The Year was 1979....

"We purchased a structured curriculum from Christian Liberty Academy. All I had to do was present the materials to (my daughter)  have her do the work, and return it to CLA for grading.  They issued report cards showing that our child had straight A's."

Portions of a testimony of a homeschooling mom, given at the Opening Session of Wisconsin Parents Association's 16th Annual Home Education Conference on May 1, 1999, and published in their newsletter. (See: http://homeschooling-wpa.org/conference/pdf/Remarks-1999.pdf) This is posted here, so you can better understand the history of Homeschooling.

"By this time our local school district decided we were truant. We weren't complying with the [Compulsory Education] law! We were served truancy notices and were told that we had three school days to have our girls in school or they would be taken from us and placed in foster care. My sister, who had children the same ages as mine, was sent truancy notices also. Together we hired an attorney from Madison who assured us that our children wouldn't be taken away. But there were a lot of problems we had to deal with."

"Because there was no specific homeschool law, our attorney did his best to keep the truancy problem very low-key. He told us to continue homeschooling, but we weren't to tell anyone what we were doing. We kept our curtains closed and were as quiet about homeschooling as possible so as not to arouse curiosities. Our children were not to be seen if anyone came to the door. They had their designated hiding spots when the door bell rang. If we had to go somewhere during regular school hours, they sat on the floor of the car so no one would see them."

"Each September we were served truancy notices. The truant officer and the local sheriff
would come to the door (the children were hiding) and read the truancy notice as though I
was illiterate. I would quietly accept it. The lawyer advised us that any time public officials
asked us questions, we were to ask that their questions be put in writing so we could submit
them to our lawyer. We complied. About this time I was beginning to doubt my sanity."

"We listened patiently to verbal attacks on how we were abusing our poor, unsocialized children. We did what we could to help people understand that homeschooling is an acceptable alternative to public
education. But mostly, we thanked God for answering our prayers-that WE could educate
the children HE gave us according to our consciences."

"Many of you didn't have to work for your right to homeschool. For some, all you had to
do was fill out form PI-1206 and begin your 875 hours per year. I can not stress it enough...please
do not abuse this right. If you aren't a member, join Wisconsin Parents Association and
help maintain the law we have."