Other statewide homeschool groups are starting to hold graduations at their annual conventions, the Times reported. Over Memorial Day weekend, the Florida Parent Educator Association’s convention threw a dance, a graduation ceremony where the governor spoke, and a post-graduation luncheon for 259 graduates.

At the Miami Zoo, 26 homeschooled students walked onstage to receive their diploma in the first South Florida homeschool graduation, The New York Times reported.

The ceremony included brief speeches by organizer Grace Rodriguez and a few students, the crucial handshake photo, and the tossing of caps into the air.

Although some of the students shrugged off the graduation, the parents told the Times that it was a big deal to them.

“I imagined [my daughter] walking across the stage just like I did at my graduation, and I didn’t want her to feel like she’d missed out on something,” said Brenda Orr.

Before, graduation ceremonies mainly took place in homes or churches. With the growth of homeschool support groups and co-ops, more students are choosing group graduations, said Sonnie Woodruff, a Cincinnati homeschooling mother.

Homeschooling is becoming more mainstream: About 2 million children—or 3 percent of the school-age population—are homeschooled, up from 850,000 in 1999, the Times reports. This has led to more homeschooling families joining co-ops that provide specialized classes, sports teams, science labs, and field trips.

Other statewide homeschool groups are starting to hold graduations at their annual conventions, the Times reported. Over Memorial Day weekend, the Florida Parent Educator Association’s convention threw a dance, a graduation ceremony where the governor spoke, and a post-graduation luncheon for 259 graduates.

In Richmond, Va., the Home Educators Association of Virginia graduated 206 students. Parents and graduates lined up on opposite sides of the stage with the parents giving their children diplomas and the graduates handing their parents roses.

Jonathan Blackstone, a Miami homeschool graduate, felt the graduation let him share a cultural milestone: “I graduated, just like everybody else.”

@2011 World Magazine – Used with permission