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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Posted on 01/17/2003 3:03:35 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
The reasons African-American parents give for choosing to teach their children at home varies from family to family. Some cite poor instruction, low student achievement and a lack of safety in the public schools. Others fret over the lack of moral or religious values taught in public schools.
Seven years ago, Judith Thomas used to see only a few African-Americans at home schooling expos and conventions.
"Last spring, there were easily 25 to 30 -- which is still pretty small, but a definite increase," said the former Cobb County middle school teacher, who now is president of the Heritage Home School Support Group.
But she's seen more and more African-American parents around the country grow fed up with public schools and decide to teach their children at home.
African-Americans make up about 10 percent of the nearly 29,000 home schooled students in Georgia, experts say. That's about double the national rate, estimated at 5 percent of the 1.6 million to 2 million home schoolers.
There are at least a half-dozen African-American home school support groups sprinkled across Cobb, DeKalb, Cherokee, south Fulton and Atlanta. And they are multiplying.
The reasons African-American parents give for choosing to teach their children at home varies from family to family. Some cite poor instruction, low student achievement and a lack of safety in the public schools. Others fret over the lack of moral or religious values taught in public schools.
"It's obvious a number of people are disillusioned with the public school system," said Karen Mason, who heads First Teachers, a local home schooling support group with 30 African-American families. "Those able to explore options definitely are."
Home schooling can be a solitary endeavor, but African-Americans are coming together to help one another through groups that provide information, workshops and networking opportunities at monthly meetings.
The groups also organize social and educational activities, such as field trips, sports clubs and lessons.
"It's just catching on," said Karla McKinney, who home schools her two daughters and who founded Village Lights Homeschool Association in south metro Atlanta. It has grown from seven to 16 families since it started in August.
"More and more people are doing it."
Just last fall, 11-year-old Lawrence Easley fought back tears when his mother, Irene, yanked him out of Mableton's Flood Middle School, where she said large class size robbed students of much-needed attention.
Now Lawrence said he enjoyed skating at a play day sponsored by Heritage Home School Support Group.
"I met a new friend. It was very fun," said Lawrence, whose other social outlets include hanging out with buddies in his Austell neighborhood and playing on a soccer team.
Strength in numbers
Data on the prevalence of home schooling are tough to pin down, home education experts say.
The National Black Home Educators Resource Association, which has launched an effort to better track African-American home schoolers, now has 500 families from around the country in its database.
"While we're still growing and finding out about each other, we're in the honeymoon stage and finding out that there are more home schoolers out there," said Joyce Burges, co-founder of the Baker, La.-based organization, begun in 2000.
Andre Hornsby, president of the National Alliance of Black School Educators, predicts home schooling will have more staying power and popularity among African-Americans than charter schools -- which are publicly funded and operate under fewer regulations than traditional public schools -- at least until public schools get their act together.
But, Hornsby said, "in the end, none of them is going to be able to compete with public schools."
Failing grades
Burges believes that parents choose home schooling because they no longer trust the public schools to meet their needs.
"Parents are finding out that the education of their children is a constitutional and inalienable right," said Burges, who has home schooled her five children. "If the system fails our children, who else do our children have to look upon but us?"
Phenette Pugh turned to home schooling in part to ensure that her children get the moral grounding that she believes public schools don't provide.
"A lot of important Christian values we instill in our home, they don't allow in public school," said Pugh, who home schools her daughters, who would have attended Marietta's Hollydale Elementary. "You can't mention the name of Jesus. It wasn't that our schools were so bad."
Another major factor fueling home schooling's popularity among African-Americans is a change in the perception that it is a white, conservative, fundamentalist movement.
Thomas credits the media attention home schooling has gotten in recent years.
A 2001 Time magazine cover story on home education in which she appeared and a recent feature on African-Americans and home schooling broadcast on the 700 Club, a Christian cable program, has helped publicly associate African-Americans with home schooling, said Thomas.
She said she still regularly gets inquiring e-mails from potential converts who saw the article in Time.
A convert
Debra Morrell is among the new converts.
She began home schooling her daughter, Lacey, in July because she was unhappy with the quality of teaching at her 9-year-old's Cherokee County school.
And now several other families in her Etowah Valley Estates subdivision near Woodstock have become home schoolers.
"I'm very, very happy," said Morrell, whose biggest hurdle was getting over fears that Lacey would be socially isolated.
Some practitioners had previously pursued options outside public schools.
Jim Cameron, for example, returned to home schooling after Atlanta's Afrocentric Florence Jackson Academy closed, leaving him with few options for his son, Benjamin.
Now he runs Sankofa Shule, a home school tutorial program, out of a converted basement in southwest Atlanta. The program, whose African name means a school that is returning to traditional values, serves 13 boys aged 3-14.
Cameron views himself as a surrogate parent, providing a safe environment, cultural enrichment, a sense of self-worth and critical thinking skills he believes are missing in public education.
Converts admit home schooling is no easy task, given the time and financial sacrifices often required.
But 16 years of educating her brood have turned Johnnie Dixon into a pro.
A small paneled room complete with student desks on the second floor of Dixon's sprawling home serves as a classroom/library for the five daughters still under her tutelage.
At 8 a.m. they begin daily classes that continue an average of five hours, covering the basic academic subjects plus piano and religious devotion.
The mom-turned-educator spends as many as four hours a week prepping for the lessons.
Her children say she's a taskmaster. Failure to do homework or meet assignment deadlines could mean poor grades and a loss of privileges.
The family works to balance its household expenses and the cost of home schooling, which for the Dixons can run at least $2,000 annually with the cost of training sessions, teaching materials and extracurricular activities.
"I could be doing other things that are more fun," said Dixon, who is happy to see more African-American parents take the plunge. "But I think this is the best investment of my time right now."
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*******NEW FRN CHAPTER FORMING: JOIN EDUCATIONWATCH. INFORMATION HERE******
bump!
I for one was beaten for other reasons, one Nun thought I was the devil...
I kept learning and I stopped getting beatings by the fourth grade!!
I was also 6'4" by then and 110lbs!
I must have looked like a really skinny John Wayne!!
I live in Brooklyn, USA and while I am content...
things could be so much better... any suggestions??
My idea is to thin the herd, we are currently 6,000,000,000, I suggest an IQ Test and the low 30% get killed...
I am totally confident!!
and I was taught to read because my people read...
I was fascinated with knowledge and to this day I suck at the teet of the world and wish for knowledge!!
That 8... infinity!!
Knowledge paves the way to freedom. The more the better!!
35 years ago there were half as many people and my neighborhood was calm and there was no such thing as steel gates and bars...
the essential arguement becomes....
People, good or bad??
Keep the good, kill the bad!!
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