In this episode, we have Peter Stock, President of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) join us to talk about the history of the organization and what it means to be a Home Schooler in Canada.
00:01:44.000They are, I would say, your first point of contact to get information.
00:01:48.000But all those other ones you see, you can contact them, too.
00:01:51.000And they will tell you where your support groups are for you as parents, for activity groups, for kids, laws and regulations in your province, speakers, online tools, resources.
00:02:06.000So every province has done a phenomenal job to help you folks get started.
00:02:12.000And then, so I'm just going to go back to the original page here and scroll down.
00:02:18.000And you will see, this is where you can find some webinars that we've been doing over the last year and a half.
00:02:24.000And Peter Stock was with us last year.
00:03:36.000And with that, I'm just going to read a little bit about HSLDA, which means Homeschool Legal Defense Association.
00:03:43.000And I'd like to point out Canada, because the United States also has one, but we've got one just for Canada.
00:03:50.000It is Canada's largest association of homeschooling families.
00:03:54.000It is a nonprofit organization devoted to protecting, empowering, and advancing home education in Canada.
00:04:02.000They provide legal services and professional homeschool support to help their member families flourish.
00:04:08.000Since 1991, they have represented homeschoolers in the courts and legislatures across Canada and worked to promote parent choice in education.
00:04:19.000And I just want to point out, when I started homeschooling in the mid-90s, I signed up right away and was an active member all 17 years that I homeschooled my kids, K-12.
00:04:30.000And it was just always reassuring to know that if anything had come up, they were going to be there for me.
00:04:36.000And it was something I could do to support them in case something came up for somebody else.
00:04:41.000So it's a team of people supporting this really, really important organization.
00:04:47.000So with that, we've got Peter Stock here.
00:05:02.000Yeah, so like you say, 33 years ago, homeschooling was in a very different place legally.
00:05:09.000It fell into a bit of a gray area in the law in most provinces.
00:05:12.000And as I think everybody on the call here probably knows, education is a provincial responsibility.
00:05:17.000So every province is a bit different in terms of what the law looks like and how it's applied when it comes to education.
00:05:26.000So, you know, in some parts of the country, families were threatened with fines for attempting to homeschool, sometimes even jail time or having their children apprehended.
00:05:36.000So these are very, very serious consequences for exercising what I think most of us would see as a fundamental right.
00:05:45.000And so what a number of families, just like Doris's did back in the early 90s, was band together, get their resources together and started this organization to be able to hire a lawyer to defend their rights.
00:06:01.000And in fact, that's what happened, you know, in 10 provinces and three territories across the country now, homeschooling is completely legal.
00:06:12.000And that's as a result of HSLDA working with the provincial organizations, Doris just mentioned, in the courts, fighting many court cases, and also in the legislature's lobbying and advocating with members of provincial parliament, MLAs, et cetera, in whatever province you're in, to get better laws on the books.
00:06:45.060The bad news is there are still a lot of government agencies, school boards, social workers, and others who don't necessarily either understand the law or respect the law.
00:06:55.620So we're busier than we've ever been, actually, defending families across the country.
00:06:59.980Now, you know, again, most of the time, this is not going to court for lengthy court cases.
00:07:07.480This is simply our lawyer getting on the phone with an official who doesn't understand the law and explaining it to them, sending a letter, advocating on their behalf, and usually resolving these sorts of challenges very quickly.
00:07:20.840But the fact is, we've developed expertise in this area, and it's a service we continue to provide.
00:07:27.020We're getting calls every week from families across the country who face those sorts of challenges.
00:07:31.960It doesn't mean you're doing a bad job homeschooling.
00:07:33.820It doesn't mean the law isn't on your side.
00:07:35.700But sometimes you need somebody to advocate for you to ensure that your rights are respected.
00:08:06.280And, you know, again, because they're different provinces, we've got a set of laws in every province, some of which are great for homeschoolers, and some of which are a little more challenging at the moment.
00:08:16.980So, you know, if you live in the prairie provinces in BC, home education is relatively free.
