as my vegetable for the day) and take a quick hike in the nearby state park. As I return, the glow of the Super 8 sign draws my car to the motel parking lot, but the glow of a McDonald’s arch 1,000 feet further has a stronger pull. They have spicy versions of McChickens up here. Incredible.
Convention Day 2 | Vegetables Eaten: 1
What’s a Dad to Do?
Heidi again has the Saturday morning keynote spot at 9, but it’s one I’ve already heard several times so I really don’t give a shit. Today is all about Rick.
A dad in his 30s arrives before Rick’s 10:30 workshop at the same time as me. Placing his ball-cap down on the table, I’m able to see the patch above the snap: two Celtic crosses flanking the words “Shepherds We Shall Be,” a reference to the 1999 shoot-em-up cult classic The Boondocks Saints—a movie where two rough-and-tumble Irish Catholic twins on a mission from God who purify Boston of evil with blood and gunfire for about 90 minutes. I recognize the reference immediately, as the opening theme was 17-year-old-me’s very first ringtone.
Rick walks up to the lectern, “Hi, everybody! Hear me okay?” He no longer has his tricorn hat, opting for a suit today. “We’re here to talk about dad’s role in the home-educating family.” Homeschool mothers being both the de facto educators and homemakers has left the movement struggling for 40 years to figure out what it is exactly that a father contributes.
Back in the 80s, the lesson Rick received was to “take as much of cooking, cleaning, and laundry off of mom so that she could be free to do the teaching.” But the idea of making tangible contributions to the household didn’t sit right with Rick, so he looked for an answer elsewhere. The Lord showed him the answer he wanted through the Scripture. God is good.
The dads in the room begin writing down all the ways they will not be contributing as Rick lists them off. He tells us a father provides, which is a fancy way of saying ‘has a job’. As for the teaching aspect, fathers teach by example. This doesn’t mean teaching anything; just to do whatever you were going to do anyways, but with an inflated sense of self-importance. And of course the big one, fathers are protectors. This can be done by inventing non-existent threats so you can perform rituals of protection as proof to your wife that you’re not a pussy. Boondock Saints man begins writing furiously. “There’s so much our kids need to be protected from, sometimes even in the church. Youth groups are famous for stealing parental loyalty and turning kids over to the youth director.”
Rick rattles off a few more, “One of the most important things that a dad provides for his kids is a trade, a means of making a living.”
“What about girls, Rick?” I think to myself
“What about girls?”
Oh.
“The Proverbs 31 woman’s work fits in with a mom’s responsibilities … not in a job that required her to be up close and personal with men. If you think about people you know that committed adultery and you ask yourself, ‘where did they meet?’ … It was in the workplace, a hotbed of immorality. So I want to train my daughters to be keepers at home and then be paid without violating their godly standards.”
Creating abstract barriers between daughters and paid labor is a needed step in supplementing the parenting and teaching dad won’t be doing, which is why they will need to maintain a good supply of them.
“Have a bunch of kids. That’s a great way to educate your kids … My kids practiced parenting growing up … It’s God’s plan for restoring a godly culture. Maybe that’ll work for America, but not if Christians don’t have children … Y’all hate abortion. Can’t prevent a human life from continuing; why can you prevent one from beginning?”
I had planned to introduce myself to Rick after the workshop, but the morning’s coffee changed my plans. After relieving myself on the three Zyns inside the urinal, I hurry back to find he has already left. I head to the vendor hall and see he has taken his spot at the Character Concepts booth.
Rick was delighted when I asked to interview him, even offering me a free year of his audiobook club. It was truly incredible to run into someone from HEAV and a former Little Buddy™ of Uncle Rick. Maybe it wasn’t so incredible, this was after all a testament to the promise of Homeschooling come full circle.
While Rick was honored by the request, he wasn’t sure he was the right man for the interview. “I have kind of been out of the movement for eight years.” But running into him was such a pleasant surprise, a conversation with someone from my own childhood would make my podcast that much more compelling. Rick was sold. “Let’s do it.” Rick said he would have time at 2:15 before his 3:30 workshop, the final event on the schedule.
“Does it feel good to be back?” I ask.
“Oh yes.” Rick closes his eyes and sighs with relief. “Wonderful.”
Turning Point USA
After lunch, I kill some time in the exhibit hall and strike up a 30-minute conversation with a woman manning the table for Turning Point USA. She tells me about running her chapter for her co-op, and the frustration of trying to get others to join, “None of this is political. You’re like, ‘Oh, I don’t do politics.’ We don’t do politics either!” I glance down, a bowl full of Jolly Ranchers next to “rip food dyes” buttons stares back at me. “It’s like a free club for kids. I’m not pushing anything that’s fascism or anything like that.” I pocket a few buttons as souvenirs.
