Difference makers

Back-to-school: WORLD looks at three Christian schools that are making a difference for special-needs kids, missionaries, and children from low-income families | Lynn Vincent

Cornerstone Academy

The Potter's School

Springfield, Va.

During her family's 11-year service as Christian missionaries to Croatia, Donna Pedroni soloed at homeschooling for as long as she could. But when her daughter, Kelly, reached eighth grade, "I knew there was no way I could teach science," Pedroni said. In 2001, after researching potential sources of help, some missionaries serving in the Middle East told the Pedronis about The Potter's School. That, Pedroni said, was when "the love affair began."

The Potter's School, like a range of other web-based groups, supports homeschooling families, but with some key distinctions. First, using internet videoconferencing technology, the school provides live classroom instruction for 1,750 kids worldwide, in which virtually the only thing missing is the classroom itself. Offering a full range of courses for students in grades 7 through 12, classes meet with a teacher in a live web session for 90 minutes each week. Each session uses live audio—meaning everyone in the class can talk to everyone else—in addition to text chat, video, slide show presentations, even live instruction via whiteboard.