Recent US Census Survey Reveals a Growing Trend in Homeschooling Among Black Families

The recent US Census Survey reveals of an increasing number of black families switching from virtual class to homeschooling in educating their children. During spring and fall of 2021, not a few parents have seen and experienced first-hand knowledge of the many distractions their children have to ignore during online classes; including repetitive learning that even first-graders find annoying.

What Homeschooling Experts are Saying about the Growing Trend in Homeschooling Among Black American Families

Washington University associate professor and developmental psychologist Sheretta Butler-Barnes has been focusing her studies on how racism affects the health and education on the children of black families. According to Professor Butler-Barnes, the pandemic had provided parents the opportunity to access their children’s online education that allowed them to discover that the negative experiences they encountered during their time are still the same.

She explained them as mainly originating from curriculum issues where black children aren’t considered in the current curriculum provided as education. Not to forget to mention that even with online classes, black children are still exposed to racism and teacher biases. Even before the pandemic, the occurrence of such circumstances even in classrooms have prompted numerous black parents to homeschool their children.

According to Dannielle Joy Davis, a higher education administration professor St. Louis University, parental support whether for supplemental or full time homeschooling is significant Professor Davis is also the founder of Circle of Excellence, a program that helps, not only families in the St. Louis region but across the country as well, cope with homeschooling their children. .
Ms. Davis herself went through homeschooling while her own son had requested her to homeschool him. While some parents think that they don’t have the skills to homeschool their children, Prof. Davis assures them that there is no right or wrong way to do it because every family is different.

What Ms. Davis wants them to understand is that homeschooling is just an extension of parenting. They simply have to use their ability as parents to teach basic life skills. When teaching their children about history or math, they can teach their children by using real life situations and examples to which a young person can relate. Moreover, since parents know their children better than others, they can teach subjects in line with their children’s interests to make learning more fun for them.