Freedom Challenge: African American Homeschoolers

by Grace Llewellyn (Editor)

Book by

Genres: Education, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Grace Llewellyn taught school for three years before unschooling herself and writing The Teenage Liberation Handbook at the age of twenty-six. She has since edited Real Lives: eleven teenagers who don’t go to school and Freedom Challenge: African American Homeschoolers, and written Guerrilla Learning: How to Give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School (with co-author Amy Silver).

With the goal of helping people (mostly teenagers) take more control over their own lives and educations, she's also spoken to groups and conferences, given workshops, directed a resource center, produced a mail order book catalog, published a newsletter, and written articles.

In 1996 she founded the Not Back to School Camp for unschooled teenagers, which she continues to direct each year in Oregon and West Virginia. Grace also performs and teaches bellydance, and gets her hands into numerous other projects. She lives in Eugene, Oregon.

Reviews

[Sumayyah · Rating 2 out of 5]

What this book IS:
- a collection of essays by African-American parents who have homeschooled
- a collection of essays by the African-American children who have been homeschooled.

What this book is NOT:
- a guide book
- a list of resources
- a support system

My impression is that this collection of essays, written in the 1990s, is skewed toward the middle class. There are mentions of families traveling out of the country, building sailboats, visiting professional jewelry making studios, taking music lessons, and having computers in the home. Sounds excellent, but not really accessible for low-income, inner city dwellers.

It is mentioned in the introduction that the editor, Grace Llewellyn, only had contact with approximately 20 African-American families when she put this book together. Also, it is briefly addressed that African-Americans shy away from non-traditional education due to a society that is against them.

I would need an updated, 21st century edition with a broader range of families in order to connect more with the ideas presented in this book.

[Isaac Lord · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of essays written primarily by Black homeschoolers and their parents. I enjoyed it very much. I was intrigued with how many of the parents specifically mentioned that racism in the schools wasn't one of their main reasons for homeschooling. For others in the book, it was, of course. I especially liked the transcription of the WHO forum at the end.

It was also a nice reminder of how different the choice to homeschool must have felt before hot and cold running internet!