For Darren Jones (HSLDA Attorney), a single day of playing hooky from public school began as a spontaneous break but turned into a deep realization: there had to be a better way to learn, grow, and live. Darren shares his experiences from becoming a homeschool student to becoming a passionate home education. He became a legal assistant for HSLDA in 1996, and is now an Attorney and Director of Group Services. Explore historical HSLDA processes, notifying members about legal issues in their states through snail mail and answering 75 member phone calls in one day! Darren and Jim Mason (HSLDA President) reminisce about the past and chat about previous legal cases and the busy 2025 legislative season at HSLDA. “I was in public high school. This was 1989. Our church put on a panel about raising kids to be Christians. [The panels featured] parents who were sending their kids to public school, parents who had their kids in private school, and parents who were homeschooling. My parents actually let me play hooky that day. I got to go and watch the panels and came home and told them, I want to be homeschooled. And they decided, sure!”—Darren Jones