00:08:24.080You've got perhaps a little bit of reporting to do, depending on the style of homeschooling you choose.
00:08:29.120And you're basically free to go about your business.
00:08:33.040That's also the case in Ontario and a couple of the maritime provinces.
00:08:37.000But we've got other provinces where it is more of a challenge to home educate.
00:08:40.800And Quebec is probably the most challenging or the most difficult place to home educate in the country.
00:08:48.440But the government that came in in about 2018, the CAQ, may have been an improvement in many policy areas, but not in the area of education.
00:09:01.280They very much have this monolithic, anti-diversity, you're all going to go to public school and learn what we want you to learn type of approach to education.
00:11:08.920Ontario is particularly bad for it, but there isn't a province in the country where we don't get calls of this very nature on a regular basis.
00:11:16.340So that's something that, again, as an organization, we have the professional staff to deal with.
00:11:23.500I mentioned that we're as busy as ever.
00:11:25.500We actually just hired another lawyer, an additional lawyer for our staff in the last six months because of this very issue.
00:11:33.080So things are heating up in that sense.
00:11:36.060I'm also going to mention that the other potential challenge we see down the road, and perhaps we're going to see it sooner rather than later, is there are a number of provincial elections scheduled in the next two years.
00:11:53.200Most of the prairie provinces, BC, I guess, as well, Quebec, and one or two maritime provinces.
00:12:02.460And, of course, they just had an election in Manitoba where the NDP was elected there.
00:12:06.540Now, in some cases, you know, these elections may go well, and we may end up with politicians that are supportive of home education.
00:12:13.380But our concern is that we are seeing a trend in some of the parties.
00:12:18.960And, you know, I won't name names at this point.
00:18:24.500Anyway, what I can say for sure is that we are seeing an uptick now, continued growth in the numbers of home-educated students.
00:18:37.400And I don't see any sign of that letting up.
00:18:39.380In fact, what I'd go on to say is that one of the key areas for growth, and again, I attribute this to the meltdown in the public schools, is among high school students.
00:18:50.740You know, I will say that in the homeschooling community, it has often been the case that parents will educate through the elementary years and do so quite successfully, but then feel for a number of reasons that maybe they don't want to continue through the high school years.
00:19:09.680Yeah, parents may not feel it's as easy to home-educate through the high school years, but there's a growing trend towards that, including, believe it or not, from people who've never homeschooled before.
00:19:19.640They're so fed up with the education system that they are starting to home-educate their children in the high school years, and that's an exciting new trend.
00:19:30.680Now, as I said, I think there are three things that traditionally hold parents back from considering homeschooling through the high school years.
00:19:37.740One is they're not sure if they can teach at that level, but you know what?
00:19:40.780There are so many great resources they can draw on to accomplish that now.
00:19:45.040I think probably in the days that Doris was attempting this back in the 90s, there were fewer resources and maybe not as many online schools or courses, certainly not as much curriculum.
00:19:56.120But now there are so many options that parents are finding, yeah, you know what?
00:19:59.900Maybe I was not very good at chemistry myself in high school, but I can find the resources that can help my child to succeed in this area,
00:20:08.440even though I may not be able to teach at all myself.
00:20:14.920The second thing is the social side of things.
00:20:18.400You know, our kids, they're human beings, and they want friends, and they want social activities,
00:20:23.860and that could be sports, and, you know, mom, my friends are going to a dance at the high school, why can't I go?
00:20:29.600So, you know, those sorts of questions.
00:20:32.380And so the rise and increase in the number of homeschool groups across Canada is a wonderful benefit to homeschooling families.
00:20:41.940In the early days, again, there may not have been as many homeschoolers.
00:20:44.900If you lived outside of a city, for sure, it may have been harder to find a fellow homeschooling family or families to gather with, to do activities with.
00:20:52.520That's changed a great deal, and it's the case that even if you live in a smaller town or even a village,
00:20:59.160generally there are homeschooling families within a short drive of you now, almost everywhere in Canada.
