Home Schoolers Add Twist To Traditional Graduation Fete

By Mary Ann Zehr

Lancaster, Pa.

As time drew near for Bethany Messersmith and her 47 fellow graduates to march into an auditorium to the "Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1," the 18-year-old turned to a friend and said, "I have to sit down."

More than a tad anxious about the speech she was about to deliver to hundreds of people, even though she had practiced it "tons of times," Bethany found her nerves were getting the best of her.

Such feelings of nervous excitement were common among the students in a Friday-evening graduation ceremony in a chapel here...