As graduation ceremonies go, Bridgeway Academy had an unusual one Saturday at St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Catasauqua. No one in the 2013 graduating class that marched down the center aisle on June 1 to the strains of "Pomp and Circumstance" had ever met a classmate face-to-face before Friday's class picnic.

Bridgeway supports home-schooled graduates around the world, providing their parents with curriculum and guidance along with the necessary accreditations to meet national and state graduation requirements.

In this graduating class of 125, 86 percent will go on to college and everyone who applied was accepted at their first-choice college. Ten traveled to Catasauqua for their commencement ceremony.

A number of the parents in attendance spoke to The Press about their experiences with home schooling.

The knock on home schooling is that the students may not get enough social interaction.

"Just the opposite," said Monica Wilhelm, whose daughter Bethany was class salutatorian.

"In public school you don't need to be social, you get sent to a preassigned group," she told The Press Saturday. "Bethany had to go out and make friends and meet people on her own, just like she will need to do after she leaves school."

Wilhelm is a former teacher who has taken up the home-schooling mantra with her other children.

"Most teachers can't complete the assigned curriculum," she said. "There just isn't enough time and teachers work under too many constraints." Public schools in Western Kentucky, Bethany's hometown, have cut back funding that limits the scope of the educational experience. The Wilhelms go on frequent family field trips.

"We don't need permission slips or extra insurance," she says. "We just go when it makes sense and have a make-up class on Saturday if need be." She says home schooling is becoming a popular option in Kentucky.

Curtissa Odi of Allentown, another former teacher, has been schooling her daughter Curtissa since the fourth grade.

"The beauty of home schooling is that it is very independent," she said. Odi credits Bridgeway with providing the resources and advisors to get to graduation.

"They set up everything so that we met all the requirements for graduation," she said.

Tracey Harvey showed that someone without a teaching degree can be successful. Her family moves often to accommojob, making home schooling an attractive option.

"Bridgeway made it easy," she said. "They customized the curriculum to meet Megan's requirements and to develop her skills. Having the advisors on call helps when I run into problems and makes us accountable to someone."

Megan is a budding actress with several credits to her career. Harvey said she had the option of hiring a private tutor on the subjects that she was not comfortable teaching, such as math.

Renee and Bill Galbraith of Somers, Conn., attended their daughter Lydia's graduation this year.

"Our oldest daughter graduated last year," Renee said. Her other three children are on track to graduate with Bridgeway as well.

Audrey and Keith McAnally hail from Smithfield, Ark., population 78. Their son David was the class valedictorian.

Andrew and Allie Meggs traveled from the UK with their sons Jordan and Joel to be at Jordan's graduation. Jordan is not going on to college, but will take a year to live in China and brush up on his Mandarin language skills.

Graduation speaker Billy Dunn explained how his company came up with Humankind water, a purified drink sold by Walmart and Amazon. Profits from the sale of the water are sent to organizations supporting the 1 billion people who do not have access to clean drinking water. "I challenge to this class to go for the impossible dream that will create a better world," he said.