A man comes up and joins our conversation, “You heard Heidi St John speak this morning?” The woman behind the Turning Point USA table gestures to a poster-board, “She’s coming to our young woman’s conference in July.”
“She was phenomenal” he lets us know. “And she challenged the men too, like, ‘Where the heck are you guys?’”
Turning Point woman agrees. She wants men to be like her friend Rich, who was arrested last year for blocking a transgender woman from using the public restroom off the Massachusetts Turnpike. “That’s a badge of honor. That’s what we need.” The man who joined us accepts the blame for the way things are right now. “My son, his freshman year first day, ‘What’s your preferred pronouns?’ My wife went to the school committee meeting … It was one against 16 committee members. So we’re homeschooling … but if we had been involved 10 years ago this wouldn’t be happening.”
Our conversation reached her complaints of HBCUs being given money while North Carolina hurricane victims were dying in the streets (or something), and I decide I have had my fill of Turning Point USA woman. Rick was nowhere to be found, so I wandered around the hall a little more.
HSLDA
“Do you know what HSLDA is?” Two women in their late 20s ask as I approach the booth.
“Former member” I tell them.
They ask if I have any kids. The convention nearing its end, my last Adderall a distant memory, I struggle to remember the aberration in the heartland of the real I’ve created this weekend. I regain my grip on things, responding with a very generous interpretation of “soon” and tell them I am visiting a friend from Virginia.
“Do you guys know if you’re going to homeschool under religious exemption? On the HSLDA website on the Virginia page… the religious exemption should be on there somewhere. From my understanding it’s pretty easy.”
“I think I saw there was something about the religious exemption earlier this year in the news?”
“There was. They were trying to get rid of it… It got squashed”
They let me know about this new organization, Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), that is advocating against Homeschool Freedom™. “So there are kids from our era of Homeschooling that said, ‘I had a bad experience. We need more regulation’ but it’s like the anecdotal experience versus what is actually happening across the board.”
“So they’re homeschoolers?” I ask.
“Correc- Well some of them are; not all of them. Some of them who weren’t homeschoolers, they find one homeschooler that had a bad experience that is then advocating for the organization. So a couple of them are homeschooled.”
I find it an interesting way to describe an organization founded by and virtually entirely run by homeschool alumni.
Before I leave, they tell me my podcast idea exploring what Homeschooling looks like from the perspective of its own graduates is a great idea. “That’s really needed… If you can take your perspective and then apply it to others who have the same experience, that’s really powerful.”
It is now past 2:45. Rick’s chair at the booth is still empty. I pick through some items on display nearby. I flip over The Sibling Challenge game, promising to help my kids love their siblings (with God’s help). The clock is about to hit 2:50 when I hear a voice call for me. “Hey, I’m back!” Thoughtfully, Rick had been looking for me. He seems excited. “Let’s go sit down.”
Rick
Phase 1
“Do you mind if I record?” I sit down with my back to the rest of the room, isolating my microphone as much as possible from the chatter and hum of the venue. “Not at all,” Rick tells me. I hit record and introduce him to the microphone.
“Now Rick, your voice might sound really familiar to a few listeners. Why is that?”
“Well if they were ever kids, they may have listened to my recordings as I record audiobooks for kids as Uncle Rick”
My interviewing skills are more than rough, much farther from the Isaac Chotiner impression I was going for. But it works; a deficit in charm actually makes you fit in more here. I butter him up with questions I’ve seen him answer a few dozen times, and he answers them like he did a decade ago. He enters a comfortable rhythm, even boosting my own confidence.
After knocking down a few of the easy questions, I go for something a little out of his wheelhouse. I ask what he thinks about homeschooled kids who are now grown and speaking out against it.
“Ultimately it’s because God loves the family and Satan hates it and he’s using human instruments to attack it right now, but it’s grown anyway because it’s God’s movement … We got state education laws sensitized to Homeschoolers”
I go back to the well of soft questions, and give him an opportunity to crow about his time in leadership. I swing the pendulum back with my next question. When the scandal of Josh Duggar sexually assaulting his sisters became public in 2014, Rick had come to their defense, posting that “Abuse is the new racism.”
“I remember the 2013 [HEAV] conference, which was headlined by the Duggars. You were a board member at that time—did you have any strong thoughts about what the Duggars meant for homeschooling? And how does that intersect with the post-COVID homeschooling and the new kind of challenges from homeschool grads?”
“That’s a broad question.”
Yes it is, Rick!
“Start out with the Duggars. I don’t know the Duggars real well, but I’m acquainted with them. I’ve been in their home. I consider Jim Bob and his wife personal friends, although I seldom see them.”
Rick’s demeanor begins a slow evolution now. He begins to answer faster than he can think, calling people he says he doesn’t know very well his personal friends in the next breath.
