Common Ground Shared by Homeschoolers

HOMESCHOOLERS are a diverse lot. While the movement is typically associated with religious fundamentalists, many homeschool for secular reasons. Further, while homeschoolers tend toward the right side of the political spectrum, some on the left share homeschooling values too. Urban progressives want a good education for their children as do suburban conservatives. The common trait is a shared desire to provide the best opportunity and environment possible for their children so that they may reach their maximum potential. 

The following link is to a story in the August 15, 2016 Christian Science Monitor. 

Why more black parents are home-schooling their kids

ATLANTA AND BOSTON — Nikita Bush comes from a family of public school teachers: Her mom, aunts, uncles – nearly all of them have been involved in public education at some level.

But her own teaching career ended, she says, “in heartbreak” when she had to make a decision about where her own child would go to school.

After being reprimanded repeatedly for folding Afro-centric education into her Atlanta classroom, she left. Fifteen years and six children later, Ms. Bush leads a growing homeschooling co-op near Atlanta’s historic West End neighborhood. 

Despite the promises of the civil rights movement, “people are starting to realize that public education in America was designed for the masses of poor, and its intent has been to trap poor people into being workers and servants. If you don’t want that for your children, then you look for something else,” she says. To her, the biggest flaw in public education is a lack of character education, an "absence of a moral binding," that contributes to low expectations – and lower outcomes for children of color.