Home-schoolers of color

Worried about harmful labels and lower achievement, parents choose to educate their children themselves

When Dotty Barco's oldest son, Caleb, began to struggle with third-grade math, she remembered the statistic she'd run across while writing a college paper.

According to the National Urban League, black male achievement begins to decline as early as fourth grade. Blacks continue to fall behind through high school, in test scores, grades and dropout rates. Fewer than half of black males graduate in four years.

"In fourth grade, African-American males drop to the bottom -- we can't find them anymore," said Barco, a former public school teacher and mother of four boys. "I knew fourth grade was coming, [and] I couldn't have my son be a part of that."

That year, Barco pulled all her sons out of Vance Elementary School in Raleigh. She has been home-schooling them since.

The Barcos join an increasing number of black families in the Triangle and across the country who choose to home-school their children. Of the estimated 1.1 million home-schooled children in the U.S., about 10 percent are black, according to the most recent federal statistics from the U.S. Department of Education.

Blacks are the fastest-growing demographic among home-schoolers, said Jennifer James, a Boone mother of two who in 2003 founded the National African-American Homeschoolers Alliance, a nonreligious group that provides online information and support to about 3,000 home-schoolers.

Disappointed with the public school system, many black parents opt to home-school because they want more rigorous academics and a truly multicultural education, James said.

"No matter what their race, home-schooling parents really believe they can provide a stellar education for children that traditional schools can't match," said James, who home-schools her two daughters, ages 9 and 7. "We're really confident in our abilities to teach our children, and we're equally confident in our children to soak up the information."

Many black parents say they fear their children will be labeled as disruptive in public schools and believe they can provide an educational environment better suited to their children's learning styles.

Casie Price of Clayton knew her 6-year-old son, Kemet, wouldn't excel in a traditional classroom. His IQ tested "off the charts," Price said, but in a Montessori pre-K program, "he spent the whole time in timeout because he didn't want to write the date the way the teacher wanted him to."

At home, she said, she can provide the kinesthetic learning experiences her son needs -- exploring backyard ecosystems or constructing a robot from common household materials -- while also allowing her 10-year-old daughter, Elon, more time for self-expression.

"The time allotted in the public schools and the number of students doesn't allow (much self-expression)," Price said. "She was becoming insecure (in public school). Now she's thriving."

Looking for role models

Nadja Bonhomme of Garner was troubled by the lack of black role models in public schools. "The ethnicity of a teacher matters a lot for boys," said Bonhomme, who home-schooled her 13-year-old son, Anastasio, for two years. "Boys should see teachers who represent them, what they see when they look in the mirror."

Parents also worry that their children will face troubling social pressures to fit in with negative stereotypes.

"If they're successful academically, then people tell them they're acting like a white person. Then they're not doing well socially with kids of their own cultural heritage. Or they can get along well socially and not do well in school," said Louise Omoto Kessel of Pittsboro, an adoptive mother of two black children, ages 6 and 3.