Homeschoolers Anonymous (HA) was a project of Homeschool Alumni Reaching Out (HARO).

HA was a narrative-sharing platform run by former homeschoolers. HA contributors were an inclusive community interested in sharing our educational experiences. While the conservative, Christian homeschooling subculture was the primary focus of our contributors,  HARO saw HA as a clearinghouse for all stories about homeschooling from any people who have experienced it — the good, the bad, and the ugly.

As a part of HARO, HA’s mission was to improve homeschooling for future generations through awareness and education, peer-support networks, and resource development. HA specifically implemented the awareness and education aspect of HARO’s mission. The HARO board believed that knowledge is power. To that end we published personal stories and testimonies about homeschooling experiences, historical and sociological studies of the modern homeschooling movement, and analyses of the ideologies and leaders that have shaped homeschooling in the U.S.

Goal:

HA’s goal was to bring awareness to personal experiences of homeschooling subcultures and work to educate both homeschooling communities and the general public how experiences of abuse, isolation, and neglect arise within those subcultures.

Objectives:

Our project’s objectives were as follows:

1. Serve as a narrative-sharing platform for personal homeschooling experiences.

2. Use narrative-sharing to educate homeschooling communities about the existence of child abuse, self-injury, mental illness, and LGBT* students’ needs.

3. Chart the history and explain the politics of homeschooling.

4. Provide critical and thoughtful analyses of the ideas, curriculums, conventions, and leaders within homeschooling that give shape to its dominant milieus.

5. To inspire abuse and neglect survivors to speak out.

6. To give hope to those who currently suffer from abuse and control and to provide them with networks of support.

Disclaimer:

The views and opinions expressed by our individual contributors do not necessarily reflect those of HA as a platform or HARO as an organization.