00:21:04.960It may not be the case in the far north or very remote communities,
00:21:09.340but I think most families do have access to group activities now, which is so valuable and important.
00:21:16.780And then the third concern that families often raise, and I'll get into talking about this just a little bit more,
00:21:26.020is how am I going to get my kids into post-secondary institutions, you know?
00:21:31.820And, you know, not knowing much about the system and how it works, that would be a really legitimate concern.
00:21:38.960You know, I want my child to succeed in the world, and yeah, this homeschooling sounds great,
00:31:29.380And so abuse is, you know, exactly the opposite of what home education is all about, of course.
00:31:34.400That's kind of obvious to anybody who spends a minute thinking about it.
00:31:37.540But it was not so obvious to a Harvard University law professor named Elizabeth Bartle, who a couple of years ago was demanding that home education be banned outright because it could be an opportunity for parents to abuse their kids.
00:31:54.600So anyway, the research evidence is in Elizabeth Bartle, who made her statement without any evidence, is out.
00:32:05.520And quite surprising for a law professor of all people.
00:32:09.160You'd think you'd have some evidence before you go to the court of public opinion with such statements, but she didn't.
00:32:15.260And so she looks rather foolish today.
00:32:18.180Anyway, one of the reasons we do this research is so that we can go to legislatures and advocate for better laws so we can go to courts and defend families who are home educating and prove, not just anecdotally,
00:32:33.060but with peer-reviewed academic science, scientific results that, in fact, home education is a great choice for the parents who make it.
00:32:45.020All right, let's move on a little bit here to the subject of what's happening around the world.
00:32:54.120So I've talked about what's happening across Canada.
00:32:56.620Again, homeschooling is legal everywhere.
00:32:59.960That's not the case across the rest of the world.
00:33:02.960In fact, sadly, in a number of European countries, home education is illegal or severely restricted.
00:33:13.160You know, those who are vaguely aware of us may know that Germany fits the bill here.
00:33:19.960And Sweden and Norway are also extremely difficult countries to home educate in.
00:33:25.320But we've had some bad news in the last few years.
00:33:29.000First of all, three years ago, Hungary banned home education.
00:33:33.340A couple of years ago, the nation of France severely restricted home education.
00:33:38.960And just a month and a half ago, the nation of Slovenia, which is a small nation between Italy and Croatia, Austria, and so on, has also banned home education.
00:33:51.980So I don't want to say the window is closing on home education in Europe, because, you know, there are still some countries where it is possible to home educate.
00:34:02.060But things are growing a little more desperate.
00:34:06.360We're concerned about it for two reasons.
00:34:07.660First of all, we care about the freedom of families to make the choice that's best for their family.
00:34:11.540And secondly, it's a problem for us as Canadians, because governments here do look across the ocean and see what their European counterparts are doing.
00:35:41.460But if you happen to be in England or Europe generally this summer, maybe visiting relatives or on holiday, you could consider joining us at that conference.
00:35:52.900We're going to have more than 80 speakers, and they come from countries right around the world.
00:35:57.620It's so interesting to hear, you know, what's happening in home education in countries like Kenya and Uganda, South Africa, Bolivia, Colombia, Portugal, Spain, Hungary, France.
00:36:12.860We've got people coming from the Philippines and from the Middle East and all over the world.
00:36:19.840So you'll hear from those people if you're able to join us.
00:36:23.840And for those that can't join us, the proceedings of the conference, or at least many of them, will be available by video in the months to come on that same website.
00:36:33.480So just keep a note of that website or get in touch with us if you lose it, and we can share it with you.
00:36:44.340So perhaps the last thing I'll mention, and then we can get into some questions if people like, well, and I'll talk a little bit about HSLDA too, but one last point, and that has to do with conferences.
00:36:59.460So I mentioned the global conference, but there may be a conference that's happening much closer to home for many people on this call or those who are interested in home education.
00:37:09.780You don't have to be a homeschooler to attend a home education conference.
