Choices – Your child’s education

Choices – Your child’s education

By Maggie Gray

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both . . .

I shall be telling this with a sigh — Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference. (Robert Frost)

Dana Lietzau and Amy Buchmeyer took different roads, but both found their way to careers they love. Dana grew up in Gibbon, Minnesota — a town of fewer than 800 people — and stayed close to her roots, graduating from South Central College in Mankato before becoming Gibbon’s City Administrator. Amy, raised in Wisconsin, pursued a different path, earning her law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School and now serving as a staff attorney for the Home School Legal Defense Association. Though their educational journeys were different, both women share a deep connection to America’s heartland and a passion for the work they were called to do.

“I have two children going to GFW Schools and I graduated from GFW. I have no intentions to move or take my kids out of GFW. I want my kids to go to GFW. There is nowhere better to live than this community,” said Dana. “I can’t say enough about it. It’s really just the people and the whole community is like your family. When you go through something, there are a lot of people thinking and praying for you and they will do a lot of things to help you through tough times.”

“I am also a member of the Gibbon Fire and Rescue Department and have been with the City for over 13 years as its Administrator. We have businesses that are thriving, fun things to do, local organizations, and we put on a lot of events. It’s amazing how many people in the metro do not understand rural communities and how peaceful it is,” Dana explained.

Amy grew up in Mukwonago, Wisconsin, a town of about 7,000 people during her childhood. She was the oldest of five children, with two brothers and two sisters, and was homeschooled from kindergarten through her senior year of high school alongside her siblings. Her homeschooling began with a co-op learning model at home and expanded over time to include online courses. In high school, she studied subjects like chemistry and physics — including advanced physics — through homeschool programs, supplemented with private tutoring. Amy graduated with her high school diploma in 2011. She then attended Bryan College in Tennessee for her undergraduate studies, spending part of her education abroad at Oxford University through Bryan’s study abroad program. After earning her bachelor's degree, she began law school in 2017 and graduated in 2020. Following an internship at a small appellate firm, Amy joined the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) as a staff attorney in November 2020.

Amy is now working at her dream job, far beyond what she ever thought she could do. During the pandemic schools closed, yet when public schools re-opened, a large portion of parents opted to continue their children on the homeschooling path. She now lives in Virginia and covers eight states assisting parents make educational decisions or parents dealing with problems that arise due to homeschooling.

“A lot of homeschooling is self-motivated, especially in high school. I was very lucky to have a mom who equipped me with learning tools to apply myself,” Amy said. “My father was diagnosed with a learning disability and at an early age even with special education classes, could not progress and left with a very poor academic experience.”

In order to not miss out on the prom or sports, some homeschool programs put on their own proms, and public schools now offer scholarships for sports. Tim Tebow became famous because he was homeschooled but still starred in high school football — which was unusual at the time. His parents homeschooled him for religious reasons, but he was allowed to play for a local public high school team in Florida thanks to a state law. He became a huge high school football star, won a scholarship to the University of Florida, then won the Heisman Trophy and two national championships there.

Tim showed that homeschoolers could still compete at the highest athletic levels, which inspired changes to allow more homeschoolers to play sports nationwide. The "Tebow Law" is named after Tim Tebow because of his success as a homeschooled athlete. It’s a nickname for laws that let homeschooled students join public school sports teams and activities — even though they aren’t enrolled in the school.

Wisconsin and Minnesota now offer extracurricular classes that students can access through public schools. Each district writes its own policies on courses offered to homeschoolers. Classes can be in-classroom or online courses. Homeschooling laws are changing and there are a myriad of options for homeschooling, i.e., co-ops, pod schools, micro schools, online courses, family teaching gatherings, it’s changing all the time. Homeschooling allows a student to tailor their education to that child, and they are not trapped in a classroom when students often fall behind or are unable to function at that grade level.

Research has also shown that homeschoolers get more sleep than public schoolers. Homeschoolers have more flexibility in their learning schedules and can cater to their individual learning and sleep schedules.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., currently serving as the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, is advocating for later school start times as part of the "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) initiative. This movement emphasizes the importance of sleep health, particularly for adolescents, and seeks to address the widespread issue of sleep deprivation among high school students.

Public schools empower students with a broad, diverse education, fostering real-world skills through collaboration, cultural exposure, and access to countless academic and extracurricular opportunities. In these environments, students learn to navigate challenges, build resilience, and thrive in a connected society.

In our small towns, public schools are more than buildings — they are the heart of the community, where children are known by name, dreams take root, and every student is given a place to belong, to be believed in, and to grow into all they were meant to be.

Homeschooling offers children a deeply personalized education, nurturing their individual strengths, passions, and learning styles in a flexible and supportive setting. It empowers families to instill strong values, foster critical thinking, and create a love of lifelong learning.

At the heart of every decision about education is a simple hope: to give our children the chance to become who they were meant to be. Whether through the vibrant halls of a public school or the quiet, tailored lessons of homeschooling, every path holds the promise of growth, discovery, and belonging. What matters most is choosing with love, with faith in our children’s potential, and with the courage to follow the path that feels right for their unique journey.