“I think the enemy jumped on the failure of their oldest son and made as big a deal out of it as they could because they’re not a godly group by and large. And I think they’re always eager to attack anybody who’s anything like an icon in the Christian family movement. The Duggars are like I am. They’re sinners … I mean, they had a TV show and all that. So they were considered icons, representative of the Christian family movement, the homeschool movement. And the enemies of God jumped on their natural failures, which we all have, and made the biggest deal out of it they could.
I can’t really say I know a lot about what the response has been movement-wide. I know that people forget things awful fast. And since their television show went off the air several years ago, I think it would be interesting to find out that there’s an awful lot of people who’ve never heard of them. So I don’t think a lot of lasting damage was done.”
I wonder how much of his answers are only about the Duggars. A decade ago, HSLDA quietly pushed Rick off. But this weekend he gets to share the top bill with one of their board members, Heidi St. John. People really do forget things awful fast.
“And I pray for them. I think they did a lot of good. It’s a shame that their oldest son had the issues that he did. But how many families have raised 18 good kids who have never gone overboard and done terrible things? So I’m not saying…”
He trails off, looking into the distance. “I’m not…” Rick is now overcome with slight unnatural movements, his face exhibiting seizure-like symptoms, and I begin to wonder if I’m about to call an ambulance. I don’t interrupt.
“I’m not qualified to judge other people … I’m not surprised that when a failure appeared in their family that the media jumped on it. Because by and large, the secular media is an instrument of the devil. And ultimately, it’s a spiritual battle.”
His answer finally concludes. The Duggar parents along with every single member of their community covered up their son’s crimes for over a decade, enabling him to continue harming others. Rick doesn’t just seem unaware of this, he appears unable to comprehend it.
Phase 2
The questions seemed to have drained the life from Rick. He looks defeated, any excitement from earlier has now evaporated. I begin my next phase and ask short and direct questions from here on out, curious when Rick will realize the nature of the interview.
“How long did you serve on the board?”
“14 years.”
“When did you leave?”
“2016.”
“Did you leave for any reason?”
We sit in silence for eleven seconds. His facial contortions accelerate.
“I don’t think I want to comment on that.”
“That’s when you stopped going to conventions?”
“Huh?”
“That’s when you stopped going to conventions?”
“No, I went to the convention a year or two after that. I spoke a year or two after that.”
“But then you stopped?”
“I’ve been since then. I couldn’t tell you how many times.”
“So what made you go on a break?”
Another moment of silence.
“Well, usually when I went, it’s because I was asked to speak. And I didn’t get asked to speak every year. I did attend a time or two when I wasn’t asked to speak, but not every year.
“But you stopped getting invites?”
“Huh?”
“But you stopped getting invites?”
“I haven’t been invited the last few years.”
“Is there any reason?”
“You’d have to ask them, whoever’s in charge of the convention.”
Silence.
“No other reason?”
“Ask them, brother.
…
Now are you going to tell me why you’re really doing this interview?”
The jig is up. I don’t answer. “Did anything happen in Virginia around 2016 and 2017?”
“A lot of things happened in Virginia.
…What did you say your last name was?”
A woman taps Rick on the shoulder as she walks past, “Just letting you know, you have 15 minutes till your last session,” Rick lifts his arm and pulls back the suit cuff covering his watch, “Oh, you’re right! Well, this has been very interesting.”
We started too late. Fuck. I don’t have time for the flow chart on my legal pad. Unsure what to do, I decide to just dig in and continue with the same tactic, a mistake I will later regret. “No reason?”
“You with Homeschoolers Anonymous?”
“I’m homeschooled.” Jesus. That blog shut down six years ago. “Why did you leave in 2016?”
“This is really interesting. Why do you think I left in 2016?”
I glance down at my flow chart and check the node reading “HE needs to say why he left.” For some reason I felt this was important enough to draw only one exit branch. Rick then makes an observation I had been wondering myself.
“This is interesting. As far as I know this is the first time this has happened.”
“Me too.”
Rick is smart enough to recognize the expiring time on the game clock gives him an opening to regain control of the interview. Now at ease, he takes advantage and attempts to start asking me questions.
“Are you a Christian?”
Chotiner would never allow himself to be put in this position. Disgusted with myself, I opt for the same brick wall defense Rick is using, “I’m homeschooled.”
“Ahhh.” My answer has given Rick some sort of clarity. Going off his previous answers, I have an idea what he thinks this means. “So who are you with?”
“Did anything happen in 2016?”
“Who are you with?”
“I’m with myself.”
“No, you’re not.”
We have reached an impasse. He asks for my last name, which I decline to offer. He again insists I am with Homeschoolers Anonymous, the blog that he tried to sue in 2017. Vendors are beginning to break their booths down. Rick readies to leave for his last workshop and lets me know he is ready to wrap this up.
