https://homeschoolmagazine.com/flipbooks/2026/hsnl-flipbook-issue-4/index.html
By Mary Leppert
Dear Readers: It is very hard to believe that this is our 30th year in publication! In some ways, it seems like a minute, and in some ways, longer. It does not, however, seem like 30 Summers, Winters, Springs, and Falls have passed.
I would like to thank all the people who have helped make The Link possible. First, all of the great writers and leaders who gave us ideas that we had never even conceived of. The late John Taylor Gatto taught us that modern curriculum and school was not a path to a happy, self-directed, productive life. He taught us to GO outside of the box and see the real things. Without him I don’t think we would have done 12 conventions or produced 30 years of publications. At one of our conventions there was a controversary over some issue, like unschooling vs. traditional schooling and I was in the middle of it. John pulled me aside and said: “In a convention like this, you are going to have at least 100 people mad at you because you stand for controversial things. So, be strong and realize if you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing.” I never forgot that saying and it has stuck with me all these years later. Thank you, John.
Thank you to Martin and Carolyn Forte for all the support they have given us over the years. They are always willing to advertise with us and more importantly, hand our newspaper out at their incredible center for Homeschoolers, Excellence in Education, in Monrovia, California. They have also contributed many great articles over the years. I think Carolyn is a female John Gatto! They are both GREAT thinkers and are always willing to defend and go outside the box.
I also want to thank Mariaemma Puello Willis and Vickie Hodson, who I met at a homeschool convention in approximately 1996! I wanted to attend a workshop that was full and so I dodged into their workshop, instead. It was about learning styles or learning differences. We learned so much in that hour that it changed our lives.
It was a short time after that that I, Mary, called Mariaemma and John Taylor Gatto and Martin and Carolyn Forte and one or two others and I asked them if they would attend a homeschool conference, if we had one, and all three of them said “YES”. We did not even know what it meant to put on a conference. These mentioned people gave us the confidence to go forward and do something that we were not sure we could do. Thank you to all of you for your support!
Thank you to all the Readers over the years! I miss the old days of letters and phone calls, but I know you are still out there. Thank you to all the advertisers and to all the Printers in this country who are still printing. Without printers, it will be almost impossible to save the 1st Amendment.
Of course, I want to thank our son. Without him we never would have ventured into this homeschooling realm to begin with. The greatest gift of our lives has been being parents. Over the years, we would not have been able to do this magazine without him. In true “Homeschooling” fashion he was raised to know our business inside out and now knows more than we do about every single aspect. Even though he is off to other ventures, we can still count on him for advice and help if we need it. We are so proud of him.
I began homeschooling after reading “Teach Your Own” by John C. Holt, founder of Growing Without Schooling (https://www.johnholtgws.com/), the unschooling proponent of the 1980s and before. He advised readers to “do what you know”. I was working as a waitress at that time but had knowledge of the print publishing industry and decided to start a little newspaper serving homeschoolers.
Los Angeles had a large number of homeschool groups of both religious and non-religious families and our family belonged to some of each. I admired the disciplined academic lifestyle of some religious homeschoolers and the relaxed approach of non-religious homeschoolers, as well. I felt that the two groups could benefit from products and services that were neither religious nor non-religious but were simply valuable to homeschoolers in general. I also felt that we all could learn from each other. I wanted my newspaper to LINK the two worlds and that is why I called it “The Link”. We began publishing it in June, 1995. I wanted it to be free of charge so that any parent could pick it up in the local library or educational bookstore and benefit from the great ideas and articles and advertisers’ products and services.
The Link has had a steady growth over the years and we ultimately sponsored 12 productions of The Link “kid comfortable” homeschool conferences in L.A. and Greensboro, NC, in the 1990s and early 2000s. These shows had the same linking structure as the paper and we enjoyed seeing the vast diversity of homeschooling families that attended, and enjoyed speakers such as John Taylor Gatto, Sam Blumenfeld, The Fortes, Mariaemma Puello-Willis, Patrick Farenga, the Colfaxes and many others from all backgrounds of home education and parenting.
In rearing my son, I experienced a psychological “tap on the shoulder” when faced with putting my son into the unvetted mainstream world and pop culture of the time. This was before social media or the proliferation of the internet, but T.V. and music disseminated certain values we were not comfortable with and I decided to homeschool. My husband had read about alternative ways to combine educating and raising children and we were convinced that we could succeed with homeschooling. We believed that our son should be with us and learn from us, just as bears and other mammals do, until he was grown up enough to be independent.