00:37:12.440In fact, many people who do attend these conferences, and Doris has got the list up there, are just learning about home education and trying to make a decision about whether this is something that will work for their family.
00:37:26.160And so conferences are a great place to get answers to your questions and learn more about what is possible and what's available.
00:37:34.040So conferences have a couple of components generally.
00:37:36.660One is a series of speakers who are speaking on various topics, usually everything from getting started right through to homeschooling through high school and post-secondary admissions.
00:37:47.280So you can get the whole spectrum of topics about home education at a conference from speakers, and you can talk to those speakers in person.
00:37:57.240You can also network with other homeschoolers, and that's a great thing as well.
00:38:01.000The second really valuable part of a conference is what we call the vendor hall, and as you might imagine, it's when booksellers and other service providers exhibit their products.
00:38:14.640And so it's a great opportunity, once again, to meet in one place and browse for curriculum, for books, and for ideas about activities or services that you might use in your home education journey.
00:38:32.780We encourage families who are thinking about home educating or who have perhaps never attended a conference, they are home educating, to try to get to one at some point.
00:38:43.440Maybe it's not something you can afford to do every year, depending, but there is great value in them.
00:38:49.740And again, we'll encourage you to look at that list.
00:38:52.960Sadly, some of the conferences that may be in your area have happened already this year, but there are still many to come in some of the provinces.
00:39:07.100And then let me just sort of conclude my comments with a little bit of a discussion about HSLDA and what we offer as an organization.
00:39:15.560So I mentioned the legal part already, probably the flip side of that coin that I didn't mention is, yes, we serve families with our lawyers, but we're also doing a lot of advocacy work behind the scenes.
00:39:29.640So when it comes to provinces with politicians who are either hostile or helpful, one or the other, we try to engage with them and present them with the evidence, the academic research and other evidence that home education is something they should take seriously, that is valuable, they should support it, et cetera.
00:39:50.040So we're constantly doing that kind of work as well, and it's not something we tend to advertise because that's just not the way you deal with those sorts of things.
00:40:00.140But we are the organization that does that across Canada.
00:40:06.080There are a number of other services we provide directly to our member families, and I'll mention some of them, not all of them, because it's quite a list, and you can get more information on our website.
00:40:41.740And so we have one of the leading experts in the country on curriculum to advise our members, and so you can do that in confidence and get the materials that you need.
00:40:53.200The second consultant I'll mention is our exceptional needs consultant.
00:40:56.420So we have a professional who deals with learning challenges, learning disabilities, and will, again, for our member families, does a free consultation and helps direct you to resources or testing or an evaluations, whatever your child may need to succeed academically and otherwise.
00:41:20.400And then the last thing I'll mention is our digital library.
00:41:25.180So we're actually the only homeschool organization in the world that I'm aware of that does this so far.
00:41:31.580We had a parent who's a member of ours come to us a number of years ago and say, you know what, the public libraries are filled with garbage, just like, unfortunately, the public schools are.
00:41:41.960And, you know, I don't want to, I could spend some money and buy my kids books and that would be great.
00:41:48.720But his idea was, you know, if I give you the money as an organization, could you start a digital library to buy books that could be shared with all homeschooling students?
00:41:59.780And we said, sure, that sounds like a great idea.
00:42:01.660So we, over the last several years, we've developed a library with multiple collections and, you know, you're able to access this as a member, obtain e-books, audio books, and there, as I say, there's a lot of different collections.
00:42:19.180You know, all the typical literature that you would expect to find, science fiction, historical fiction, you know, poetry, plays, and, you know, light reading.
00:42:53.600So it's a great supplement to a home education journey.
00:42:58.040It doesn't replace the curriculum that you're buying, but it does supplement it.
00:43:01.900And so if you're looking for great books, wholesome books, this is the place to do it.
00:43:07.880Well, maybe I should kind of leave it there, Doris.
00:43:10.860You know, I'll just mention one last thing.
00:43:12.900And that's the fact that, you know, with the peace of mind that we give, knowing that you're legally protected in your homeschooling journey, the price is actually quite affordable.
