Trends in African-American Home Schooling
In addition to cultural reasons, African-American families are choosing to home school for several other reasons. Across the country, statistics reveal that the majority of African-American children attend public schools, but regardless of race, socioeconomic status or location in America, families across the board are speaking out about the lack of quality education, school violence, teacher apathy and anti-religious and anti-moral attitudes in public and private schools. African-American families share and echo these concerns, but additionally, they choose to home school to remedy, on an individual basis, the achievement gap that plagues the African-American community. Many families sincerely believe that the only way that their child can successfully overcome the achievement gap is to teach them at home under their direct supervision.
Parents believe that their individualized attention working in conjunction with lessons tailored to their child's abilities will foster better-educated children. Although there are no definitive statistics that account for the educational progress of African-American home schooled children, families claim that home schooling has opened educational exploration, intellectual stimulation and understanding in ways that traditional schools are not able to replicate.
Although families attest that home schooling has dramatically improved their children's educational abilities, not all families have been successful homeschoolers. One of the most prominent reasons behind the failure of home schooling for some families is due to the lack of African-American support groups on the local level. As a home school leader, I believe that in order for families to home school well, they must have access to local support foundations in order for the children to feel that they have home school peers. The lack of support groups in the African-American home schooling community, therefore, is one area that needs immediate attention. In additon to that, not all parents are cut out to be homeschoolers. Some parents may find that they do not have the time or will not provide the dedication that home schooling demands. In these cases, traditional school in addition to supplementary work is recommended.
In addition to the lack of support groups, some families find that their child needs the traditional school structure and environment in order to thrive educationally. Recognizing this, these parents tend to supplement their child's schoolwork with outside curricula and lesson plans.
While home schooling appears to be an approachable educational alternative for many families, there are inherent challenges within the African-American community that render home schooling difficult, but not impossible.
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