More African-Americans choosing to home-school

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Home schooling in general grew 77 percent from 1999 to 2007, according to the latest numbers from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. In 2007, 3.9 percent of all Caucasian students were home-schooled, the research found, compared with just 0.8 percent of African-American students.

In Chicago, the Indigo Nation Homeschooler's Association started about a year ago and includes families of African and Caribbean descent.

One of the founders, Asantewaa Oppong Wadie, a Park Forest mother of four, said the group's curriculum was vital for her children's upbringing.

"To make sure the history of African people is primary, rather than secondary and optional," she said. "Our concern is about raising the whole human being, and that the whole human being is allowed to mature and develop."

No word yet from the NEA on this one.