When current racial turmoil exploded our cities and social media, I knew it was past time for me to look outside my own little box and to learn from the diverse homeschoolers around me. So I put out a call for help, for black homeschool mommies to share friendship and perspective with me to help me grow. Kristin was the first to answer that call. She is an immensely generous and kind friend. I hope you can get to know her, too. I asked her what it is like to homeschool from a black perspective. Here are her own words.
Hi, y’all. I’m Kris, married homeschooling mama of five. This is our ninth year homeschooling. I remember when we first started, I rarely heard of black families homeschooling. And I barely knew any other homeschoolers, outside of my husband’s godsister (who was homeschooled herself and still homeschools her children).
As a black person, homeschooling for the longest time seemed taboo. Nearly everyone I knew — relatives included — tried to dissuade us from homeschooling and even went so far as to try to shame me for homeschooling, saying my kids needed “real” socializing and real teachers. We paid it no mind and would gracefully shut those conversations down, as we knew this was what was best for our family.
One of the pros of homeschooling is that when COVID-19 blew up everyone’s daily routines, school lives, social lives, and work schedules, we were already homeschooling and there was very little that had to change for us. However, on the other hand, a con of homeschooling is that in many spaces we were often the only black family or if we saw other black children it was because they were adopted into white families. But rarely did we have mirrors. Even now, nine years later, while we may see one or two other black families at homeschool meetups and co-ops, we’re still in the minority.
The beauty is that there is social media where we are able to connect with other homeschoolers of color to share our experiences and resources. These resources are so important because what one family may find as a good curriculum, I would look at it and see all the holes. Especially as it relates to history. As a black home educating mom, I cannot afford to teach my children a white-washed, sunshine-and-rainbows history program that diminishes the truth of history, the ugliness of history, or the truth of our ancestors and what they went through. It is important to my husband and I that my children learn black history as part of their main curriculum, not as an elective for a semester in high school. It is important that our children learn the truth of Native American history and other non-white ethnic group. And that they see that history more from the perspective of that ethnic group than from white authors who don’t want those experiences and events to seem as bad as they really were.
And so I implore you, regardless of your race to teach your children history as it actually occurred, no matter how young they are. Don’t offer them sunshine and rainbows, offer them the truth. Because either they’ll learn it at home with you or they will get on social media and get a history lesson or they’ll grow up and become (what I refer to) as the uneducated racist: some who literally was not educated on the truth of history and the present so they ended up nurturing a perspective that either promotes or ignores racism.
Kris Bush is a married homeschooling mama of five. She and her family loves Jesus and others, learning and playing together. She shares that with others on both Facebook and Instagram.
Check out Kris’s e-store Chosen Homeschool Resources of simple tools she’s created to use with her own children and you can now use yourself. These digital downloads are affordably priced under $10, most under $5.
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