According to a recent news story in Memphis, an increasing number of African Americans are choosing to homeschool.
“Expectations of African-American males is low,” said his mother.
“Numerous studies when African-American child reaches 4th grade, his excitement, enthusiasm, desire for learning has pretty much been I heard one educator say ‘beaten out of him’,” said father Charles Henderson.
Aside from the usual reasons people choose to homeschool, African American students must wrestle with other issues like identity and self-esteem. Many of these families believe that African and African American History are an integral part of a homeschool curriculum that they just can’t find at the public school.
These families have high expectations of their children and have chosen to set the bar higher.
The Arizona Republic has a wonderful article about one family’s decision to homeschool. As much as we focus the academic and moral benefits of homeschooling, we can sometimes take for granted the relational benefits.
“I choose to homeschool because I want to maintain family relationships in a way that cannot be done if my child is in school six-plus hours a day,” she said. “Since we are interacting with each other all day long, it forces us to deal with relationship issues when they come up. We enjoy being around our children and they enjoy being around us.”
Many families I know have children who can’t wait to get out of the house and see their parents only a few times a year at holidays and family reunions. Most parents think that this is a normal part of growing up. But does it have to be this way? Why can’t children grow up respecting their parents’ authority, but also developing deep, loving relationships towards them? Only in the last century has brought us nursing and retirement homes. Before these existed, Grandma and Grandpa usually lived upstairs next to the kids’ rooms.
Daughters should come to their mothers for advice and sons to their fathers. How can we expect to be trusted, loved, and respected by our children if they spend six hours learning to do otherwise?