00:43:24.020You know, if you have to hire a lawyer to defend you in a situation, you're looking at hundreds of dollars an hour.
00:43:29.460And we offer our membership for literally the price of a takeout cup of coffee a week.
00:43:34.560So it's quite affordable for our families.
00:43:38.600And, you know, I felt it was necessary long before I ever took on this job.
00:43:43.680When we started homeschooling, I joined HSLDA right away as well.
00:43:56.000Wow, there's so much information there and so much, many great resources.
00:44:03.300And so please, folks, go to the website, HSLDA.ca, and you will see everything that he's talked about there.
00:44:12.340One of the things when I was looking on your website was insurance.
00:44:17.460And I recall when I was homeschooling, and folks, just so you know, I was in a very small town of 1800, and we had about 35 kids who were homeschooled.
00:44:29.660And we created our own co-op, and we had activities.
00:44:34.640But it was later on that HSLDA brought the insurance package in.
00:44:38.360And so tell us a little bit more about what that offers to homeschooling groups.
00:44:43.280Yeah, so we have actually more than one program in that area.
00:44:48.140The general idea is that if you're running a support group, oftentimes, you can get access to a facility of some sort.
00:44:56.580Maybe it's a church basement type of thing.
00:45:10.520So what we've spent a lot of time doing over the years, and we have to continue to do it because insurance companies change their policies all the time, and their rates, is find access to affordable insurance for our groups.
00:45:35.200They actually get subsidy from us to help support their group activities.
00:45:40.080And that's something that if somebody on this call is running a group or they're involved with the group and they want to find out more, I won't take a lot of time talking about it here.
00:45:48.920But just contact our office and we can explain what we offer.
00:45:52.800And these are free services to groups, by the way.
00:45:54.800We only request that at least one person in the group be a member because we want to have that one, you know, that two-way communication with somebody who's a member of ours.
00:46:04.280But we do offer these services all free to groups.
00:46:09.340The insurance itself may not have to pay for it.
00:46:14.460And speaking of groups, do you offer sort of a resource to help, let's say somebody's just getting started, you're their first point of contact, how do I find my people, my groups for parents, groups for kids, activities in my region?
00:46:37.180Like, can you point people the right way?
00:46:40.880Yeah, just, again, give us a call on that and our helpful staff will guide you along that journey.
00:46:47.180And, you know, and if you need legal advice with it too, and sometimes groups have questions like, you know, what do I do about a statement of faith or do I need to incorporate or questions like that?
00:46:56.900You know, should we have a bank account?
00:46:59.120These are all questions that groups that are just starting out may have and our lawyer's happy to talk to members about that.
00:47:05.240And again, that's a free service with your membership.
00:47:08.840So, well, folks, this is so worth getting that membership.
00:47:53.560And I don't know, is that 21 when you go in as a mature student?
00:47:57.500It would depend on the institution likely, but, yeah, it sounds about right.
00:48:01.400Yeah, and so for those students who have gap years and who are working and trying to figure things out and they may not have a, you know, what's required.
00:48:13.400Sometimes you can go in as a mature student.
00:48:15.900You can sometimes start at the college level and then transfer if you need to into university.
00:48:22.340And I noticed on your resource list, you also offer a portfolio guide, which came around in the 2000s.
00:48:32.900Can you talk a bit about that, how it relates to getting into post-secondary?
00:48:39.740Okay, so there are two aspects to a portfolio.
00:48:42.040One is that almost every province has some requirement for record keeping.
00:48:48.620Now, you know, in BC and Alberta, it might be a little more streamlined and obvious what needs to be done or not done because you may have, you may be working with a school that's overseeing your home education.
00:49:01.120Other provinces, and Ontario is a great example of this, where there isn't that type of oversight, it is required that home educating families keep records.
00:49:10.660Now, that doesn't mean that you keep every page of work that your child has ever done.
00:49:15.160You would have a garage full of boxes by the time you're finished your homeschooling journey, if that were the case.
