Denise (Martel ’81) Trull Celebrates Homeschooling Pioneers

In a recent essay for Theology of Home, Denise (Martel ’81) Trull commends the pioneers of the homeschooling movement, including Thomas Aquinas College alumna Laura (Steichen ’75) Berquist, for their contributions to the renaissance of classical education across the country.

In particular, Mrs. Trull celebrates the homeschool movement’s revival of interest in studying history. “I deem it the finest hour of homeschooling that its pioneers literally saved history for the rest of us by digging up and ferreting out the old, forgotten, out-of-print stories of great men and women,” she writes. “It is because of the constant efforts of the homeschooling movement that so many marvelous old books about historical figures were put back into print.”

Both today’s homeschoolers and the emerging classical education movement, says Mrs. Trull, are in debt to “those feisty, determined ladies” who sought out — and, when necessary, created — educational alternatives for their children. “We all owe those early pioneers a great dose of gratitude for the very books we are using daily,” she says.

Read the entire essay.