African-Americans increasingly turn to home-schooling

Today, I came across an article that I found alarming.  It was about the rise of home schoolers among African American families.


http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/16/african-americans-increasingly-turn-to-home-schooling/?test=latestnews


I was alarmed because I've never been a proponent of home-school, as many mothers, home school educational providers, don't maintain the proper teaching credentials to conduct schooling effectively, with a high end result.  This is because I've come across a handful of children, attempting to come on board with our charter school (known for it's high standards), who were ill prepared, and were low achieving.  However, when I viewed this video, I was pleasantly surprised with how prepared these mothers seemed, and I emphasize that they, "seem" prepared, because the only way to tell if the education is effective, is to place them in a testing situation with other peers, in order to gauge their level of academic achievement.  


Now, in seeming prepared for the task of homeschooling, they had ample space, a clean and organized facility, materials, resources, and even a carpentry project for their children.  The part that I was concerned with, was the part of the video, where one of the mothers, Kisha Hayes remarks, "We're able to focus on black history a little bit more than I think public schools may give it."  


A few thoughts come to mind:


1.  Why should the focus be on, "black history" when we're all Americans, and we should be learning, "American" history that is inclusive of black history and other ethic groups?


2. Would this African American homeschooling video receive your praise, if you were to consider a Caucasian mother saying, "We're able to focus on "white" history a little bit more, than I think these multi-cultural public schools may give it"?


3.  If we focus more on black history, how is that practice building a well rounded child, ready for the public sphere, inclusive of other ethnicities like Native Americans, Europeans, Muslims, Hispanics, and the like?  


4.  The Core Knowledge sequence created by E.D. Hirsch does in fact, place a focus on black history in several ways, but in one notable way, with the use of a book called Grace Abounding: The Core Knowledge Anthology of African-American Literature, Music, and Art. 


This anthology has 837 pages, not inclusive of the reference pages, and is a larger book than any other history book that I've ever seen.


For African American families concerned that public schools aren't emphasizing enough, of the African American history component, I'd advise them not to throw the baby out with the bathwater and take up homeschooling, without empirical evidence to its effectiveness.  Instead, they should seek out a Core Knowledge school, perhaps a charter school that implements Core Knowledge, a well rounded curriculum that prepares students for the public sphere.


Likewise, the section of the video and article where it reads, "“Unless we figure out how to make the schools work for kids of color, we are going to see more and more people consider all of the options available to them” is equally of concern.  How do we know it's schools not working for these kids?  I mean, if a school doesn't work, wouldn't it fail to support their whole student population, including Caucasian and Hispanic kids.  How do we know it's not the child's socioeconomic status, and parent decisions that don't work for kids of color?  Why is it schools that receive all of the blame?  I've personally witnessed, parent being, "deadbeats" in all communities; African American, Hispanic, Caucasian.  Just the grammatical structure kids are raised with, of Spanish, or even Ebonics, can place children on a tougher road to acquiring an education.  But yet, the schools are to blame, and they're not the ones who gave the children their first language that wasn't English.  Sound off, let me know your thoughts. 


http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/16/african-americans-increasingly-turn-to-home-schooling/?test=latestnews