This work looks at contemporary Black homeschooling as a form of resistance among single Black mothers, exploring each mother's experience and perspective in deciding to homeschool and developing their practice. It faces the many issues that plague the education of Black children in America, including discipline disproportionality, frequent special education referrals, low expectations in the classroom, and the marginalization of Black parents. Most importantly, this work challenges stereotypical characterizations of who homeschools and why.
The best research on homeschooling indicates the total number of children who are homeschooled is 1.5 to 2 million, and that number is growing by 10 to 15 percent per year. But not everyone recognizes the academic and social success of homeschoolers and some criticize the movement as being white and elitist. While it's true that the large majority of homeschool children are white, the number of black homeschoolers is growing rapidly. Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute, estimates that there are 30,000 to 50,000 black children being homeschooled today. Others estimate that black homeschoolers make up 5 percent of the total homeschool population. Most importantly black homeschool movement is growing at a faster rate than the general homeschool population.
Afrocentric Homeschoolers Association is a nonprofit resource for homeschooling families (and individual teens) everywhere in the world which are engaging in Afrocentric, Africentric, Black-oriented, Black-positive, African, African American or pro-Black education.
The National Black Home Educators Resource Association (NBHERA) is a resource network founded by Eric and Joyce Burges in July 2000. This association encourages, supports, and offers fellowship to families who are exploring benefits of home education. NBHERA was created to serve the African American community by providing assistance with information about getting started homeschool, networking/connecting veteran families with new families, recommending resources such as books, music, films, speaking information, curriculum, etc. NBHERA’s mission endeavors to empower parents to educate their children for excellence.
In the past couple of years the news has been inundated with national, international and local articles reporting the dramatic rise of homeschooling in the African-American community. Although we often get statistics about Black homeschoolers, we rarely get a glimpse of real families. This article takes you into the lives of Black homeschooling families who are taking their children's education into their own hands.
This is a great social networking site for black homeschoolers. It is designed to help share educational goals and curriculum plans as well as connect with other families.
A new wave of pioneers is sweeping onto the home schooling trail. After decades of promises that the public school "system" holds the key to success, some African-American families are finding, like those of other ethnicities, that an increasingly centralized system and social decay are fast dissolving the bonds of their culture and families. And many have found a way to reconnect and restore those bonds by home schooling—an educational path so old and overgrown that it's considered radical and cutting edge.
This youtube video gives a look into a large successful homeschooling family. This African-American family of seven children has had all children go to college, starting while still in high school.
Footsteps Magazine is a magazine designed for young people, their parents, and other individuals interested in discovering the scope, substance, and many often unheralded facts of African American heritage. It is an excellent classroom resource for teachers, a valuable research tool for students, and an important vehicle for bringing this rich heritage to people of all backgrounds.
Black Homeschoolers' Network is intended to facilitate a network among African American homeschoolers across the country. Here you will also find a message board for general communication as well as an email pal listing for homeschooled kids.
African-Americans are joining the national home schooling community at larger and larger numbers every year. Following a nationwide trend, educating children at home is becoming a popular option for Black Americans as private school costs rise and the reputation of public schools grows worse. Read about the current movement of African-American homeschoolers.
Margaret is a homeschool veteran who explains why traditional schooling was never an option for her children. Margaret’s narrative documents the complexity of being a single Black mother and choosing to live in a low-income housing community, and not working full-time in order to fulfill her rights as a mother to do what she determined would be best for her children. Her account also demonstrates the role of faith, spirituality, and the complexity of building a curriculum to meet her children’s needs.
Drs. Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom's new book "No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning" shows that the government education whites receive is nothing to write home about, but for blacks, it's no less than a disgraceful disaster.
Afrocentric Homeschoolers Association Email Group is a discussion group for pro-Black African and/or African Diasporan, Black homeschoolers, unschoolers, deschoolers, and home-based educators everywhere. It is also open to non-homeschoolers and non-Blacks who are trying to teach their children about Blacks. It was founded as a resource for Black homeschoolers, Blacks in Canada, the U.S., Caribbean, and elsewhere, including the African Canadian, African American, African Caribbean, Black European, African, and Black Canadian.
African American Unschoolers email group is for African-American homeschoolers who use the whole world as their child(ren)'s classroom.
In order for home schooling to be successful in the African-American community, it is imperative that local and state support groups and organizations be formed. There are several ways that African-American homeschoolers can reach out and create support groups either on the local or state level. This article gives tips and ideas for starting a homeschool support group.
African-American Teens who unschool/homeschool: Come hear how others live exciting, creative lives outside of traditional schooling. This is a free and comfortable space for teens to call their own.
When black families look to homeschool there are a lot of questions to take into consideration. Here is a quick primer to get you started.
African-American Single Parent Homeschoolers is a discussion group designed to lend support and resources to parents who are home schooling alone.
While families have been homeschooling for nearly thirty years in the United States, it is only recently that African-American families have seen the proven potential of educating their children at home. In a time of perpetual academic underachievement, the ever-stagnant achievement gap and unfettered, unequal access to quality schools and resources, African-American families are taking a dramatic approach to the educational future of their children by adopting a collective and renewed stance on family-led learning.