I met other parents who had the same “tap on the shoulder” and responded with homeschooling as we had. These “hands-on” parents became the core of our readership for many years and we are pleased to know that many of their children have grown to become educated, sociable young adults and are now Homeschooling their children.
I have decided to include some past editorials in this issue because I think even though things have changed so much, the foundational reason to keep your kids out of the system is still the same. Remember the idea of “school” in this country, has not been around for more than 400 years or so. I hope you enjoy these editorials! Please write to me at: mary@homeschoolmagazine.com Thank you for Reading, Love, Mary.
June, 1997
Reading The Colfax Corner (page 12) from an early issue, has brought this reality home. One of the queries to the Colfaxes is from parents of a bright middle-school student who is faltering in grade achievement and interest in school in general. Teaching at home, without the constant interference of bells and changes of subject, suits many children very well. A child can read a favored book for hours. Another Colfax question addresses the issue of a child who is perceived as “different” by his/her peers and the theoretical value of making the child deal with the “real world” by remaining in school. David Colfax opines that trying to “fit in” to the social mix of the school might not be that desirable.
Many of the issues that arose in the 1990s and early 2000s are still alive in children’s school lives. These issues prompted many of us to homeschool at that time and prompt modern parents to do the same today. Unfortunately, one of the primary issues, bullying, has become enhanced by social media and the internet, to the point that it can be dangerous and tragic. Homeschooling, now, more than ever, is attractive to parents because of these issues.
Teaching Resources Today
On the positive side, something that has changed since the 1990s is that parents can purchase foreign language programs, math programs, reading, writing, history and all academic programs online, for their children to use at home, usually at the child’s pace. The days of homeschoolers having to search for curriculum and connections is part of the past! Awareness of the importance of teaching to the student’s learning style has also changed for the better. Many struggles of teaching, via a learning style that was weaker or secondary to the student, are no more. There are countless programs and processes to find out your and your child’s learning style. Thankfully, we are living in a time where keeping our children at home is becoming part of the mainstream, as it was 100 years ago! Some may say “who wants to go back to 100 years ago?” However, thousands of years in raising children cannot be wrong! Talk of eliminating the federal Department of Education make us think of the fact that our DOE has always been we, homeschooling families. If government asks us what it can do to help us teach our children, our response is a resounding “laissez faire”! — “Leave us alone”!
Some Past Editorials Of Our Last 30 Years
November, 1999
It is the dawn of the new Millennium and it is hard to believe that 35 years have passed since the top front cover picture was taken — in 1965! At first glance, I have a nostalgic feeling when I look at that picture, partially because it brings back memories of a time that seemed much simpler and I am remembering the dream that I had of growing up and giving my children that “Mayberry RFD” life. When my eyes drop down to the pictures below, I am quickly slapped out of my nostalgia and I realize that what we offer our “homeschooled children” is very superior to what is in the 1965 picture. Today, our homeschooled children have such rich lives!! These pictures make me very proud that we have chosen to homeschool our son. When I take myself back to the moment that picture was taken, I remember being so conscious of what I was wearing, how I acted, what we did earlier that morning in class, and I was thinking about the climbing ropes hanging from the ceiling in the gym, wondering if I would ever be able to climb past the second knot. Here I was, already judging myself according to someone else’s standards and my entire frame of reference. While I was in school, I was NOT being in the moment. No matter what we did in school, which activity, fun or not, inwardly I was somewhere else, “doing” something else. I believe this type of internal dynamic happens to most of us who went through the “institutional” educational system. I also believe that we carry it into our lives after school and when we grow up — even we homeschoolers — sometimes inadvertently pass this baggage on to our children. That is what happened to me the day that my son was playing the piano with his helmet on instead of doing what he was “supposed” to be doing. For me, the maturing process, in terms of both chronological age and homeschooling experience, is one of progressively losing the desire to conform, that school inspires and nurtures.