00:49:20.900But you do need to keep samples, you know, the best essay, the test results, you know, what did they study in this curriculum and so on.
00:49:27.500And so there's a guide on our member site about portfolios, how to keep them.
00:49:32.680And then, of course, a portfolio can be used primarily with the post-secondary process, but it could also be potentially used with certain job applications as well.
00:49:42.460And again, what you're looking for there is samples of your best work.
00:49:47.560So, you know, that grade 12 essay about Romeo and Juliet or whatever it happens to be, it's well written, you know, that might be a sample of work that you're providing to demonstrate your academic competence.
00:49:59.200And that's what portfolios generally are about.
00:50:02.520It's kind of a, if I could put it in these terms, it's a thick resume, you know.
00:50:08.140So that's probably how to best describe it.
00:50:11.580Let's just mention a couple of other admissions options, particularly for universities.
00:50:16.620One is online university courses, which can be used as transfer credits.
00:50:21.460So the idea of a transfer credit is if you've taken a course in one place and the university that you're hoping to attend recognizes that course as somewhat equivalent to something they offer.
00:50:36.380So you've taken first year English at one institution, you can apply to the institution you're interested in attending and say, hey, I've taken this first year English course over here.
00:50:47.320Will you accept that as a credit at your institution?
00:51:22.880So one thing I'd say is you always want to check with the institution you're interested in applying to as to, you know, what their policy on transfer credits is, what they will accept, what they won't.
00:51:34.020You don't want to spend a year taking online courses and find the institution you want to go to as a full-time student won't accept them.
00:51:42.200But the other option, and this one is guaranteed, they will be accepted at universities and many community colleges across Canada, is what's called the Advanced Placement Test, the AP Test for short.
00:51:56.520And this is offered right across Canada and, you know, especially in the bigger cities.
00:52:01.360But, you know, you can find a testing location right across Canada.
00:52:07.120And these are tests in specific subjects, again, at the university level or the first-year university level.
00:52:13.620So AP English, AP Math, AP Canvas, et cetera.
00:52:17.520And you write one test in a given morning or afternoon, whatever.
00:52:21.580And that test is only offered once a year, so you have to check the schedule.
00:52:25.280It's offered at the same time right across North America.
00:52:28.140But the great news about the AP test is if you pass that test, and I think that's a score of about three, then the university will look at that and say, yes, you're capable of learning at, you know, that first-year level.
00:52:41.080If you score a four or a five, and by the way, five is the highest score, then we will actually give you transfer credit for that test result.
00:52:52.520So if you write six AP tests, six different subjects, and you score four or five on those, you can actually be accepted not into first year at a university in Canada, but many universities, you can be accepted right into second year.
00:53:08.700They will give you first-year credit for those AP test results.
00:53:12.060So if you want a cheap and efficient way into university and save yourself, you know, a full year's tuition, room and board, and all that sort of thing, and skip first year, you can go right into second year using the AP test result route.
00:53:30.660When should parents start keeping track of the children's homeschool work?
00:53:34.920Yeah, so that's important as soon as they're of legal school age and, you know, until basically they've completed their legal school age.
00:53:46.900Now, that's a little bit different in every province.
00:53:49.400Usually starts at age six in most provinces and goes to either 15, 16, or 18, depending on the province.
00:53:57.080But, yeah, you should be keeping records right the way along.
00:53:59.700So, again, when your child's six, records are fairly simple.
00:54:05.020You know, we're not looking for exam results at that point.
00:54:08.780But, you know, you do want to keep a good record of what you have learned that year.
00:54:13.900Part of the evidence that a judge would be looking for in a court, and that's sort of the ultimate test, you know, when would this ever be used?
00:54:22.920In most cases, never, but, you know, if your homeschooling ever is challenged and we do end up in court and have to justify to a judge, yes, yes, indeed, this family has been home educating, you have to be able to demonstrate it somehow.
00:54:37.560So the question isn't, has my child passed a certain test?
00:54:50.380You know, what have they learned over the past year?
