Too Poor to Send Kids to Home or Private School....

[Im The Truth]

Many times we time talk about homeschool but most people I know do not make enough to send your kids to home or private school. Just doing basic mathematics if you are single and have kids where is the income going to come from to survive for you and your kids? If you have more than one child sending your kids to private or home grade K and up is very expensive. I wonder if there are anyways to still remove the effects of public school?

[Jahness]

Greetings Im The Truth!

BlackNificent topic! This is a very real situation that a lot of our people who want alternatives to the public educational system find themselves in.

I am going to use myself as an example. Here in New York City everything is so expensive and always has a fad flavor to it, which ends up making it even more overpriced, that educating children falls in the same category.

At present I cannot afford to home school, but I do not want my child to go to public school either. His tuition for private school, not at all majorly Afrikan Centered, but it's all Afrikans just the same is very, very expensive. Myself and my husband have to make sure and work very hard trying to stay on top of things and it is very hard. His tuition runs me about 5,000 a school year. That is as much as an in my neighborhood community college yearly tuition.

Now most people would say that is a lot of money and yes indeed it is, but that is one of the cheaper tuitions for Pre-K students in New York City. Not to mention that I have a daughter who is now in her First year of college out of New York State, so that is costing us the other arms and legs.

I can understand how parents feel when they cannot pay any of these costs because their family financial situation. I have tried the public school and it was bad back in the days, but it's even worse now. I also work at a very large High School and the madness I see is just too unacceptable.

For sure I know I cannot keep up with spending that kind of money on a regular, but the alternatives are not there. Home schooling is not an option for me presently, cuz I have a new home we are paying for right now, so both of us have to work. We have our own business as well, but for the time being I work to be able to afford proper healthcare for the children, which is another overpriced system, but it's vital that we have health coverage as well.

I wish there were alternative out there but personally, I have not found much. Then so many of the Afrikan centered or private schools are so expensive, that on average our people do not have a choice, because their finances are just barely making ends meet for them on the very basics they need to just survive.

Much appreciation to you Im The Truth for bringing this very important issue to the table for discussion.

Peace & Blessings

[Sun Ship]

I believe the concepts of community based after-school and weekend educational programs are still very viable options that can strengthen our children basic skills, along with other useful self-sustainable life skills.

This idea in the modern context originated back in the 60’s - 70’s, but there's a long and bold history of self-education and independent Black education amongst our people that should be explored. At one time Rev. John Berry Meachum an ex-slave and pastor of the African Baptist Church in St. Louis opened the Floating Freedom School around 1847 on a sand barge on the Mississippi when it was illegal to teach slaves in Missouri.

If groups of our people could collectively reassess their priorities then creative possibilities and alternatives to offset the school system may be revealed. It has to be a group effort for those who cannot home school, and even home schooling should also be a collective effort amongst those who have that option. We must understand that in-home and community based education is really the historical norm, not the “alternative”.

I thought a major part of a revolutionary life, or stance is attempting to develop other social, cultural, and educational paradigms that are different than what “THE SYSTEM” offers, and also to remove financial exploitation from an excellent, useful, and well-structured education.

Even private schooling was originally an elitist concept to develop a particular class of people who were more educated than the lower and less financially fortunate classes, that’s why it will always be based on a higher income stratum.


Peace

[Im The Truth]

What you are saying is true but the hardest part lies in removing the "financial exploitation from an excellent, useful, and well-structured education". And many times I wonder if exploitation is the right word to use for Africans who are trying to set up Africentric schools or have after school and weekend programs in place. People have to be paid somehow right. It is in my opinion that most work for Our People should be free 80% of the time. But there is always that 20% of the time where people have invested thousands of dollars into something which require compensation in order to continue in a professional manner i.e. schools and serious non-profit orgs. But many times I don't think activist should be economically compensated for anything other than recoup monies to pay for expenses. As one of my comrades says, "We work for a living, we got jobs like everybody else, all of this is free for the people" (paraphrased). To get paid from the movement causes a capitalist conflict in my opinion, because money becomes a motativing factor. When I was a teacher at an Afrocentric home school (elementary/middle school level) during my sophomore year in college making $40.00 per Friday (not hourly but per Friday). At that time I was like I can't continue doing this cuz I don't make enough money so at the end of the year I was like I'm done with this but now that I have a job I can do more without worrying about the burden of worrying about income.

Community type activities for learning and etc are really important because it gives Us an opportunity to work with Us and build with Us. Community based learning centers are a must for Our community.

Originally Posted by Sun Ship

I believe the concepts of community based after-school and weekend educational programs are still very viable options that can strengthen our children basic skills, along with other useful self-sustainable life skills.

This idea in the modern context originated back in the 60’s - 70’s, but there's a long and bold history of self-education and independent Black education amongst our people that should be explored. At one time Rev. John Berry Meachum an ex-slave and pastor of the African Baptist Church in St. Louis opened the Floating Freedom School around 1847 on a sand barge on the Mississippi when it was illegal to teach slaves in Missouri.

If groups of our people could collectively reassess their priorities then creative possibilities and alternatives to offset the school system may be revealed. It has to be a group effort for those who cannot home school, and even home schooling should also be a collective effort amongst those who have that option. We must understand that in-home and community based education is really the historical norm, not the “alternative�.

