The changing face of homeschooling

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Public schools are failing black boys, say a growing number of parents who are homeschooling


OK, once you get through the Village Voice's irreverent description of the urban stereotype of homeschooling, it's a good article on minority parents moving to homeschooling.

Say "homeschooling" and what tends to come to mind are the whitest people you know, holding Sunday school every day of the week in their basements, producing kids who can declaim against Charles Darwin for hours on end, but who are so screwed up socially that you can't imagine them getting a date, except years later as part of a group outing to Christian Day at Disney World.

So, with that admittedly over-broad stereotype in mind, it's something of a shock to see the lessons in progress at Bread Stuy, a small café in Brooklyn, where customers sip at their coffee and read newspapers, unaware that a woman named P. Aurora Robinson is holding a homeschooling class in their midst.... They're slender, studious, and seriously into their work.

And they're black.

...Black parents tend to take their children out of the schools for other than religious reasons, and homeschooling groups say black children taught at home are nearly always boys. Like Robinson, some of New York's parents have concluded that the school system is failing the city's black boys, and have elected to teach them at home as an alternative.

[hadassahchana[$]]

Bookmarked- thanks! The book 'Real Boys' mentions the increasing fail rate of minority boys in public schools, and it's going to be interesting to see where this article confirms his info.

[frazzledspice]

Probably the most valuable part of this trend is that it may call attention to the issue of public schools failing black boys.

I have just gotten back from visiting my elderly dad in NY, and I can't wrap my mind around the possibility that many families could afford to have a stay-at-home parent while paying NY rents or buying NY houses...

And so, if it is economically infeasible for most NY families, the most valuable thing it can do is force the public schools to be more accountable.

[jgibson2[$]]

MaryAnne,
According to the article, these people are making MAJOR sacrifices to be able to homeschool their kids. That's not always the case for homeschooling families, but many of the homeschooling families I know either have a family business, or mom's job is to make sure the family can live on one income. There is a lot of sharing of resources within the homeschooling community, because it is important to all of us to make sure that other families have what they need to be able to provide the appropriate learning environment for the kids.

I know a few people who are homeschooling for religious reasons, many more are doing it because they're not thrilled with the quality of the schools or the revisionist history being taught. By high school, you can counter that with a child in school, but it's awfully hard in the primary grades -- and one of the reasons I chose not to send my kids to the local public schools.

[frazzledspice]

Perhaps I get sticker shock from too many years living away from NY, but even when I lived on Long Island it seemed as if everyone lived with their parents until they got married (sometimes even longer) because the only way they could ever afford a downpayment was to avoid paying rent as long as possible.

I even felt a little bit sad when my own sons moved out at 20 and 18 respectively (of course our having to move to South Dakota had something to do with that, and I can't say I blamed them....) I guess I had always expected they would stay with us until they got married, because in NY no one could afford to do otherwise.

I really feel for the young LI couples who are paying $2000 a month for one floor of an illegal two-family house. They have to make major sacrifices just to avoid getting evicted, don't even think about homeschooling....

There are lots of things wrong about Arkansas living (and I've touched on a bunch here, I'm sure) but at least the housing is affordable....

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Housing options in NYC itself are different than in Long Island - more rentals at lower cost, lower quality housing and/or neighborhoods.