Princeton Area Homeschool Choir to preview a concert coming up in nation’s capital.
By: Dennis O’Neill
For choral director Denise Hayes and her group of home-schooled choristers, the road to next week’s performance at "The Pageant of Peace" in Washington, D.C., began in the Westerly Learning Center parking lot five years ago.
Six months pregnant with her fourth child, Ms. Hayes former director of Music Together in Lawrenceville, an early childhood music program was asked to help develop a choral program for the Princeton area home-schooling community.
"Four families approached me individually, without knowing the others had talked to me about it," Mrs. Hayes said. "I encouraged them, and let them know what it would take to put a music program together."
The Princeton Area Homeschool Choir (PAHC) was launched in February 2000 as a choral music program for home-schooled (and non-home-schooled) students ages 4 to 18.
Formerly known as The Homeschool Choir, the group began with 66 choristers in three choral divisions. Since then, the group has grown to more than 140 choristers in six divisions and has performed at various events notably the Hopewell Valley "Spring Into Song," the Trenton Children’s Choir Festival of Children’s Voices, and Trenton Thunder baseball games.
Next Friday (Dec. 10), the PAHC will be singing at the "Pageant of Peace" held on the Ellipse behind the White House. The annual holiday celebration begins with the 81st Lighting of the National Christmas Tree on Dec. 2 and continues each night in December with visiting musical groups.
On Sunday (Dec. 5) at 3 p.m. in Princeton, the choir will preview its Washington repertoire with a free concert in support of Ten Thousand Villages at the Princeton Shopping Center. Ten Thousand Villages is a nonprofit organization that benefits Third World people by marketing their crafts at "fair trade" prices in North America.
Mrs. Hayes is the founding director of PAHC and taught music at elementary and secondary schools for 19 years. She has home-schooled all four of her children (Megan, 14, Brian, 11, Steven, 7, and Jonathan, 4) and believes that families choose to home-school for many reasons.
"The schools I taught in were wonderful schools," she said. "I started home-schooling because I felt we would be able to individualize our children’s education, according to their needs, in ways that schools are not set up to do and couldn’t be expected to do."
Teaching her own children has been an enriching experience for her family, and has brought many challenges. When she started home-schooling 10 years ago, what concerned Ms. Hayes most was the limited availability of group learning experiences like a choir, a band or a science lab.
"That was 10 years ago," she said. "Today, the biggest challenge for home-schoolers in the Princeton area is selecting what you want to take advantage of from all the choices available to you."
Debbie Monn of Skillman is a founding member of PAHC and serves on its board as treasurer. She has home-schooled her two children (Sarah, 13, and Greg, 12) for eight years. She believes one-on-one tutoring has worked well for her children, but she and her husband re-evaluate their decision to home-school every year. Their belief in God and in teaching their faith has always been an important part of their deliberations.
This year the Monns are considering sending their daughter to high school.
"We are considering all of our choices, based on where she has gotten academically, emotionally and spiritually," Mrs. Monn said.
She believes the legacy of home-schooling for her children will be a continued love of learning, a hunger for research, and an understanding of the rewards for hard work.
"I’ve had the opportunity to see the light go on in my children’s minds the first day they started reading," Mrs. Monn said. "That excitement has carried forward."
As a founding member, she has watched PAHC grow from a parking lot meeting to weekly rehearsals at the Princeton Community Church in Pennington. She marvels at the group’s transformation from a bunch of fidgety children who wanted only to play with one another into a maturing choral group with a distinctive sound.
Ironically, her daughter, Sarah a member of the choir invited to perform in Washington is unable to do so. "Unfortunately, she’s taking a test that Saturday as part of her application to private school," Mrs. Monn said.
Clay Porr of Princeton is a chaplain affiliated with Princeton University. His two daughters (Sarah, 13, and Christine, 9) are home-schooled and members of the choir. Although concerned by what he reads about public schools, Mr. Porr is not anti-public or anti-private school.
"Most home-schooling people I know are not anti-public school. Many of us put our kids in public schools as they get older," Mr. Porr said. "We just feel that this is the best choice for our kids right now."
He said that a major benefit of individualized instruction is quicker advance in areas where a child is strong, and more time to help in areas where a child is weak. He added that combining the roles of parent and teacher is challenging, but can be deeply rewarding.
"The time you get to spend with your kids is invaluable," he said. "You get closer as a family as you get to know your kids better."
Like many home-schooling families, the Porrs use resources outside the home to augment their children’s studies. Mr. Porr takes his daughters to the Westerly Learning Center in Princeton for classes in French, writing and public speaking.
The Learning Center is also certified to supervise standardized testing for students an important service to home-schooling families looking forward to college.
Mr. Porr said that concern for college prompts many home-schooling families to put their children into public or private high schools for an outside record of accomplishment. As more colleges and universities recognize the value and contribution of home-schooled students, however, the more open he expects them to become to home-schooled applicants.
"I know several students at Princeton University who have been home-schooled some all the way through high school," Mr. Porr said. "They are being admitted and they are succeeding."
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 1.1 million children were home-schooled in 2003, or 2.2 per cent of the national school-age population. That represents an increase from 1.7 per cent in 2000. Estimates nearly double the number of home-schooled children in New Jersey from the 2000 census (25,990) to 2004 (49,540).
Seventeen-year-old Sheila Mulhern of Belle Mead has been home-schooled since the first grade. She cites both educational and religious reasons for her parents’ choice to home-school her. She will be attending Liberty University in Virginia next fall, and will receive a significant amount of scholarship money for high academic achievement.
Besides learning to get along with family members (with whom she spends the whole day), Sheila’s greatest challenge has been defending her home-schooling experience.
"It’s still a radical idea to most people," she said. "People wonder if I see my friends enough, or if I’m learning enough."
She is quick to point out that her education has been tailored to her strengths as a student, with the added advantage of learning with people of different ages and backgrounds.
A few years ago, Sheila and her father helped teach English to a Russian couple attending Princeton University. The experience of learning about a different culture was invaluable to her.
"Without the open schedule of home-schooling, I would not have had that opportunity," she said.
Although mainly taught by her mother, Sheila jokes that her father is her field trip director. Mr. Mulhern has taken his daughter on long and interesting history tours of Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
PAHC has not only been fun for her, but it has also challenged her to strive for excellence.
"It’s wonderful to get together with people I didn’t know before and learn how to make a beautiful sound together," she said. "It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done."
For more information, visit www.pahc.org or write to The Princeton Area Homeschool Choir, P.O. Box 242, Skillman 08558.