I thought a major part of a revolutionary life, or stance is attempting to develop other social, cultural, and educational paradigms that are different than what “THE SYSTEM� offers, and also to remove financial exploitation from an excellent, useful, and well-structured education.

Even private schooling was originally an elitist concept to develop a particular class of people who were more educated than the lower and less financially fortunate classes, that’s why it will always be based on a higher income stratum.


Peace

[Sun Ship]

Originally Posted by Im The Truth

What you are saying is true but the hardest part lies in removing the "financial exploitation from an excellent, useful, and well-structured education". And many times I wonder if exploitation is the right word to use for Africans who are trying to set up Africentric schools or have after school and weekend programs in place. People have to be paid somehow right. It is in my opinion that most work for Our People should be free 80% of the time. But there is always that 20% of the time where people have invested thousands of dollars into something which require compensation in order to continue in a professional manner i.e. schools and serious non-profit orgs. But many times I don't think activist should be economically compensated for anything other than recoup monies to pay for expenses. As one of my comrades says, "We work for a living, we got jobs like everybody else, all of this is free for the people" (paraphrased). To get paid from the movement causes a capitalist conflict in my opinion, because money becomes a motativing factor. When I was a teacher at an Afrocentric home school (elementary/middle school level) during my sophomore year in college making $40.00 per Friday (not hourly but per Friday). At that time I was like I can't continue doing this cuz I don't make enough money so at the end of the year I was like I'm done with this but now that I have a job I can do more without worrying about the burden of worrying about income.

Community type activities for learning and etc are really important because it gives Us an opportunity to work with Us and build with Us. Community based learning centers are a must for Our community.

If we share the loads amongst each other, no one has to sacrifice food on their table to work or volunteer in the community. As a matter of fact, bartering and other approaches can also supplement a tutor’s sacrifices. Black folks like to invite the preacher to dinner every weekend, why not the teacher or the tutor? Why shouldn’t the teachers and tutors have vouchers for Black events, Black expos, Black restaurants, clothing, or grocery stores?

What I’m trying to say is, the intellectual resources are in our community, and there has to be some time and money sacrificed. The need for big dollars, big grants, big buildings, big social programs, big institutions and too many times the “government involvement” approach has to be eliminated.

It’s not like Black folks never had food programs, breakfast programs, Saturday schools and so forth. After Cointelpro destroyed a lot of our efforts and the government increased the handouts, and temporarily some good-jobs and positions were handed out, the psychological damage of that has almost given us amnesia.

Today we still have those who are trying to do something different, but they are still trying to operate “inside of the box” of acceptable structures and standards. They subconsciously remembered what happen to the Black Panthers and other organizations.

I believe small decentralized efforts can happen all over the Black community. And there can be oversight for those teachers, tutors, homes-schoolers, and small educational communes who are looking for further assistance directly from the community (as cited above).

Tomorrow’s Black children need reading, writing, math, planting, building, cooking, and other applicable skills.

[Jahness]

Greetings SunShip & Im The Truth!

SunShip I agree with what you are saying as well with the community based educational schools be it after school programs, or Afrikan centered all day schools.

Im The Truth I use to teach in both environments as a way to give to my community prior to the job I have now, and in both cases at the end of the week my own finances was nothing to speak about.

I too had to get a job first to handle my real financial crisis, because I could not really survive on what was being paid to me in either one of those situations. But I gave it my all just the same.

The school my son goes to now, doesn't have as much of the Afrikan cultural aspects embedded as part of the overall academics but I fill that in at home. I want him to have a sound academic foundation in the basics of learning his math, reading,writing, and all we need to have as a community etc.

I even decided to move out of NY to give myself more options with the Afrikan centered schools. He just turned 5 in Feb. so it's time for an even
more structured learning environment.

Our communities are in bad need of funding to help run our own schools. Far too many times just to survive the schools have to charge these enormous tuitions. And there are some schools that are in it just to make a profit on the backs of their own people who they know are looking for alternatives to the bad public education system.

We seriously have to pool together our resources as a community and create an environment where our schools are created by us for us.

Peace!~

[Sun Ship]

The main skill that has given some home schooling parents a problem is math, and I think that can be dealt with by retaining an excellent visiting teacher or tutor. Most other skills can easily be obtained in house, especially in homes of well-studied parents that are relatively intelligent. I believe even math has been problematic for our community because it is taught so abstractly and deracinated from nature to a community who historically didn’t think in such disjointed abstractions.

I think sometimes we are more concerned about a good structured education more than we challenge the type of education our children are getting in general, and I’m speaking about more than just the African-centered constructs that are centered usually around history and cultural references. It is now a known fact that America has one of the poorest educational “systems� in the world, regardless of race or ethnicity.

It would be wonderful to see us as Africans start to challenge America’s educational-industrial complex regardless on what level it’s being embraced. A good education in this country is about one day obtaining a good job at best (if there’s one to be had in the future). Why can’t Africans be on the forefront of a paradigm shift in how knowledge is taught and for what purpose, such as developing and maintaining self-sustainable energy and environments, and eco-friendly inventions?

I’m just afraid the world is in such desperate need of intellectual change, and if our great Kemetic minds are not ushering in that change, we will be “at best� good educated end-users of yesterday’s depleted science.

I’m not condemning anyone for sending their children to the best schools they can access and afford; I’m just sharing my thoughts in the great African market place of ideas.