Although the epidemic has disrupted family life across the United States since the spring 2020 epidemic, some parents are grateful for one consequence: they now choose to let their children go to school at home, even if the school plans to resume face-to-face classes.
The specific reasons vary widely. Some families interviewed by the Associated Press have children with special educational needs; others seek faith-based courses, or that their local schools are defective. What they have in common: They try to go to homeschool on what they think is temporary and find it beneficial to their children.
“This is one of the silver linings of the pandemic – I don’t think we would choose to go to school at home,” said Daniel King of Randolph, Vermont, whose 7-year-old daughter Zoe thrives with flexible one-on-one help growing up. An instruction. Her courses include literature, anatomy, and even archeology, and she gets active through outdoor hiking to find fossils.
The U.S. Census Bureau confirmed this surge, which reported in March that by September 2020, the proportion of families with children at home school has more than doubled from 5.4% six months ago.
Black families saw the largest increase; their homeschooling rate rose from 3.3% in the spring of 2020 to 16.1% in the fall.
When the pandemic occurred, the parents of one of the families, Alena and Robert Brown of Austin, Texas, had three children in elementary school. After trying virtual learning, the couple chose to try homeschooling with Catholic-oriented courses offered by Seton Home Study School, which serves approximately 16,000 students across the country.
The Browns plan to continue homeschooling in the coming year, thanks to their ability to customize courses according to their children’s unique needs. 11-year-old Jacoby was diagnosed with narcolepsy and sometimes needs naps during the day; Riley, 10 years old, has been tested for academic talent; 9-year-old Felicity has learning disabilities.
“I don’t want my child to become a statistician without being able to realize their full potential,” said Robert Brown, a former teacher who is now engaged in consulting. “We hope they have a very deep understanding of their beliefs.”
Arlena Brown, who gave birth to her fourth child 10 months ago, worked as a preschool teacher before the pandemic. She said that homeschooling is a rewarding adventure.
“In the beginning, the biggest challenge was to keep myself out of school and understand that there is a lot of freedom to go to school at home,” she said. “We can do it quickly or slowly as needed.”
Race played a key role in another African-American family’s decision to let their 12-year-old son Dorian go to school at home.
Angela Valentine said that in a public school in the suburbs of Chicago, Dorian was often the only black student in his class, and was sometimes treated unfairly by the administrators and because other children no longer joined him. Frustrated by playing.
As the pandemic eased, the family decided to let Dorian stay at home and teach him there, using a curriculum provided by the national black family educator for every subject related to African American history and culture Provide content.
“I feel the burden of transformation and make sure we make the right choices,” Valentine said. “But before we really adapt to his learning environment, we will continue this journey of homeschooling.”
Charmaine Williams, who lives in Baldwin, a suburb of St. Louis, is also using the National Black Home Educators course, because she attended her 10-year-old son Justin and 6-year-old daughter Janelle at home.
Williams said that after school officials complained about Justin’s behavior, she and her husband tried homeschooling for Justin twice. Now-with the new curriculum and supporting network-they are more confident in choosing it as a long-term choice.
Williams said: “In school, children must follow a certain pattern. Compared with being free to be themselves at home, there is bullying and devaluation.”
“We have no turning back now,” she added. “The pandemic is a blessing-it is an opportunity to take ownership of a child’s education.”
According to Joyce Burges, co-founder and project director of National Black Home Educators, this 21-year-old organization had about 5,000 members before the pandemic, and now has more than 35,000.
Burges said many new families are experiencing difficulties, including being unable to access the Internet, which limits their children’s ability to benefit from virtual learning during the pandemic.
“So they don’t believe in anything, they just believe in their own home, their children are with them,” she said. “Now they see the future-see what their children can do.”
For some families, the shift to homeschooling is affected by the special needs of their children. This is the case with Jennifer Osgood in Fairfax, Vermont. Her 7-year-old daughter Lily has Down syndrome.
During the pandemic, after observing Lily’s improvement in reading and arithmetic at home, Osgood was convinced that homeschooling was the best choice for her to move forward.
She made the same decision for her 12-year-old son Noah, who disliked the distance courses offered by public schools in the spring of 2020 and taught himself at home throughout the 2020-21 school year. It’s going so well, they hope to continue for at least a few more years.
“He told me that he learned a lot more at home than at school,” Osgood recalled. “He said,’The school is too messy-we haven’t done too much in any particular class. Here, I sit down, you tell me what to do, and I’m done in a few minutes.”
Heather Pray of Phoenix, Maryland, said that for her 7-year-old son Jackson, who has autism, homeschooling has been a huge success. The whole family made the change because Jackson struggled with the virtual learning provided by his school during the pandemic.
“My son is doing very well (at home school), even if he only has two hours of homework a day,” Pray said. “I gave him piano lessons and taught him reading.”
Pray also studies at home with her daughter Hayley, who is about to enter 7th grade and has been attending a Christian school.
“I don’t know how things will develop-I just plunged in,” Pray said. “I think God is holding my hand.”
Gonzalez from Appomattox, Virginia, is a devout Catholic. After their Catholic school in Lynchburg was closed in 2020 due to a decline in enrollment, their three sons They are 9, 13 and 15 years old, and they choose to go to school at home.
They are using Seton Home Study School’s Catholic-focused curriculum, which Jennifer Gonzalez, the boy’s mother, described as rigorous but well-organized.
“My kids just did a great job,” she said. “We can go home and be together.”
© 2021 Canadian Press