I become more my own person; therefore, it is easier for me to allow my son, Lennon, to become his own person, without the chains of my school past. When I look at the pictures below, it makes me glow with excitement for the future at being part of this wonderful world of “homeschooling” and I look at each picture with a feeling of pride. [Another confession is that on the day that picture was taken I remember exactly what I was thinking. He was about 8 and was doing something that qualified as “schoolwork” because it was only 10:30 in the morning. I walked into the room and there he was playing piano with his helmet on! My first reaction was to be upset — and then I broke into laughter and had to take a picture of him. It has really taken me the last four years to fully feel and accept the comfort of that moment. Over this time period, I have almost fully matured in the sense of realizing that school does not have to look like my First Grade class of 1965. In fact, that class of 1965 really had very little learning and growth going on at all. When you compare it to the pictures below — Wow! What a difference!]
February, 2000 Past Editorial #2
I am often bothered when I hear homeschooling referred to as a “movement.” Why? I can’t really tell you, except that one image that comes to mind is a herd of cows moo-ving toward a certain pasture. This fits one of the definitions of “movement” I found in Webster’s Dictionary: “The activities of a group moving toward a certain goal.” I guess what we do in our family does have a certain goal in mind, but I don’t know that being a family has an “end,” in a linear sense, as most goals do. To me, homeschoolers are the opposite of this sort of mass activity and mass thinking. Most of us begin homeschooling with our linear concepts intact — sequential goals following each other in a straight line (in our minds, anyway) for the day, week, month, “school year,” life, etc., that we have been brainwashed into accepting as correct living.
As we progress through a year or two of living a more natural life, we come to the realization that life is not really linear but rather, is spherical. Things happen simultaneously, not sequentially. Growth occurs that we hadn’t planned on and some of what we planned, fails miserably. There is an element of mystery at work here. What I am saying is that “homeschooling” is a small part of what we are doing. We are just a family, living our lives.
This brings to mind the conversation I had with a friend the other day. She told me of an article in another home-schooling publication which stated that one of the mistakes homeschoolers make is trying to get everyone on the bandwagon; the writer felt that homeschooling was not for everyone. My friend commented that she felt that homeschooling is not for every parent but homeschooling is something that every child deserves. I have been thinking about this a lot and I agree with my friend. Keeping our children home and raising them ourselves, having them primarily influenced by their own families in a warm, loving environment, is our duty as parents! I know so many parents who say “I could never do that.” I challenge them that instead of joining a “movement,” relax, bring your kids home, get to know them with fewer outside influences and just enjoy being a family!
Our 5th Anniversary. This issue marks the end of our fifth year of publishing The Link. We feel very fortunate to have our job of work be something so rewarding and enjoyable; hearing from you that you have enjoyed and/or benefited from a certain article or writer is very satisfying. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who reads The Link. Many things have changed in these four years. In late June, 1995, we had the first issue in hand, a skimpy 12 pages and we printed 5,000 copies. At the time, I didn’t know what we were going to do with all of these papers, crowding us out of our apartment. I belonged to two different homeschooling groups with about 80 families total. I also had homeschooling friends around the country to send it to. The leader of one of the groups I was involved with wrote one of the few articles, so I sent a copy to everyone in her group, which left us a total of 4,950! We subsequently sent out another 100 or so to other homeschoolers we knew, which brought us down to 4,850 and room at one end of the couch where our son could sit! That first week of the first issue, a friend who felt that homeschooling wasn’t popular enough to warrant printing 5,000 copies of The Link said to me, “Do you think anyone’s gonna read this?”
Past Editorial, August, 1998
I found it curious that many people who use the same label for their style of homeschooling — such as “unschooling”, varied broadly in their actual practices. It has been making me think about how necessary labels really are. I interviewed a number of homeschooling moms for this issue. During the course of the interviews, some of the moms, when I would ask them what type of homeschooler they considered themselves, (unschooler, schoolat-home, eclectic) two or three said “I just homeschool my children, I don’t consider myself as following any of those particular styles.”
