Michael Smith: "The home-school community owes a great debt of gratitude to Raymond S. Moore, who died July 13 at age 91."

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Posted by Howard Richman on August 20 2007 at 08:34:38:

The above photo is from the Moore Foundation´s website.

In today´s Washington Times HSLDA´s (Home School Legal Defense Association´s) Michael Smith honors Raymond Moore, one of the two founders of the modern homeschool movement that got its start in the early 1980s (the other was John Holt). Moore´s best-selling books which emphasized the importance of not pushing formal instruction too early, and his appearances on Dr. James Dobson´s Focus on the Family radio program brought many people to homeschooling.

Moore´s continuing leadership role in the homeschooling movement brought him to Pennsylvania several times between 1984 and 1988 where he helped us pursuade legislators to legalize homeschooling.

It is ironic that HSLDA is honoring Moore as they opposed him on two key issues:

  1. Moore tried to keep the homeschooling movement from splitting along religious lines, while HSLDA encouraged the formation of exclusive Christian support groups whose members were required to subscribe to doctrinal statements.
  2. Moore believed that homeschool laws should include accountability, while HSLDA has worked to eliminate child protections from homeschool laws in many states.
As a result of their disagreements, HSLDA largely ignored Moore´s work in their publications for about two decades. Now after his death they are giving him the honor that he richly deserves.

Howard


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