“Well, God bless you. That’s all I can say.”
I squeeze everything I can out of our last few seconds. “What happened in 2016? Why did you stop getting invites? Did HEAV ask you to step down or did you do it on your own?”
“You know what I wonder? I wonder if I’m going to end up finding out why you’re asking all this … I better go. God bless you.” Rick sticks his hand in my direction for a handshake, “No hard feelings.”
I’m indifferent on handshakes, but not with this one. “I’m okay” I tell him.
The weekend had been spent warning attendees of an impending battle with evil, literal warfare over which the very soul of our nation and children weighed in the balance, and Rick, determined I was on the opposing side of this battle, offered to shake my hand.
It was time for me to go. I left my card on his table as he whispered some instructions to the pre-teen girls tasked to sell his books and audiobook memberships. On my way out I leave another card on the HSLDA table and ask if they could tell Jim I’ve been trying to get in touch with him.
“Jim Mason? The President?”
I was ready to get the fuck out of here and hopped in the Jeep Compass rental. But after exiting onto the highway, I had a second thought and turned around. The convention wasn’t over yet. I popped into Rick’s final workshop to grab my last shot of the convention. I’ll arrive at the airport with plenty of time to catch my flight home.
“You don’t have any time. You should have gotten here sooner.” The TSA agent is bemused as to why anyone without an ID would show up this late to their flight. I’m shuffled between a battery of TSA stations, where they tell me I’m going to miss my flight. I purchase a new ticket, the price of my trip now doubled. Amidst an ongoing series of phone calls and discussions between TSA agents, a video of Kristi Noem reminding me to have a Real ID loops on the TV screens above. Finally a decision is made, “Just run his bags through the extra screening.” I arrive at my gate eight minutes later, passing the closed jet bridge to my original flight.
From Fringe, To Movement, To Enduring Institution
We need to take back the culture ourselves and not depend upon the legislature to do so … What we need to do is to foster more of home schooling … I am talking about really separating ourselves from the filth. We need to invent institutions that will replace the ones that are defective.
- Paul Weyrich, father of the New Right, to Michael Farris in 1999
I was, if it wasn’t obvious, not prepared for this trip. It was a side branch to a side branch of my original plans. When I learned of Rick’s attendance, I quickly made the decision to travel. Assumptions I held prior did not return from my trip fully intact—the most heartbreaking revelation being that I’m no Chotiner (and that I maybe shouldn’t pretend to be). More though, I at first found the convention quaint, like the Homeschool movement from the past. While other larger conventions put on a (deeply shallow) show of welcoming homeschoolers outside the movement, there was no pretense here. Upon reflection, I do not view this event solely as signs of schisms or even a movement in stagnation, but as a view into the geological timescale of that movement, of the fertile soil being cultivated for an institution to form. An institution distinct from the soil it grows from, cultivated and groomed by its constant gardeners found in MASSHopes and HEAVs across the nation, by its Rick Boyers—and those who cover for them.
But an institution that is willfully blind to the harm it unleashes on its own product is blind to the tension it will one day face from that product. Rick was unable to believe I was not with an inactive blog from a decade ago for the same reason the HSLDA booth was unaware CRHE is entirely under the direction of homeschool alumni. An institution that exists to avoid confrontation with reality and replace it with its own will by necessity be unable to confront the reality of its own product. It will manufacture bolder realities to keep the tension at bay and wield increasing power at the same time it works to be seen as ethereal and the work of individual actors. The institutional machinery operating in our backyards—its homeschool days and Capitol visits and conventions—free from knowing the reality of its own product, for now.
We are no longer a social movement working towards making homeschooling legal, socially acceptable, and mainstream. We have checked that box. Perhaps we are instead now an enduring, successful institution, whose purpose, in part, is to offer an antidote to many of the social ills that surround us.
- HSLDA President Jim Mason, 2023 National Leadership Conference
As I asked Rick increasingly probing questions, the comfort drained from his appearance, his jaw swung wildly, his pauses between thoughts grew longer. On display was his mind grappling with the confrontation with himself he avoids every waking moment. He was betrayed by his belief that the holy ground where he stood belonged to him. That the institution built with his own hands would offer him refuge from the terror of reality it was created to replace. But before our conversation’s end, Rick did find refuge, and I had allowed it. I let the interview conclude without acknowledging the harm he had committed. The tension left unearthed and continuing to rot; he found a way out. As the charade of the interview collapsed, Rick no longer had to grapple with his own conscience. He could escape accountability by inventing a Devil. Where across from him sat the work of his own product, he replaced it with Satan, and offered to shake his hand.∎
My exhusbands much younger wife is a homeschooler and I am sure buys into all of this judging by the church she attends and the fact that my ex believes Qanon conspiracies and gets his news from OAN. I’m scared for their kids.