As a result, I began to question if I could label what we do at our house. How do we homeschool? What is our philosophy? As I would ask myself these questions, the answer that kept coming back to me was “We’re just parents. We teach our son what we think he needs to know; guide him in the ways we think he should grow.” Should I feel guilty for this? It has occurred to me that some homeschooling parents are too worried about telling their children what to do, or damaging creativity by teaching in a learning style that might not be appropriate. I am not saying that we shouldn’t teach our children in the style that fits them or let them flourish in the things they are interested in. I am simply saying that we just need to loosen up and be parents and not be dictated to by labels! For example, this might make some of you “unschoolers” out there cringe, but this week, I gave my son two workbooks and said “You have two weeks to finish these.” I did this because he has an internal resistance to this kind of work and I feel he needs to overcome that resistance. A secondary point is that he is more than capable of completing either one of the workbooks in 20 minutes. So this is an example of my really looking at his character and ability and saying “This is what you need to work on.” We don’t do this sort of thing all of the time. We go weeks with him just reading every day. Most weeks, we do math about three times. During our conference season, we don’t do anything that resembles “school” at all. He manages the crew stuffing the vending bags, fills out the bank deposit slips, stamps the checks, and various other “real-life” tasks that he is interested in. We are his parents, and we simply do the “parental approach.” Sometimes it’s a little unschooling, sometimes it’s school-at-home, sometimes we’re creative and it’s eclectic . . . a veritable potpourri of education! A friend of mine related the other day that David Colfax once said “True education is a messy thing.”
The 2006 The Link “kid comfortable” Homeschool Conference
Another new speaker this year was Dr. Oliver DeMille. His workshops “The Education of Thomas Jefferson” and “Preparing for Careers of the Future, Pts 1 & 2” enlightened everyone about mentorship and the classics. For those who did not attend the conference, I would like to introduce him to the readers of The Link in this issue. Dr. DeMille has brought the concept of mentorship, as it was practiced in the Founders’ generation, to us.
As I listened to his tapes, the sense of it all seemed very familiar to me. When we first began our “homeschooling” journey and I read about all of the different philosophies from unschooling to the traditional school-at-home approach, I always felt that there was something more to homeschooling than either of these points of view addressed. However, I could never articulate this missing element. At times I would envision that I would possess the missing element if I were involved in a family-owned business — store, deli, whatever — where parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles worked alongside the kids who were being mentored by their relatives in the business and in Life in general. What my husband and I realized after listening to Dr. DeMille’s tapes, is that even if we don’t live that old-fashioned life of the past, we need to give to our children the best of who we are — not the best of the government schools or consumerist society’s idea of “socialization”. Our children should be trained to be the next generation of our families, with our moral, ethnic, religious values, and looking back over the generations, one should be able to see a thread of continuity, that each family generation is an outgrowth of the preceding one. Mentoring our children first and then finding the mentors for them to learn from at the appropriate age, is the way to build this family continuity. Dr. DeMille mentions how we must be the first example of good character, morality and strength our children have. This is a call to all of us to think about who we are, what we do, and the example we set, and then change what needs to be changed in order to give the best of ourselves to our children. Please see Part 1 of Dr. DeMille’s four- part article “Homeschooling: Hope for America” in this issue. We are very proud to have Dr. DeMille be part of The Link and our future conferences. Lastly, thank you to everyone who attended our conference, and took the time to write us comment notes! And thanks for reading The Link!
[In our view, all of the positive comments and experiences coming from the Conference are not a result of The Link’s endeavors — these occurrences are the direct result of the chemistry between the attendees and the presenters. The Link simply introduces the two parties to each other.]
Dear Mary:
My husband and I found The Link Conference a highly intellectual experience. The workshops I attended were excellent in information, inspiration and impact. We are still talking about the quality of speakers and their knowledge. We particularly enjoyed John Taylor Gatto and Samuel Blumenfeld.
Compared to other homeschool conventions I have attended, I’d say this was the most intellectual. It was not dumbed down. It was pure, raw information — take it or leave it. The Link left us with a lot of food for thought, which we are still chewing on. We will probably be chewing on it for years to come. We came away with valuable information. Thank you.
Sherrald McMurray, Northern California.
Dear Leppert Family:
You are providing such a valuable service with positive ramifications that go way beyond homeschooling. You are providing a format for the evolution and preservation of the ideals that were the guiding principles of our Founding Fathers. Please know that your diligence and selfless service to this cause have not gone unnoticed. I am indebted to you and would like to assist you in doing this next year.
Margaret Frank, Washington State
Dear Mary:
Thank you for such an affordable and very informative experience. It was wonderful to meet & become inspired by the participants and speakers! We are not yet homeschooling but are seriously considering this lifestyle.
Pam Ludlow, Southern California
See you at next year’s conference!
Copyright © 2006 Modern Media and 2026 by Hot Metal Publishing, Inc.
