Field trips, co-ops, athletic leagues, on-line support, bulletin boards, web sites, national acceptance, more resources than one could possibly explore: these are a few of the characteristics of the home education environment in the 21st century. In “frontier vernacular” today’s home educators are the settlers, the town-builders of the movement.

Such was not the case for the explorers of the early eighties or the pioneers of the nineties. These home educators encountered distrust, antipathy, skepticism, and occasionally, prosecution. It was at such a time that the support group Parents Are Teaching Hearts (PATH) was formed.

In the fall of 1990, Karen and Jerry Johnson, long-time Van Zandt County residents and parents of three, were entering the home education arena for the second time in their young family’s history. After having home educated for a few years, they had enrolled their children in the local public school for a period of time due to some health challenges. “If I had been surrounded by other home schoolers, people to provide perspective and alternatives to the program we had been using, we would probably have had the resources to continue to home educate during my illness,” Karen shared.

The Lord impressed upon Karen and Jerry the need for home educating families in Van Zandt County to support one another, and the first meeting of the group which was to become PATH met in their home in November of l990. “We started with four or five families. In the early 90’s most of our husbands, while very supportive, were unable to participate much in the day-to-day education of the children; that burden fell mainly on the mothers,” Karen remembers. “Most men commuted to work or just didn’t know how to be involved on a daily basis. Therefore, our group was mainly a support group for the moms, a place where we could laugh, cry, pray, and share resources and ideas. Our husbands were involved in a few PATH events each school year. While we were blessed in our county with little or no interference from the public school administrations, we were still in an era when many of our family members and friends didn’t understand what we were doing. Some were outright antagonistic. PATH provided a place where we could share our fears and our challenges with like-minded women.”

PATH started with a simple mission and a simple set of by-laws. Monthly meetings and field trips were the main vehicles for support. Eventually the evening meetings were held in a back room at Jerry’s Pizza, and moms looked forward to a night out, an evening committed to support and fellowship. Karen served as the group’s president for several years, followed by Connie Reese. During this time a very simple, sometimes handwritten, newsletter was started, along with annual questionnaires to assess members’ needs and giftings. A membership roster was maintained, but many home schoolers were still concerned about harassment by their school districts; names were considered private and not released to outside organizations. (Editor's Note: PATH still considers member information as private. PATH does not give out a member's name or email without the member's express consent.)

Although a class action suit, the Leeper case, had been decided in favor of home schoolers in April of l987, the case had been appealed by the State through several court levels. It was not until June of 1994 that the Texas Supreme Court finally ruled unanimously in favor of the lower court decisions, and therefore in favor of the home schoolers.

As home education has become more common and more widely accepted, PATH has experienced tremendous growth in membership and in expanded services and opportunities. However, its essential goal has remained the same: to provide support for Christian families desiring to home educate their children. Karen Johnson explains, “Our goal was to establish an organization that would be self perpetuating, one that would continue on without us.” By God’s grace and the hard work and sacrifice of many others, PATH has fulfilled that goal.