Friday Feature: Enrichment Center of Western PA
It’s hard to believe homeschooling was illegal in many states as recently as the 1980s—and parents were sometimes jailed for educating their children at home. Fortunately, dedicated parents fought this injustice, and now homeschooling is legal in every state.
Pennsylvania passed its homeschooling law in 1988. The following year, Pittsburgh‐area mom Madeline Petrus began homeschooling her eight‐year‐old son. Local homeschooling groups were beginning to spring up at the time to help parents navigate the new legal requirements. Madeline helped start a group in her town and began organizing field trips for families.
“I committed myself to finding something every month for people to do together,” she recalls. “Then people became interested in finding regular courses where they could fill in gaps. For example, some parents were interested in Spanish, so a mom started offering Spanish classes in her home. Someone else wanted to do a drama group, so we found a church that would host it.” Since Madeline had taken on activities for the group, she became the scheduler and communicator.
“We were having monthly field trips and ongoing classes. One day a light bulb went off, and I said we should put all of this under one roof and on a specific day each week so we aren’t running around so much,” Madeline says. “That really resonated with families because it was so hard to keep up on their regular school work with all of the interruptions throughout the week. Enrichment Day was born.”
I met Madeline in 2013, shortly after we began homeschooling. By then, “E‑Day,” as many families called it, was well established. Held on Fridays at a local church, it quickly became one of our favorite activities. My kids took classes in current events, geography, sewing, international cooking, gardening, movie editing, and more. They participated in plays, waged nerf gun battles, and attended interesting field trips. It was a great way to finish each week—and gave them a strong incentive to stay on top of their other work.
Some of my kids were even able to teach their own classes when they were young teens, which was a fantastic experience. It gave them early experience in responsibility and leadership. Their offerings—pioneer days, colonial life, and Berenstain Bears—were very popular among the younger crowd.
E‑Day eventually became the Enrichment Center of Western PA. In addition to the enrichment classes, there are now classes in more traditional academic subjects two days a week. The center leases a vacant school, which gives them a dedicated space and a lot more options.
Madeline has seen many ups and downs in more than 30 years of involvement with the homeschooling community. “In the early days, it was mostly younger kids—hardly anyone was homeschooling high school at that point,” she says. Over time, the high school population increased steadily, but then it dropped significantly when cyber charter schools came to Pennsylvania. While the number of participants at the Enrichment Center remained fairly stable the last few years, she’s seen a tremendous increase in the number of homeschoolers since COVID-19. She’s been happy to see new homeschooling groups and microschools popping up to serve families’ needs.
Despite the considerable growth in homeschooling in recent years, polling shows there are many families who are interested but haven’t made the switch. Options like the Enrichment Center can ease the transition to homeschooling by giving parents support and kids a fun way to broaden their educational experience.