I think the beginning stroke order of "to study," xue, is wrong. This character builds from left to right, not in the middle, right? If this has been posted before, please forgive me. I could not find a search feature in the interface. Like Skritter. I've been studying Chinese on and off for 20 years. Skritter appeals to d different learning style. So far so good...

I believe rwether2012 is referring to 學. In 學, the stroke order indeed starts from the middle. Though it is also commonly written starting from the left. Similar stroke order can be found in, for example, 興.

Unfortunately, since they are both very short strokes, it is impossible for them to do left to right as a 2nd option. Skritter would have no idea which one you're doing when you make the first stroke.

Their research page.
http://www.skritter.com/stroke-research

Three-radical-structures (any character with three closely-written radicals)

Conclusion: this rule encompasses quite a few characters. Basically, for the top of a character like 學, this rule governs in what order Skritter expects the top radicals to be written. Having studied a number of these examples, the optimal way to resolve the problem would be to allow for radical interchangeability. The problem is that the Skritter backend wasn't designed in a way that could allow for that level of manipulation. So, for the moment the current rule stands:

If the outside radicals are identical or similar to one another, then the center will be written first. If they are different, however, the order will go left-to-right.

Conclusion: Despite the opposition from Arch Chinese, the more reliable Wenlin and 现代汉语通用字笔顺规范 agree and so we have chosen to keep the stroke order for this radical strictly delineated based upon where in the character it appears.