Why are more Black families homeschooling? [ theGrio with Eboni K. Williams segment]

[Elle Seven]

How do you make it work on one income, if one of the parents is staying home to teach?

This has always been our situation since our children were born. In short, it honestly makes more sense to prepare before the children arrive. Like, eliminate all debt if possible or already get used to living on one income (even if two are working) before starting the family. That way you are already used to it.

If the kids are already there though, it could be a situation where dad and mom change up their schedules or figure out how to work around their schedules to get the lessons in. The main thing I will say is you have freedom to create what you want learning to look like in your home. If you are locked into the idea that home learning must look like it does at school, then it will be hard to think creatively in terms of how to make it work even though both parents work. Additionally, you will frustrate the hell out of yourself and the children taking that approach. Ideally, if you could get one parent to stay at home to take on the task, so be it. It will likely require a sacrifice in and readjustment of lifestyle until that family gets to a new normal.

I can't speak to all people, but I am in a group of black homeschooling families and all of us have different backgrounds. Most of us appear to be married with at least the husband supporting the family. In some cases, I think both mom and dad work, but it seems that the mothers all have some kind of work-from-home business or something flexible they can tap into to make money. From what I have seen, there are some single mothers in the group, too, and I honestly have no idea how they swing it. My guess is they either work from home or have some kind of support system in place for the child to step in while they are at work. If that support system involved other families, then they can be employed to hold the child to task as well.

Ways to make it happen truly do make themselves known once one commits to the path, though, just like with anything else in life.

 

[Elle Seven]

Homeschooling is a privilege of the rich/high income.
Average black family can barely survive on two incomes. For over 90% of black people this is a complete nonstarter

What is your definition of rich or high income?

 

[Nero Christ]

America letting it's public school system fail is a got damn travesty and doesn't speak well at all to how resources are allocated in this country. A country can't survive this sort of thing as public school education is one of the most important entities within an healthy and function society,

 

[010101]

..........*

 

[voiture]

What is your definition of rich or high income?

People with disposable income after bills are paid. Even with 2 incomes most black families are barely above water. Considering the fact that a black kid is most likely to be born in a single parent home, Homeschooling is out of the question. I'm not against homeschooling but we should be fighting to make the public schools a better place for the kids.

 

[jay83]

People with disposable income after bills are paid. Even with 2 incomes most black families are barely above water. Considering the fact that a black kid is most likely to be born in a single parent home, Homeschooling is out of the question. I'm not against homeschooling but we should be fighting to make the public schools a better place for the kids.

Take racism and bias out of public school. You still have to deal with kids with no home training, Burnt out teachers and gangs depending on your location.

 

[voiture]

Take racism and bias out of public school. You still have to deal with kids with no home training, Burnt out teachers and gangs depending on your location.

Your kids still have to interact with people in real life. Can't keep them sheltered forever.

 

[BobbyWojak]

Maybe 7 or 8 black families pool their money in to do like a group homeschool deal possibly??

This is what I hope I can do for my family when I settle down, or something more organized like the Trey Whitfield School lord jamar referenced.

Trey Whitfield School | Nurturing yet Vigorous Educational Environment | Brooklyn, NY 11207

For over three decades, Trey Whitfield School has offered a nurturing yet vigorous educational environment in Brooklyn, NY 11207.

www.treywhitfieldschool.org

 

[jay83]

Your kids still have to interact with people in real life. Can't keep them sheltered forever.

Not about sheltering. Giving the best chance of success. Why put a student in a class with idiots who don’t want to be there? Maybe limit it to sports, electives if possible.

 

[Elle Seven]

People with disposable income after bills are paid. Even with 2 incomes most black families are barely above water. Considering the fact that a black kid is most likely to be born in a single parent home, Homeschooling is out of the question. I'm not against homeschooling but we should be fighting to make the public schools a better place for the kids.

Admittedly, I have no idea how to approach improving public schooling as it is now.

When I look at my experience as a Gen X child, I now realize I likely got such an enriching education in the 80s/90s only because I went to all predominantly black schools and my black teachers were children of the Civil Rights Movement down here in the South. Combine that with the fact my grandparents who'd survived the Depression and Jim Crow were still around, and I still had a sense of tradition. Like many families then, though, the crack epidemic broke up my family as well. I'm convinced what saved me and other children like me from missing opportunities were the teachers and their commitment to instilling pride and value in us. They really came at us like they were our parents/families, and I was just as scared of them as I was my own mama and daddy. I thought it was the norm to have black men and women teaching me everything, from how to play an instrument to how to speak Spanish to how dissect a frog...I mean 99.9% of my teachers looked like me and cared about me, not just their paycheck.

The functions of the school system I listed before were existent, even then, but it was not something I can say I necessarily ever felt or can even obviously see in retrospect. Nowadays, though, I imagine this is not the case in any public school. Now that I'm an adult, I can say I do not see the incentive the government would have to pour resources into public schools, other than managing the populace but certainly not for making us a more learned nation. If a schooling system has been created to produce a solid working class amongst whites in this country, then I see now it is definitely more insidious for our children.

That being said, I am still only speaking from the perspective of someone who has gone through the system myself but not put my children into it. Everything I posit is just theory from observation.

@Booksnrain Could you lend anything to this conversation? I imagine you have the benefit of perspective many of us don't when it comes to education in this country.

 

[Elle Seven]

Your kids still have to interact with people in real life. Can't keep them sheltered forever.

Homeschooled children are constantly interacting with people in real life though.

This was a notion I had once, but it honestly was attached to images of religious fundamentalists who isolate their children from the world and everything in order to indoctrinate their children a certain way.

Honestly, all schooling is indoctrination, to a degree. The question is what do you want to indoctrinate your children with?

Interestingly enough, if you think about it, you will realize schools don't necessarily reflect "real life" totally or accurately, as there is not really any other time in your life where you find yourself grouped together solely by age outside of school.

 

[Magic Mulatto]

Why Are More Black Families Homeschooling?

theGrio​

Feb 25, 2023
Eboni K. Williams talks to the co-op founder of Homegrown Homeschoolers, Inc. Tralandra Stewart and her daughter Amariyah Stewart about why homeschooling was the right choice for them.

*Holds magnifying glass over thumbnail*

I’m not so sure it’s a Black father/husband leading that particular household…


#Mixed-ish

 

[ImmaGetJoeClarkArrested]

I have 8 children and we have home schooled every single one and 3 of my teens have a year of college credits under their belt

 

[jay83]

I have 8 children and we have home schooled every single one and 3 of my teens have a year of college credits under their belt

8 kids?? Damn!

 

[UpAndComing]

it's funny they mentioned that statistic about black students being mislabeled for mental disabilities.

When I was in middle school my math teacher wanted to put me in remedial classes because I sat in the back and never said anything. She assumed I wasn't able to keep up with the rest of the students and her teacher's aid believed I was slow. Then one day they actually graded the homework we submitted for accuracy instead of completion and discovered I consistently had one of the highest scores in the class. Same held up for the exams.

She told my mom that story at a parent-teacher conference and joked about it. My mom is always polite in public, but got in the car and cussed her racist ass out the whole ride home...then she told me if I got anything less than an A in the class at any point in the school year I'd be grounded. At the time I thought it was harsh, but now that I'm older I understand what was really happening there.

It's sad. I'm hoping the future black youths can get optimal education free of prejudice, whether at home or in a school system.