by Susan K. Beatty, Co-founder, CHEA of California
[Note from the editor: In our blog series “Homeschooling Through the Decades” we will explore the evolution of homeschooling over the years. In this first installment we draw insights from an excerpt of Susan Beatty’s memoir, which offers a personal glimpse into her experiences with homeschooling and the founding of CHEA in the 1980s. As we reflect on her journey, we aim to understand how homeschooling has changed and what it means for families today. Join us as we uncover the rich history and impact of this educational choice in the state of California through the decades.]
I didn’t see it coming.
One is seldom privy to a prophetic glance into the future, and that’s probably wise.
This was as ordinary a morning as they came for a young family. It started with the early morning hustle to get the husband off to work and the eldest son off to first grade at the local public school. The pace slowed down slightly mid-morning with the four-month-old now napping and the three-year-old quietly playing at my feet while I folded laundry.
I turned on the radio. This simple act changed the course of my life and my family’s life. It was also one slender thread in the tapestry of history that God was weaving.
It was February 1982. The program was Dr. James Dobson’s “Focus on the Family,” and the subject was early childhood education. Dr. Raymond Moore, author of Better Late Than Early and School Can Wait, was describing a typical third grade child who, because he’d been attending formal education from age two or three, was suffering from educational burnout. Dr. Moore was describing my first grade son.
Only the Beginning
Resonating in my heart and head, the idea of keeping children out of formal education until their minds and bodies were mature enough to handle it, took hold of me as I shared it with my husband and as I read Dr. Moore’s books. But this was only the beginning.
During a period of research, we discovered ideas far beyond just keeping our kids home a little longer. We discovered the philosophy of homeschooling because God’s Word assigns the responsibility of educating children to the parents.
Education at Home
We discovered God expects this education and training to be based upon His Word. We discovered how the truths and practices of public education contradict God’s Word.
We discovered that if my husband and I wanted a truly Christian education for our children, we would need to provide it at home.
By this time, since it was almost June, we decided to take our son out of school at the end of the school year and begin homeschooling in September. In the meantime, Dr. Moore had put me in touch with a woman named Cathy in my area of Orange County who had a secular homeschooling group. She provided me with as much information on homeschooling as she had (a collection of articles from magazines and newspapers, as well as highlighted sections of California’s Education Code) and an opportunity to get involved with a few other homeschoolers.
The Birth of CHEA
One of these homeschoolers was a woman who had been home educating five teenagers for two years already. I was in awe of Karen Woodfin. We struck up a friendship as we worked with Cathy to develop a newsletter and a local conference featuring Dr. Moore and an attorney from Santa Monica named J. Michael Smith. Karen and I talked a great deal about our needs as Christian homeschoolers and how they were different from the needs of secular homeschoolers.
Forty-two years later, I don’t remember which came first: meeting Mike Smith or the idea of a specifically Christian organization. But I do know one day Karen called me to say she wanted to start a Christian organization, and would I like to join her? My answer was a resounding “Yes,” and Mike, along with his wife Elizabeth, encouraged us to move forward.
Our vision was for a statewide organization, not only to share information and for encouragement, but to unify homeschoolers in the face of possible governmental opposition. Mike had been advising parents about the legalities of homeschooling for some time already, so it was natural that he became our advisor.
In August of 1982 Christian Home Educators Association (CHEA) was born. The “of California” was added a short while later when a group called CHEA in Texas contacted us. It was the only other homeschooling group we found at the time, although we learned later that a couple of other groups were forming in other states.
During that first month our names and phone numbers began to circulate, and the calls started coming. They usually went something like, “You don’t know me, but I heard about homeschooling, and I understand you know all there is to know about it.” Gulp. I had not even begun teaching my own children yet. God was gracious and we mostly gave out the correct information.
Within a brief time, the number of names and addresses of families around the state who were interested in receiving a newsletter about homeschooling in California had grown from 35 to 1100.
Local park days were established, enabling us to meet with other homeschooling families to play and encourage each other. Our kids were gratified to learn we were not the only unusual family.
It was not long before Karen and I realized the many phone calls asking for help in getting started were keeping us from actually teaching our own children. The plan for a getting started book was born.
Karen wrote the first draft and I edited, a natural division of labor with Karen’s longer history with homeschooling and my degree in journalism and professional editing experience. The result was An Introduction to Home Education, copied, collated, and duo-tang inserted, on my kitchen table.
Conventions and Partners
About mid-1983 we collectively began talking about providing an opportunity for all the homeschoolers we knew to get together in one spot for encouragement and information. Mike and Elizabeth became our first Convention coordinators, and CHEA held a statewide homeschooling Convention at the Los Angeles Church of the Open Door in April 1984. Keynote speakers were Tim and Beverly LaHaye and Dr. Kienel of the Association of Christian Schools International. The exhibit hall consisted of about ten local book and resource sellers. Amazingly, 900 people attended. We were flabbergasted.
After our first Convention, it became apparent it was time to formalize the organization. We formed a new board of directors, becoming incorporated and non-profit in May of 1985. Our second Convention was held about that same time at Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim.
The CHEA Board began feeling the need for someone to come alongside us, perhaps someone who lived near the action in Sacramento, to monitor legislation on our behalf, relieving us of that time-consuming task. At the same time, God was moving in the heart of Roy Hanson to take his public policy background to work in the legislative arena on behalf of homeschoolers.
A wedding of goals emerged in June 1986: CHEA committed to funding the operation for a time and Roy committed to the full-time work, even moving his family to Sacramento. Eventually, the organization we now know as Family Protection Ministries (FPM) was established.
In May 1988, CHEA took another huge step. We moved from the kitchen table to a one-room office in a real, honest-to-goodness office building in Norwalk. Over the years, the office space has moved, expanded, and is now back to working from home offices.
Also in May of 1988, we held our first multi-day Convention at the Disneyland Hotel. Conventions in 1986 and 1987 took place in Sacramento and Pasadena, respectively. Except for two pandemic years, CHEA has hosted a convention, sometimes two, each year in a variety of California locations: always one in Southern California (Orange, L.A, or Riverside Counties), one in the Bay Area of Northern California for seventeen years, and many in other locations. (Find out about the 2025 Convention here.)
Many of the original homeschoolers and many new, brave homeschoolers began teaching their children in high school, so in 1989 Mary Schofield’s High School Handbook was added to our list of published books (bringing it to two).
To serve California better, we formed the Regional Advisory Board in July of 1991. We chose leaders from selected geographical areas to give us feedback and to represent CHEA in their localities.
Naturally, we added a website, expanding and improving it over the years.
Closing Thoughts
Now forty-two years later, I graduated all my children from high school at home (the last in 1998 and all now married with families of their own), and, after being a board member since its inception and working for twelve years as a full-time staff member, I retired in 2017. In God’s grace, CHEA has thrived in the capable hands of Rebecca Kocsis and now Angela Lasch, and a dedicated board of directors.
Now you may understand, just a little, why it was probably a good thing God didn’t let me see what would come of turning on that radio. I might have been scared into reluctance or obstinacy and missed being part of the homeschooling tapestry God was weaving, which now includes threads representing millions of people from all over the world.
Praise be to the Lord.
Susan Beatty and her husband Larry began homeschooling their three children in 1982 and have graduated all three children from schooling at home. After retiring from CHEA, Susan turned to a writing career, publishing ten works of fiction and one devotional. You can find her books on https://amzn.to/3DQCDFR or go to her website www.SusanKBeatty.com.
Copyright 2007, 2025, Susan K. Beatty