An Upside to the Covid-19 Pandemic
By Michael Leppert
The Covid 19 pandemic drove many families into what they thought would be temporary homeschooling in 2020. Across the nation, one could hear “This homeschooling thing is not going to last longer than absolutely necessary.” But after more than a year of homeschooling, many families are not very eager to return to the restrictions and failures of institutional school. As of March, 2020, the Census Bureau reported that the number of families homeschooling rose from 5.4% of the total school-age population, to 11%. Figures for summer, 2021 are not available, but they are probably holding steady.
Black households saw the largest increase, as their homeschooling rate rose from 3.3% in the spring of 2020 to 16.1% in the fall.
One black family in Austin, Texas, has 3 children: One has narcolepsy and needs frequent naps; one has been identified as gifted and one has a learning disability. The dad of this family, a former teacher-turned-consultant, said “I didn’t want my kids to become a statistic and not meet their full potential,” Mom, a former preschool teacher added, “In the beginning, the biggest challenge was to unschool ourselves and understand that homeschooling has so much freedom,” she said. “We can go as quickly or slowly as we need to.”
This flexibility and respect for each child’s individual learning style has fueled homeschooling’s popularity for decades. The one-size-fits-all approach of institutional schooling causes tremendous negative consequences as children struggle to try to fit into it, year after year. Over time, many of them think of themselves as failures or losers because they never experience a feeling of academic satisfaction.
Another African-American family in Chicago began homeschooling their 12-year-old because of race issues. Often, he was the only Black student in their suburban mostly white school district. He often had negative experiences due to this state of affairs. They began homeschooling him due to the Covid restrictions, but as those eased, they chose to continue teaching their son at home. They use a curriculum provided by National Black Home Educators that offers content for each academic subject pertaining to African American history and culture.
Joyce Burges, co-founder and program director of National Black Home Educators, said their organization had about 5,000 members pre-pandemic and now has more than 35,000. As has been the case for over 30 years, homeschooling families report how child after child, different learning styles across the spectrum, are thriving from being taught at home by their parents and having outside classes such as piano, karate, dance and drawing. It is unfortunate that it took a pandemic to bring the value of homeschooling to the awareness of so many families, but at least homeschooling is an upside to a mostly-downsided experience. Ω
Tags: #Homeschooling numbers increase, #African-American homeschoolers increase, #National Black Home Educators, #Home education, #Covid-19 increase in homeschooling, #learning styles, #learning disabilities, #Joyce Burges,
