Yalonda Chandler homeschooled her children, Madison and Matthew. She co-founded Black Homes in Birmingham, in Alabama, and has seen the organization grow since the pandemic began.
Kyra Miles / WBHM
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Yalonda Chandler homeschooled her children, Madison and Matthew. She co-founded Black Homes in Birmingham, in Alabama, and has seen the organization grow since the pandemic began.
Kyra Miles / WBHM
There is a common perception that white, Protestant families are most likely to homeschool their children. But more and more Black families are starting to homeschool their children — especially during the pandemic. The Census Bureau’s Household Survey found that in April 2020, 3% of Black households homeschooled their children, and in October 2020, that number rose to 16%.
Those numbers may not be entirely accurate, the Bureau noted, because a lot of children will be homeschooled in 2020. As part of the survey period, the question about homeschooling was expanded to clarify that preschool children do not include children enrolled in public or private schools. Even so, the numbers signal a significant increase.
Since 2020, thousands of families have joined her organization, said Joyce Burges, founder of National Black Home Educators.
“I think you’re going to see more parents, Black parents, homeschooling their kids than ever before,” Burges said.
“COVID is the catalyst”
Didakeje Griffin of Birmingham, Ala., is one of them. When she and her husband realized their children wouldn’t be returning to public school in March 2020, they knew they had to change.
“It was like a lightbulb moment,” Griffin said. “Ultimately, what I realized was that the pandemic just gave us an opportunity to do what we needed to do, which was homeschooling.”
The mother-of-two said she always trains her children at home to keep them on track. But three things made her decide to officially start homeschooling. First, she wants her children to be safe from bullies. She also wants them to understand their cultural history. The third element is freedom.
“I wanted time to nurture my children’s African-Americans, Nigerian history and culture before people try to tell them who they are,” Griffin said. COVID is the catalyst, “but it’s not what keeps us going.”
Griffins celebrate the sixteenth more than the fourth of July. They discuss the Black Lives Matter movement and talk about important racial theory with their children, ages 11 and 8. Griffin sees homeschooling as a way to protect his children.
“I don’t want my kids to be racist in some way so soon,” she said.
Homeschooling as an activism
In Black households, homeschooling can be their own unique form of activism and protest.
“History is taught that we tried through Brown v. Board of Ed to reach schools and meaningfully integrated schools.
“And that’s true,” she added. “But we’re also always self-taught.”
Fields-Smith said homeschooling is a way to combat racism in education, which takes many forms.
“We all know that there are structures, policies and practices in our traditional schools that can harm students of color, especially black students,” she said.
School discipline is one of them. Data from a 2014 study by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found that black students were three times more likely to be suspended than white students, and more likely to be reprimanded. A 2015 study from the Association for Psychological Science found that black students were more likely to be labeled “troublemakers” by their teachers.
These statistics can cause parents and caregivers of Black children to lose confidence in the education system. In the last few years, several states have moved to add Black history to their curriculum. However, earlier this year, Alabama and several other states banned critical race theory in K-12 classrooms, even though it is the academic theory of structural racism that is largely taught. at university level.
“The idea of white supremacy and black incompetence persists to this day,” says Fields-Smith. “We’re overcoming racism through homeschooling. I don’t think white people can say that.”
A growing community
Some families are also creating community through homeschooling.
In Alabama, Alfara Moore says her homeschooling for the past three years has given them the freedom to question and learn without the need for a rigorous curriculum. It also allows them to connect with their culture.
“The thing about homeschooling in the South as a black family that I’ve noticed is that there’s a lot more of us than we really know,” says Moore.
“As we moved in for my kids to interact with other kids, there were many networks of black preschoolers and preschoolers not only in this part of Alabama where we live, but all over the place.”
Carleigh and Alexander Duckworth get some playtime as part of their homeschooling day. Their mother, Jennifer Duckworth, is a co-founder of Black Homeschoolers in Birmingham.
Kyra Miles / WBHM
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Carleigh and Alexander Duckworth get some playtime as part of their homeschooling day. Their mother, Jennifer Duckworth, is a co-founder of Black Homeschoolers in Birmingham.
Kyra Miles / WBHM
Jennifer Duckworth and Yalonda Chandler co-founded Black Children in Birmingham three years ago so that more homeschooled black families could find and support each other.
Duckworth said she started homeschooling out of concern that if her son attended public school, he would start to withdraw.
“My son, being a black boy with a positive self-esteem, can sometimes be intimidating to some teachers, for lack of a better word,” Duckworth said. “They’re going to create an identity for Black and brown kids that they don’t even realize they’re doing.”
Duckworth says Black Kindergarteners in Birmingham have created a community where children don’t feel different because of their race.
Her 10-year-old son, Alexander, also agrees. “It’s great to be with kids like me so you don’t always have to be alone, like a weirdo,” he said.
Duckworth has been homeschooling his three children for several years. They participate in a variety of Black homeschool activities, such as debate clubs and field trips.
Last month, the group held its first homeschooling summit. In just three years, Black Nursery Homes in Birmingham have grown from two families to 70 families, the founders say.
“Black families, they now understand that they don’t have to be stuck in a system that overwhelms them, makes them marginalized, that makes their kids feel like they’re being blamed,” Chandler said. offense,” said Mr. Chandler.
For a long time, America had barriers that made it difficult for black people to get an education, so learning and knowledge were always shared in the community.
“As African-American and African-American culture, we are the culture that has raised our children at home from the very beginning,” says Duckworth. “And so I feel like it’s just in our DNA.”
