A FORUM FOR COMMUNITY ISSUES : Platform : Home Schooling: ‘The Best Education’

CAROLYN FORTE, A state-certified teacher in Monrovia, she approves curriculum materials for other home teachers and is a founder of Excellence in Education, an umbrella organization for home schoolers.

At first our reason was to provide the best education. I had been a public school teacher and knew all the pitfalls that public school has, including the large classes and children who fall through the cracks. Private schools really weren’t that much better. We looked around at home schools (12 years ago) and no one else seemed to be doing that either, so we thought we would try it for maybe three or four years, tops.

But we kept gathering more and more information, curriculums, books and more and more reasons to keep doing home school. We think that children develop more independent thinking skills in home school and are less subject to peer pressure. We get to pick and choose what books we want, what curriculum works best with our children. The public/private school teacher does not have those options. They are limited by funds, by directives from administrators and school boards.