Experience is praised as teacher

SANDY — Home educators attending the first Utah Home Education Association symposium Saturday were told the most valuable instruction can come from life experiences — not just academics from a textbook.

"It's hard to fail at home education," said Jon Yarrington, association president. "That's where it's supposed to happen. Home education is life."

In a variety of workshops, experienced home educators and professional trainers taught parents how to create an ideal home-school curriculum.

"Our eyes are limited to the public model," said Angie Baker, a home educator for nine years and trainer for Thomas Jefferson Education, a curriculum that focuses on leadership.

The main reason parents are apprehensive about home-schooling is because they are trained to believe public education is the right way to educate, Yarrington said.

But in the past 10 years, Yarrington said huge changes in both the home education community and the perception from the public have become more favorable.

In Utah, parents who decide to home-school their children go before their local school board for a yearly exemption. Home educators have to comply with basic requirements like teaching their children general subjects and providing instruction for the number of days established by the state school board.

But home educators have a say in how they want to teach these subjects and when, said Frank Mylar, a home educator and attorney who specializes in constitutional law.

Home-schooling is particularly appealing for religious parents who want their children's education to incorporate religious teachings, Mylar said. If they want to focus on creationism rather than evolution, home-schooling allows a parent to make that choice.

Rather than allowing government officials to decide his children's curriculum, Mylar said he and his wife are able to focus on aspects they deem worthy of education.

"My bias is home-schooling works because children are with parents," Mylar said.

Marcea Flores attended the symposium to "re-energize" her home-schooling efforts. Flores began home-schooling her oldest daughter in first grade because she didn't learn as quickly as the other children. After five years, Flores now home-schools two of her children and said both are at their respective grade-levels.

"The time we get to spend together creates a great bond," Flores said. "Learning together ties our family."

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