We Have Come a Mighty Long Way: Homeschooling Communities among African-American families

• In Event: More Than a Bandaid: How Black Mothers Remedy and Repair in Homeschool Communities

Abstract

The purpose of this presentation is to provide a retrospective of Black home education through the lens of a Black mother. As a twenty-plus year veteran of home education, the presenter began homeschooling her children in the 1990’s long before home education became popular, especially for Black families. The experiences of Black home educators in the 1990’s have been ignored by the literature as the focus has been on White, Middle-Class families. While the existing Black home educator literature has focused on more recent times, without considering the critical labor of Black home educators prior. There is a need to prioritize the perspectives and experiences of Black home educators who homeschooled without the resources and community, both digital and in-person, that present-day home educators rely upon. Using an autobiographical and Black feminist approach, the author tells her own story and explains why it is important.
The work of Black veteran home educators is essential to the thriving of present-day Black homeschool communities. Black veteran home educators continue to serve in their homeschool communities as mentors and facilitators. In keeping with the Black tradition, Black homeschool communities honor the intellectual contributions of their elders. The author recounts her motivations, rooted in her relationship with God, her loneliness due to a lack of community, and ultimately, her sense of accomplishment in having homeschooled her daughters into college. The paper is written in first-person, below is an excerpt from this work:
“I had the privilege for the last two years to participate in a Black homeschooling conference as a facilitator for children and adolescents. I marveled every year I attended at the number of families, vendors, children, and offerings this conference boasts. I have sat with such bittersweet emotions as I absorb and ingest all of the phenomena that is happening around me. I think to myself how I wish this were available twenty-plus years ago when I first started my journey. And how grateful and ecstatic I am for the families who now have such support literally at their fingertips. I think these families ought to navigate this journey without the scathing sense of loneliness and confusion I felt during my initial homeschooling days.”

Author

• Monique Gadson, Seattle School of Theology and Psychology