The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences has released the latest version of their report The Condition of Education. Of interest to homeschoolers like myself – who in many communities are looked upon as backward, less-educated, lower-income weirdos – is the section on homeschooling:
In 2003, there were no measurable differences in rates of homeschooling among students when considering their household income or the level of their parents’ education.
Yes, even better-educated, higher income weirdos do it. And the overall percentage of U.S. students who homeschool jumped 0.5% from 1999 to 2003 – now 2.2% of all U.S. students from Kindergarten to 12th grade are homeschooled. This is movement in the right direction… 🙂
Homeschooling is definitely on the move for white two-parent families. I wonder why there is such a stark cultural contrast in those who homeschool?
Maybe because homeschooling is a big step for most parents (it was for us) and we need encouragement and good mentors to guide us. In our case (white, two-parent family) our mentors were white two-parent families. I suspect as parents in other cultural groups find homeschooling mentors they are comfortable with, they to will begin to homeschool their children. By the way, our daughter was just promoted (again) and now manages 4 supervisors and 40 people at a major hospital, all with no formal education beyond 6th grade. She was mostly unschooled and responsible for her own education.
An additional factor in homeschooling within the African-American community is the fact that access to quality education has only been available for the last 50 years or so. Brown vs. The Board of Education, the landmark ruling that verified that “separate but equal” was not realistic or constitutional. The long fought for ruling happened in 1954 – but was NOT the first to challenge school segregation. Cases were filed as early as 1849. The right to our country’s public education has been a continuing up hill battle for blacks and not one easily set aside. While I have chosen to HS because I will not release my child into the cesspool of Los Angeles public schools – I also realize the history & background of what my forefathers & mothers did to allow me to go to the schools I did and I understand their resistance to something “new”.