The Bible
African American Homeschoolers
Kysha over at Love's School posed the question :How many African American (AA) homeschoolers do you know?
This is definitely a hot topic. I was actually introduced to the concept of homeschooling (as a viable option) by and AA friend of mine when I lived in the Atlanta area. Of course with it being Atlanta, there were several AA homeschoolers there. As the years have passed, several of them have put their children in church school.
Now, I am a part of a group that has over 100 families. There are 3 AA families including mine and one of the families is mixed. It doesn't bother me to be one of the only AA families. I attended an elementary school that was probably only 2% AA and I attended and HBCU (Historically Black College or University) so I am really comfortable with any mix of people.
Most of the negativity that I get is from AA people. I hear things like why did you "waste" all that time in college if you were not going to use your education? Your kids are strange, to which I respond, "No, they are peculiar, thank you Jesus!" What makes them strange? The fact that they would rather read a book or go outside than watch tv. The fact that they don't flinch when they here a curse word because they don't know what those are. I hear things like "How are your children going to learn how to socialize"? To which I respond, you're kidding right? Have you met my children. I'm trying to teach them to stop talking so much!
Unfortunately a lot of the ills of the AA society keep more of us from homeschooling. So many sistahs are single parents just struggling to keep the lights on. My prayer is that we will realize that training our children for the kingdom is more important than any wordly education we could ever give them.
The lack of families that looks like me at the homeschooling meetings and events prompted me to start my own group. When I started it was me and my kids,Then we convinced a close friend of ours to give homeschooling a chance and to just pray about it. Well now our group has 3 families, mine, hers and another friend that we convinced together. We are a group of 2 hatian families and 1 half hatian,half spanish family.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post! I am a natural living, babywearing, green Mama and I often find myself being the only black woman in support groups of the same. Like you it, doesn't bother me, but i will admit it would be nice if more black families would embrass this lifestyle and not scoff at it.
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