00:54:52.000They want to be able to show what subjects they've been studying and what progress they've made in them.
00:54:58.560And so that might be, you know, that might be just the final test results in a math program.
00:55:05.140It might be, as I said, a sample essay or two.
00:55:09.760Of course, little kids don't write essays necessarily, but you get the idea.
00:55:13.540You know, some writing samples, some drawing samples.
00:55:16.100You know, if you do a science project, you don't want to keep the science, you know, the exploding volcano in the cupboard for the next 20 years.
00:56:44.660So it's certainly the case that as the numbers have dropped in the public school system.
00:56:51.520And by the way, in every province, this is the same school boards which hire teachers rely on per student grant funding from the Ministry of Education.
00:57:02.460So, you know, in British Columbia, if you have, you know, the school board gets funding from the Ministry for the number of students that attend school.
00:57:13.560And if your child is not attending school, if they are off homeschooling or they're with an independent school or whatever, the school board is not getting any money for your child.
00:57:35.480If one family decides to drop out and they've got three kids, you know, you could be looking at losing $40,000 for that family, which is probably, you know, a teaching assistant, if not, you know, a starting teacher salary or something, depending on the province.
00:57:52.000And, you know, if you lose dozens or hundreds to home education, you're losing, you know, you could be losing a dozen teachers as well.
00:58:02.040The unions recognize this and they're not happy about it, of course.
00:58:17.640However, they, you know, they do target, they do attempt to target home educators.
00:58:25.920And because they're closely tied with certain political parties, they try to encourage those political parties to take actions that will be, could be detrimental to, you know, our home education choices.
00:58:57.980This is the public schools board, but essentially the same thing in a sense, because they're the ones, again, receiving that money from the government and hiring the teachers.
00:59:06.320They published a report saying, and I'm paraphrasing here, but basically saying, you know, if your kids are home educated, they're going to be dumb, stupid, not able to go to school, get a job, all that kind of stuff, which is complete nonsense.
00:59:19.220But, you know, that's the kind of message that some of these organizations are tending to promote.
00:59:26.660And it's going to get worse in the months and years to come, especially as some of these governments potentially change or, you know, in the case of BC, if it remains the same, but continues to be with the same party, we could continue to have problems.
00:59:42.240So, yeah, the political fight is never done.
00:59:46.740Our freedom is not something that can be taken for granted.
00:59:49.920It's something that we have to monitor and sometimes fight for.
00:59:56.940And I think the last few years has demonstrated that on other accounts.
01:00:00.240No, I'm really glad we have more reason to support HSLDA, be part of that, because these guys who are working on homeschool freedom across Canada, they're working on our behalf.
01:00:15.920They're working with our provincial leaders to protect homeschool freedom choices in each province.
01:00:21.400So, I really encourage you all to get that membership.
01:00:25.920You can go to HSLDA.ca to get a membership there.
01:00:30.960And you can buy one-year, five-year family plans or something like that, right?
01:00:37.380Well, we have monthly, annual, and you can buy a lifetime as well.
01:00:52.280Thank you so much for all the valuable information, especially the research.
01:00:56.120And we do thank you, Peter Stock, for spending time with us today and sharing all this great information on what HSLDA offers.
01:01:07.680I also just wanted to mention in two weeks, May 28th, our next guest will be David Hunt from the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy.
01:01:17.720He's going to share the latest statistics in Canada between homeschooling, private schools, and public schools, and how homeschoolers show the highest scores in socialization amongst other many categories.
01:01:32.020So, again, socialization seems to be a question that a lot of families have.
01:01:40.360And we know the stats have come in over the years.
01:01:44.000So, again, David Hunt is going to share other really awesome stats that will inspire you to keep going with homeschooling year after year.
01:01:58.400And if you're in a place right now, your end of the year, end of the school year, you're tired, the weather's good, you don't want to do any more school, and we totally get that.
01:02:10.600But we want to encourage you to get a good rest this summer and refocus and do come back to homeschool in the fall.