The program director of a national organization of black homeschooling families condemned the premise of Critical Race Theory (CRT), asserting school systems promoting it are using black families “to move their agenda forward.”
Joyce Burges told Breitbart News during an interview Monday that National Black Home Educators (NBHE), which she and her husband founded in 2000, “stands firm against” CRT.
“Critical Race Theory, or CRT, teaches us against them,” Burges, author of Teach Me How To Teach My Child, explained. “It teaches blacks against whites, it teaches that whites are superior and it teaches that black students are oppressed. That’s not what black parents want to teach their children.”
A recent surge in the number of black families who are choosing homeschooling to educate their children comes as the United States Conference of Mayors has adopted a resolution during its annual convention in which its members pledged to support the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public K-12 education.
CRT is a Marxist ideology that embraces the concept that all American institutions are systemically racist, with whites as oppressors and blacks as victims.
NBHE’s stated motto, however, is “Empowering Parents to Educate Children for Excellence,” a slogan that is a far cry from what Burges sees in CRT.
“We don’t want our children to go to school and learn that, because of white supremacy, or white privilege – that’s why you can’t achieve,” she explained to Breitbart News. “We do not agree with this. My concern is that parents understand that, and know, that our parents at National Black Home Educators, stand firm against this.”
“We will not allow a system to teach our children that the reason they cannot achieve is because somebody has a hammer over their head,” Burges asserted.
She recalled that, as a child in public school, her teachers and her parents taught her that she could achieve anything.
“God didn’t make no junk, you know, that’s what they told me all the time, that you are somebody because God didn’t make no junk,” she said. “They didn’t tell us, ‘Well the reason you’ll never be able to achieve, you will never become a doctor, or never become an engineer, or never become a professor, is because of years and years of slavery.”
“And, now, we totally stand against CRT, we do not agree with that and we do not teach our children that,” she emphasized. “I believe that they’re using the black curriculum to move their agenda forward with CRT. Yes, yes, they’re using the black agenda, and black families, to promote that agenda, but our black families stand firm against it.”
U.S. Census Bureau data from 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic hit, showed the largest surge in homeschooling was driven by minority families leaving the public school system. Nationwide, the rate of black homeschooling families rose from 3.3 to 16.1%.
Kerry McDonald, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) and the author of Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom, told Breitbart News recently she foresees a “sustained elevation of homeschooling numbers going forward,” primarily because parents’ views of directing their own children’s education have grown more positive.
“Post lockdown I think parents will have an even more positive impression of homeschooling,” McDonald emphasized. “I think over the past year, parents have certainly felt re-empowered to direct their children’s education in ways that were unimaginable before school closures and the pandemic response.”
NBHE describes its primary goal as helping to establish “strong families with healthy parent child relationships.”
The development of these “healthy parent-child relationships,” along with a challenging curriculum and the freedom to include spirituality and family values into that curriculum appear to be central reasons NBHE members have turned to homeschooling.
“We believe that every child deserves a world class education,” the group states on its website, adding:
Studies show that parental involvement in education not only boosts the child’s interest in education, but strengthens the tie between parent and child. NBHE was created first of all to inspire parents with the idea that they can empower their children for excellence, and secondly to give them the tools to do so. NBHE continually provides free information and training resources to parents.
Burges said with parents spending more time at home with their children during the pandemic, they had the opportunity to see “how unprepared – or how ‘unprogressive’ is the better word – your regular, traditional schools are.”
She also observed the poor implementation of virtual learning in many school districts.
Many parents have had more time to talk to their children about their experiences in school, she explained, and some children revealed they had been bullied, others said they had been called the “n” word, and some had just fallen through the cracks.
Parents who have joined the organization also noted to Burges there was no black history, “nothing about black heroes or black achievers in the curriculum.”
Among the heroes named in NBHE’s recently published guide to “Getting Started” with homeschooling are Benjamin Banneker, Booker T. Washington, and Dr. Ben Carson.
“A child’s capacity to learn is limitless,” explains Burges in NBHE’s video [above]. “The challenge comes when you have to decide what you want them to learn so that they ultimately learn to think for themselves.”
In the video, one parent discusses the reason why she decided to homeschool her children:
I saw a family homeschooling and I saw the results of it where the children were able to follow what they felt was their vision from God, like what they felt God was leading them to do, and that was what I wanted for my kids. And, so, that’s my “why” behind the homeschooling.
A homeschooling grandmother also explains in the video she likes “the idea of the spiritual aspect of it, where the lessons do bring out information about building character.”
“I really like that aspect of homeschooling,” she continues, speaking about her grandson. “I really do get excited about when he knows these things that some kids – they usually haven’t even experienced yet.”
In a blog post in July at the NBHE website, Burges wrote further about the role of parents in their children’s education:
Through my years of homeschooling, I realized that as parents we are the only ones with a vested interest in our children’s future. The Bible encourages us to be wise for ourselves. We acquire quite a bit of material and information for our families; however, we must be wise to “cut out” from among all of the data what is true, just, and especially what will give our children a good foundation for a successful life as an adult.
“The Spirit of God is our guide, truth, and our true vine,” she added. “As parents, we are to abide in the vine and bear fruit. It is our duty to keep the standards and to walk in greater love for the sake of our children.”
“We are to lead them into learning, revealing the absolute good to them and teaching them to refuse evil,” Burges advised. “When choosing a curriculum, decide which one offers the same values you have and upholds your family’s convictions, remembering that curriculum should build a relationship with you and your child.”