HOME-SCHOOLING OPTIONS

By Sandra Redstone, Taichung

Parents and students, need information about home study in Taiwan? Before leaving the states, I spent two months gathering information about home-study programs. Catalogs were easy to come by, because there are over a hundred distance learning programs out there.

But many are fairly new, and haven't had time to establish a track record. Moreover, I wanted personal recommendations from overseas parents, not hype from companies. I tried calling a few nationally-famous school districts, only to connect with administrators who were as much in the dark as I was. They begged me to call back later to let them in on my findings.

Finally, I called the State Department in Washington, DC. Miraculously, a week later I was able to speak with her on the phone. She told me the State Department had kept track of which correspondence schools overseas Americans preferred and offered to tell me the top 20 if need be, but hoped I'd settle for the top three. These schools were chosen for their educational excellence as well as their reasonable tuition rates. "Give me the top three," I cried, "and I'll be in your debt forever."

1) University of Nebraska, Lincoln; independent study high school; voice: 404-472-4321; fax: 402-472-1901; e-mail: unlddel@unl.edu; web: www.unl.edu/conted/disted This school has a 70-year-old sterling reputation, and tuition rates are about US$130 a month for a full high school course. Even more incredible, they had a kind, intelligent human being answer the phone and all my questions. I was able to provide their address in detail because I brought their catalog with me to Taiwan.

2) Texas Tech; phone (in the US): 1-800-my-course.

3) Keystone National High School in Pennsylvania
For more listings, refer to Peterson's Independent Study Catalog.INTERESTED? I'm a certified high school/college teacher with endorsements in language arts, social studies, and Oriental studies. My son still needs to finish 11th and 12th grade in a home-study program. I just learned that it is possible for home schoolers to work out arrangements with Morrison Academy, for library usage and participation in some extra-curricular sports and other activities.

Please contact me if we can help each other. I am looking for a teacher/parent, strong in math and science, and would also like to form a support group with other home-school parents/kids. Please contact Sandra at redsands8@hotmail.com, or leave a message for me with Douglas Habecker at the Compass/AmCham office, at (04) 2205-0443.