Homeschooling from Different Perspectives

Dear Parent,

I wish I knew a lot more about cultures of this country. I was not born here and am actually poorly educated in this regard. I do, however, counsel families from diverse ethnic and cultural groups including Assian, Blacks, Indians (from India) Hispanic and many mixes. I thank you for your question and invite you to take the initiative by writing about this subject.

I have just emailed Wendy Prisnitz, editor of Life Learning and Natural Life magazines, suggesting to invite families form different culture to write about their homeschooling and Attachment Parenting experiences. In her response she writes: “We've interviewed people from a variety of backgrounds over the years, including Black families, a Muslim unschooling mother and others from a variety of countries that reflect our international readership. We've also published articles about ensuring that diversity is part of the experience of life learning children. We regularly use photos of people from diverse backgrounds, including Black, Hispanic and Oriental.

“We welcome article and photo submissions from all readers. So please feel free to pass along the link to our contributors' guidelines for Life Learning: http://www.lifelearningmagazine.com/write.html and for Natural life: http://www.naturallifemagazine.com/writers/. If this person doesn't want to write an article, they can send a letter to the editor to begin a dialogue with our readers on this topic.” 

I hope you accept Wendy’s invitation. As nice as it is to find everything you need out there, at this stage of the game, it is a lot about being the one contributing and taking the next step in creating what you see needed. I notice that there are many websites of ethnic homeschool and AP communities including black homeschoolers and others. This tells me that families do find answers and ways and they connect with each other. keep in mind that the unschooling movement is young. We are all evolving together and as more cultural groups become involved we will all get educated, with the help of parents like yourself. 

As for my general reflection on this subject: The public school washes out cultures and unify everyone, turning children into descendants of the white European heritage. Mainstream baby and child care do the same. Attachment Parenting and homeschooling are the wonderful answer to stock parenting; these ways of parenting allow each ethnic group and family to provide education in line with their own culture or in any other unique way of their choice. 

You are right to observe that blacks cherish their right to educate, but, in school they are forced to take white man stock education. It seems to me that home education provides the solution that allows them to include their own beautiful heritage in their children’s education and ways of learning.

Public schools unified education is not desirable for any of our children regardless of ethnic and cultural heritage and conditions. This is part of why we choose freedom in learning and parenting. In my columns I don’t talk about content unless specifically asked. I talk about general issues that do apply to all cultures equally, like trust, respect, freedom and self-reliance.

The other cultural perspective you point to may be financial and parental education. Although there are many white families who struggle financially and find themselves unable to provide homeschooling, it is a more common difficulty among blacks and hispanics. I believe that this issue will be resolve over time with more and more children of all ethnic groups being raised to believe in themselves and move forward in society. Again, the freedom of home learning makes this opportunity greater. Although fewer Hispanic and black parents have the financial or educational resources to provide home learning, this too will change over the next few generations. 

As for Attachment parenting, it is actually a financial relief and a return back to the cultural roots. Without the costs of a extra rooms, cribs, strollers and other endless gadgets, families of all colors and cultures can go back to nature, simplicity and direct connection with babies and children. Being cared for in arms, breastfeeding, co-sleeping and responsiveness are everyone’s heritage.

All cultural and ethnic groups who choose to home school, co-sleep, breastfeed and home-birth tend to be people of courage and open minds. These families are causing the shifts and changes through their actions, writing, conferences etc. Each of us is responsible to make the change we are looking for. I hope your question will propel an increase in this direction and we will all benefit from the diverse and rich human perspectives.

Warmly,  Naomi Aldort, www.AuthenticParent.com