IAHE Convention in French Lick

20 Mar, 2026

Last Friday and Saturday, Sara and I attended the Indiana Association of Home Educators' annual convention in the uncomfortably-named¹ town of French Lick, Indiana.

French Lick and nearby West Baden Springs comprise a small, historic resort area built around a set of sulfur springs. The event was held at the French Lick Springs Hotel², the second-most-stunning hotel in the area.

This was my first time going to one of these conventions, and also my first time doing more than passing through French Lick. I had a great time, and I would love to go again next year if the drive isn't too ridiculous.

There isn't any one point I want to make here; the point of this post is to collect my raw impressions before they slip away:

• The French Lick Springs Hotel is gorgeous. The lobby is designed in the Classical style, with pillars everywhere and gold leaf and paintings on the ceiling. Its long corridors sprawl everywhere, and the basement features a cool rock tunnel that leads to the bowling alley/arcade/little pizza place. The courtyard still contains the shelter that provides access to the Pluto spring (which also gives the whole area a sulfurous smell).
• We visited the nearby West Baden Springs Hotel. It's built around a dizzying circular domed rotunda. It's surrounded with Ionic columns and packed with mythical paintings, a gorgeous tiled floor, statues, fountains, and a ceramic fireplace. Lounge chairs allow guests to sit and stare at the ceiling because they won't be bored. Sara commented that "this has to be the most-used hotel lobby in the world." I swear my soul healed a little bit just from being in there for a few minutes 🤣
• French Lick still contains buildings and signage from the defunct Pluto Water company³. Between the red 70's era logo and the vintage ads everywhere, it almost felt like a feature of a dystopian movie or video game (Buy-N-Large from "Wall-E", Fink Industries from "Bioshock Infinite," Aperture Science from "Portal," etc.)
• This convention was the first time in years that I've been among a large group of people with whom I am entirely aligned (Specifically: Conservative, Christian homeschoolers who have arranged their lives around raising their children). It felt strange to be able to listen and speak in a public setting without having to qualify every premise or pretend to understand and accept "public schooler" assumptions that are actually quite foreign to me.
• This was not the Mom-dominant homeschool scene that I expected to find. There were several Dad-focused speakers and workshops, and a general backbone of worldview topics for those who aren't involved in the day-to-day curriculum work. Every speaker called the dads to an extremely high level of engagement, and encouraged us to stay in the trenches with our wives. The best sessions I went to were with Dr. Renton Rathbun, Todd Wilson, and Kirk Smith
• Randomly (at the pizza place), I encountered David & Shirley Quine, the couple who wrote one of the most foundational parts of my entire education. Their dense, thorough, literature-heavy Starting Points & Worldviews of the Western World curriculums were instrumental in forming my adult beliefs and patterns of thinking. I am eternally grateful for their work, and may have gushed a bit while talking to them (on the other hand, how often does the average curriculum writer hear something like that? 🤣)