There’s been a ton of coverage on the resurgence of Black families homeschooling since schools turned to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. While across the board families turned to alternative schooling methods—there was a whopping 500% increase in Black families homeschooling since last year alone.
With all the hype, you’d think Black families homeschooling would be a new thing—but then, you’d be wrong.
Parent advocate Bernita Bradley came on Chris Stewart’s daily Unpublic show to talk homeschooling and parent advocacy. From the get she set the record straight, letting everybody know Black families have been homeschooling. That we’ve been setting up schools outside of a white context that views our babies as profit.
Last year, Bernita started homeschooling her daughter who was then in the 11th grade. Se talks about how initially it was a challenge but they eventually developed a system that works for them.
This is literally our education system’s greatest threat. Parents who actualize their power and use it. Bernita shared some of the work she has been doing with the National Parents Union and in her local city of Detroit to activate parents in demanding more from their school system and forcing leadership to respond. Since doing this work, instead of an overwhelming welcome to listen to parents, many in leadership have viewed Bernita and other parents’ work as a threat.
Welp, they better get used to the threat because Bernita Bradley ain’t going nowhere.
Check out the entire episode on Unpublic with Citizen Stewart.
