Current News and Views

An article was released yesterday in the Cincinnati Enquirer in which I was quoted about the rise of African-American homeschooling. You can read it here if at all interested.

Also, on my other homeschooling site I make the case for blacks rejecting publicly-funded virtual charter schools. I think these virtual charters are the ever-increasing bane of black homeschoolers' achievement. I explain more here.

Why NAAHA exists

Each day I am charged with the task of trying to make homeschooling as accessible as possible to black families across the country. It can be a tiring task, but it is also one that I gladly accept and one that I do not regret creating.

The more time I spend talking to families across the country and the more in-depth I become with homeschooling, the more I realize how important it is for black homeschoolers to have a place like NAAHA to call home. Case in point: I just read an article on one of the mega homeschool websites where for the month of February, they interviewed a white sociologist for Black History Month. How backwards is that? That one article embodies the exact reason why I started NAAHA to begin with: black families were being ignored and are still ignored today by the homeschooling establishment. To many, this statement may sound a bit steeped in accusations of racism, but little else can attest to what I observe on a daily basis. Perhaps racism is too harsh. Maybe indifference is better. Sadly, most those in the homeschooling community won't give a second thought to us until they realize our numbers are large enough where they can make a staggering profit from us. I am usually never this ill-tempered, but that interview really sent me over the edge. It exemplifies again all that I've ever known about the homeschooling community. Blacks aren't even worthy of being interviewed during Black History Month.

On to other things, however. One of my principle objectives as the director of NAAHA is to get the word out as much as possible about black homeschoolers and homeschooling. I have an article currently on AOL/Black Voices about Homeschooling Basics. Also, I have written another article for the Children of the New Earth Magazine. And, I was recently interviewed about NAAHA and Mommy Too! Magazine (my other endeavor) for Womens eNews.

Great Story About Mainstream Homeschoolers

Despite what homeschooling critics think, more mainstream families are homeschooling than ever before. Most used to believe that it was only the extreme families on the left or right who were home educators. Now, however, the homeschooling movement is reaching more people than once believed including mainstream families. Read more in this article.

Well, No Wonder the NEA and Rod Paige Bump Heads

The No Child Left Behind bill is one that I am not terribly familiar with, but do understand it has come under much scrutiny since its inception. Some cry that the initiative has been underfunded by the very administration that inacted it. While others declare that the expectations of teachers and schools in unrealistic. Still others see great and improved strides in the area of making teachers and schools accountable. Whatever the case, I haven't kept up with it much because I focus on news and issues in the homeschooling arena.

Sometimes education arenas, no matter how varied, do collide, however. I was very pleased to read an acceptance speech by Rod Paige dated for November 1 issued by the Heartland Institute's School Reform News. Paige received a very prestigious award for his work in education in Indiana and said, .."there are some who fight to block choice in education, whether it involves charter schools, homeschooling, or some other educational alternative. Much of that opposition, Paige noted, had to do with the special interests of adults, not the best interests of students. "There are those who have fostered division, ill will, fear, hatred, anger, and mistrust," he said. "Some have gone farther, stating that they will do everything possible to defeat, even sabotage, educational alternatives."

Because Paige is the US Secretary of Education I automatically assumed that he is against educational alternatives a la the NEA. I'm glad he isn't.

Recent News

We were profiled in an article for the Carolina Journal, a newspaper for the entire state of North Carolina that features government, education, higher education and opinion issues . You can read the article in pdf format at this link.
http://www.carolinajournal.com/cjprint/display_cjprint.html?id=45

Also, Child Magazine ran an article in their Septemeber issue about homeschooling. After the publication of that article, child.com launched a message board all about homeschooling and I'm its new moderator. It's a brand new board so come on over and share some of your homeschooling insights and meet homeschoolers from all across the nation.
On the Web: www.child.com. Be sure to click on Community.

If you live in North Carolina, I will be doing a presentation about homeschooling at the annual Teaching Fellows conference at NC A&T University on Saturday, November 6. Visit their website at www.ncat.edu and click through to the School of Education for more information.

Brown v. Board of Education: Blacks' Sugarcoated Nemesis

While the nation celebrated the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, old loyalties and historic nostalgia were rekindled for sure, but what was everyone truly celebrating? Good thing others believe that this celebration was more of a symbolic victory than all else.

In this article , Derrick Bell -- the first tenured track black professor at Harvard Law School and author of the new book, Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform -- dismisses that any real academic progress resulted from the landmark decision.

As educational achievement continues to wane for blacks in public education more blacks are flocking to family-led learning, hence the meteoric increase of blacks who are homeschooling today.

Homeschoolers portrayed as terrorists

There have and will always be those who are staunchly against homeschooling. For their own specific reasons and inclinations they feel, I suppose, threatened by parents who are putting the impetus back on themselves to ensure their children receive a great education. For blacks, especially, we can no longer rely on the public school system to teach our children. They have failed. And continue to fail. But that's not the point.

Incidents like this cannot continue to persist amongst the ranks of anti-homeschoolers. A school district in Michigan staged a mock federally funded terrorist attack to help prepare their students for the real thing. In their mock attack the school is being attacked by: Wackos Against Schools and Education.

In another account, Dan Stout, director of Muskegon County Emergency Services, told WorldNetDaily the choice of the fictitious group certainly was not meant to offend homeschoolers. "I don't think there was any particular objective other than to just have a name," he said.

Please! ...was not meant to offend homeschoolers? Then why didn't they name the fictitious group Wackos Against Homeschoolers and Anyone Else Who Believes In Educational Choice?