Media mention: Fields-Smith quoted on increase in home schooling among Black families
Thousands of families homeschooled during the COVID-19 pandemic. While many families returned to traditional classroom settings when schools reopened, a record number of Black families opted out of school systems altogether.
Cheryl Fields-Smith, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice, spoke with Alabama Local News regarding the increase of home schooling among Black families due to the lack of Black history in public school curricula, as well as the disproportionate disciplining of Black students.
“Schools today tend to be test-oriented and standards-based, and home educators have more flexibility to focus on their children’s interests; they tend to try and spend more time on them,” she said. “But I also think the other piece of this is African American parents wanting their children to be validated and affirmed in who they are—to talk about their beauty, their possibilities—and to see being African American from a positive view, not a negative view.”