Dear Bridgeway – Thanks for my American Dream

Dear Bridgeway Academy,

Because Bridgeway Academy changed the life of both me and my son, I would like to tell you my story. By the time I came to Bridgeway Academy for help, I was a 43 year-old man working as an installer of closet organizers.  Because of our low income bracket, my wife also worked part time at a day care and to make ends meet we spent our weekends buying and selling people’s unwanted items at flea markets and antique shows.  We are the best of friends and enjoy every moment we have together but the financial strain has been present since the day we were married.

But let me back up. We found Bridgeway when our son was in third grade.   Day after day he came home from school angry and frustrated by his teachers, the kids in his school and the fact that he just did not “get it.” There was no way we could send him to private school so we looked for an affordable homeschooling option. My wife did not want to try it alone since she had no idea what to teach or where to get textbooks.  So we called our friends who homeschool and they told us that Bridgeway Academy was the most affordable homeschooling program they could find.  They also told us that they thought it was the best homeschooling program out there.

Well, we called and sure enough your approach to homeschooling made sense.  We knew our son was struggling so your placement testing was important.  And we liked that you offered different ways that we could pay for our homeschooling.  That made it affordable for us since we had a tight budget.

When we started, we thought we would only be homeschooling for a few years.  Yes it was affordable homeschooling but we weren’t sure we wanted to commit to paying for our son’s school forever.  We just wanted to catch him up and get him ready to go back to school.

Were we wrong! Not only was your homeschooling program affordable, it changed his life!  You put him back in both math and English and soon he was a different kid!  He liked learning and he was really good at it!  Suddenly this kid who we thought would have trouble all through school was a kid that was so smart! He caught up in math so quickly that we had to buy some extra units to keep him busy for the whole year.  Thankfully, you made that affordable as well and let us just buy the course instead of enrolling him for another school year.

Then, one year rolled into two and three and so on until he graduated high school!   If you remember, he was an honors student and ended up with an academic college scholarship!  Now the affordable homeschooling became so much more!  Not only did we give him a much better education than he was getting in school, we gave him the chance to graduate with honors and go on to college.  Something that we never thought we could afford!

Well, he started on me.  He knew I never earned a high school diploma and he was not about to let me get away with keeping on without one.  He used my own words against me.  “You always said homeschooling was doubly affordable—not only was it an affordable option to private school but that a diploma was not something I could afford not to earn.” He was right, I did say that all the time.

But, even though I knew homeschooling was affordable despite our tight budget, I thought it was too late for me.  I mean I was an adult, not a kid!  I also didn’t think I could afford to put in the time  that I would need to put in if I wanted to finish high school.

But when Bridgeway opened up the official adult high school diploma program, I knew I couldn’t avoid it anymore.  As I always said, “Homeschooling is doubly affordable . . . ”  If I wanted to move forward in life, I needed a diploma.  I knew it but I again didn’t do anything about it.

Well, what convinced me was when my company offered me a supervisory position.  They knew I was good at what I do and that I was a good leader.  I was actually doing a lot of supervisor type duties already so I was a natural choice for them when my supervisor let them know he was leaving.  With the increase in salary, I knew that homeschooling was even more affordable for our budget.

But what I didn’t know was that in order to become a supervisor I had to have a high school diploma.  My GED wouldn’t cut it.  Suddenly it was obvious that I couldn’t afford NOT to get my diploma.  But I was worried that it was too late.  By the time I finished the required courses they would have chosen a different supervisor.  And at 43, I was not sure when I would have the opportunity again.

Well, my boss took a chance on me.  When I told him about Bridgeway Academy and your adult high school diploma program, he agreed to put me into the supervisor training program if I would commit to earning my diploma by the end of the 6 month training.  That is when it dawned on me that that affordable homeschooling meant so much more than just the cost of the program, it also meant the chance that you give to kids and adults to move forward in life.

Well, as you know, I enrolled in the program and worked like crazy to complete the five courses required to graduate.  And I did it!  When I received my diploma, you cannot imagine how exciting that was!  Best of all, I got the supervisor position, the raise I deserved and my wife was able to quit her job at the daycare and take a chance on trying something she loves.  She is now running her own Ebay venture and doing very well at it.

So, although you don’t often talk about how affordable homeschooling is with Bridgeway Academy, I think you should start to let people know.  It is not just that you have affordable  homeschooling programs.  Affordable homeschooling also means that you provide a way for kids and adults to learn more and then earn more.
And in today’s crazy society, affordable homeschooling can also refer to the fact that we cannot afford to turn our kids over to schools that are not teaching them well or to an environment that is so completely hostile.

Had I left my son in school I am sure he would have dropped out eventually.  By third grade he was already hating school and sure that he would never be able to learn.  Can you imagine going to school every day with that kind of discouragement? I read recently that 7000 kids drop out of school every day.   I am sure he would have been one of them.

So not only did we help him get caught up and shine academically, we also ended up having an incredible amount of time with him.  Time that we would not have had if we would have made him stay in school.  And I must say that the relationship we had with him while he was still with us and the one we have now that he is an adult is wonderful!  He is such a great kid and an incredible adult and I am sure that homeschooling helped him to become the kind of individual that any parent would be proud to call their own.

So although when we spoke today you were talking about how affordable homeschooling is, let me just say it is not about affordable homeschooling, it is about how we must afford the best for our kids.  And the best includes the one on one time that we get to spend with them when we homeschool. That is something we should not want to miss!

Thank-you for changing the lives of all of us in the Peters family. We will always be grateful for the time and investment you made into Elwood and myself as we worked towards graduation.  You have no idea how much you are appreciated!

Sincerely,
Jonathan Peters