Nikita Bush's career as a public school teacher came to an end when she faced the decision of how to educate her own children. Having been told for years that American public schools would eventually get better for black children, the number of African-American homeschooling parents like Ms. Bush has doubled in little over a decade.
As Patrick Jonsson of the Christian Science monitor reports, studies show all kinds of public school problems disproportionately affect black children, and many parents have decided to take matters into their own hands. Even single parents are forming co-ops to make it possible to educate their children together outside of the public school system.
What do you do when you feel the system is failing your child and their education?
(Score: 3, Informative) by bradley13 on Monday August 22 2016, @11:04AM
I hope you're including Native American history in American history.
Um, no. For better or for worse, the Native American cultures were conquered and destroyed. First by the Spanish, then by the British. The history of that destruction is certainly part of American history. However, the cultures and ideas of Native Americans played no role at all in the founding of the political entity that is the USA.
You can see those facts in a number of possible ways. Fact is: a large part of human history involves one group of people conquering another. I remember reading an article about archeology in the Middle East: it's sometimes very difficult to decide whether or not to stop when you find a layer of ruins, or to keep digging to get at the layer underneath.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Monday August 22 2016, @11:50AM
That's not correct. Benjamin Franklin and the Framers of the Constitution took a lot of inspiration from the Iroquois Confederacy, which they had had a lot of contact with.
Goes to show you that it's always good to doublecheck before making an absolutist claim...
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 22 2016, @02:00PM
Glad someone mentioned this.
It certainly was not included in any of my US History classes (probably not bradley13's either).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 22 2016, @05:35PM
Although it was heavily glossed over, along with the details of most of the conflicts from the 18th to 21st centuries.
We got a bit on the Iroquois Nation, most of which I have long since forgotten, and I think some mention of us selling guns to them to help destablize things. And that was it. Mind you the majority of teachers when I was in public education were quite conservative and pro-nationalist (it was pretty much a prereq to not getting fired from your job that you at least presented a conservative nationalist attitude to retain your job, or not get reassigned to a worse class/school.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 22 2016, @05:32PM
the cherokee had a similarly advanced government that was borrowed from by someone. can't recall the name of the cherokee's structure nor who borrowed from it, but you get the point.
(Score: 2) by Entropy on Monday August 22 2016, @11:58PM
Good point. We teach the successful, not the failure. Native American culture remains alive(hopefully) within their own cultural boundaries, but it's silly to teach it in public schools to a large degree. Same thing(though more profoundly) with African culture. They can teach that in Africa, if they choose..but even there it was the very definition of failed.