For over 10 years, Kimra Torrence, or as her students call her, “Mrs. Kim,” has offered her home schooling services to Poplarville children.

At Torrence Family Schoolhouse, she works closely with a small group of home-schooled children on an individualized basis to suit their unique learning styles, Torrence said.

“I just wanted to build something that would be for everybody, no matter your faith, no matter the color of your skin, no matter your sexual orientation, I just wanted to be there for everybody, Torrence said.

With a maximum of 10 students per class, her pupils have the ability to set their own goals each week and work in a comfortable environment. That includes a select few who prefer to study in the solitude of the bathroom, Torrence laughed.

Involving students in the process of designing a weekly syllabus gives them a level of control, more accountability and responsibility, she said.

“I don’t think we give kids enough responsibility and enough accountability,” Torrence said.

Many times, when children from public schools come to her for home schooling or after school programs “they lack confidence,” she said.

Torrence’s philosophy focuses on training students to think for themselves. She does this by answering their questions with a question of her own, pushing them to think more critically.

Her students are also heavily involved in serving others and recently established a 4-H community group.

On Nov. 10, they used funds raised from a fish fry to provide a Thanksgiving meal for over 200 locals.

“My goal is to continue to keep a strong group of students and children who have that spirit of servitude and understanding that it’s important to serve,” Torrence said. “I’m hoping that we’re doing good work.”

Torrence said she became involved in homeschooling when she and her husband decided to homeschool their three boys.

“I don’t think that it was really a choice,” Torrence said.

Her children previously attended private school, she said, but after noticing a shift in those institutions and their learning, her husband approached her about home schooling.

“The truth is I was scared, it was very different then because you didn’t have a lot of home-schoolers and you definitely didn’t have a lot of African American families home schooling,” Torrence said. “So back then there was a stigma that something was wrong with your kids, or they were going to be weird.”

But the Torrence family gave it their best shot, and soon found support through other groups.

“It was so freeing, that’s what really helped me to embrace it,” she said.

After an unexpected series of events, the family found themselves packing boxes and moving to Poplarville just two weeks before Hurricane Katrina.

While driving down Main Street, Torrence said she told her husband, “This is where we’re supposed to live.”

More than 10 years later, “When I come down Highway 11 I start to breathe differently. It just seemed familiar to me…It had a sweetness to it,” Torrence said.

Now, her sons are adults, living on their own, but Torrence continues to home-school children out of her home.

“I really want them to be the very best that they can be. And not just academically…I’m not saying that academics are not important…but at the end of the day, loving who they are, knowing that they’re enough just like they are and that they are just absolutely perfect the way they are…I want that,” Torrence said. “I feel like when they have that, everything else is going to fall into place.”